28 MM. Be Ranee and Tojiley — Rate of Erosion of Sea-Coasts. 



A second groyne is being constructed from the base of the cliff 

 below the castle (where a similar work formerly existed) at a very 

 great cost, in order to promote accumulation of shingle along the 

 Hastings frontage, and to bring about again the old state of things. 



The argument made use of by many owners of property here, as 

 elsewhere, to the effect that removal of shingle for building purposes 

 must be inappreciable (as however great the abstraction for such 

 purposes, millions of tons renew the shore after a change of wind) 

 is made in evident forgetfulness or ignorance of the fact that these 

 abstractions from and renewals to the natural " fulls " of beach, 

 alternately reduce and increase what is a circulating medium of 

 defence, moving in opposite directions up and down channel, with a 

 preponderating movement up-channel due to prevalence of south- 

 west winds, and that such a constant drain on a natural defence, 

 however recuperative, must tell in the long run. 



The removal of boulders from the foreshore seaward of the summit 

 shingle neap and spring " fulls," either for road-making or for 

 manufacturing purposes, not only loosens the foreshore, and renders 

 it, thus disintegrated, less able to resist the stroke of the wave, but 

 in many cases, such as the " Chenies " rock off Sheerness, and the 

 "Septaria " blocks off Harwich, the material formed natural groynes 

 and breakwaters, and their removal, in reference to shore conservancy, 

 was most suicidal. 



Another fertile source of accelerated erosion of a special locality 

 is the erection of a close pier for a harbour entrance, and of large 

 and lofty groynes for accumulating shingle, looking only to the pro- 

 tection of an isolated frontage, and without reference to the attendant 

 abstraction of material to the leeward of such works, from the 

 absolute stoppage of the material on its way to the less favoured 

 locality. The case is parallel to the last, as the oscillating medium is 

 laid under heavier contribution for a favoured locality, and is 

 gradually starved for the neglected neighbour to leeward. 



Folkestone may be cited as a principal delinquent of this class, due 

 to the elongation of the close pier to the windward or westward of 

 its harbour, which half a century back was a trap for shingle, and a 

 fisherman's first task in the early morning, prior to that, was to 

 excavate a channel through the newly-arrived shingle to get his boat 

 through and out to sea. The resultant accumulation of shingle to 

 windward forms the tongue of land on which stands the " Pavilion," 

 etc. 



Now, in " East Wear " Bay there is an almost entire absence of 

 shingle, and the resultant falls of the chalk undercliff take place at 

 so alarming a rate that the very existence of the South-Eastern Kail- 

 way is jeopardized. That this action is not due to the Admiralty Pier 

 at Dover is shown by the entire absence of shingle to windward of 

 that work, but in its place a remarkable extension of the silty fore- 

 shore has taken place, gradually diminishing towards Folkestone. 

 Eastward of Dover we have similar results from the same cause ; 

 from the Castle Jetty to St. Margaret's the base of the lofty chalk 

 cliff is now washed and abraded by the waves, and the lower debris 



