Shingle on the East Coasts of New Zealand. 69 



author, of the beach along the Western Spit at Napier, about 

 the time of high-water. Waves were coming from the 

 north-east, and were breaking some few hundred feet off the 

 most exposed part of the beach, the trend of which was 

 north-west and south-east. Now and then as many as four 

 broken waves were to be seen at a time one behind the 

 other, although there was very little sea beyond, and else- 

 where the waves were not breaking till close in shore. 

 Coarse sand was on the beach, the slope of which was very 

 easy. A short distance (100 to 200 yards) west, the waves 

 were breaking directly on the beach, which was running in 

 the same direction ; the slope was steeper, and there was 

 shingle, not sand. Further west, the beach curves towards 

 the south-west, and then to the south. Here the waves 

 scarcely broke ; there was little more than a wash along the 

 beach ; the material was sand, with shingle higher up. In 

 a sheltered bay further west the beach, running north and 

 south, was steep, and formed of shingle ; no waves were 

 breaking on it. On going partly round the bay to where 

 the beach runs east and west the waves were beginning to 

 break again ; the slope was flatter, and the material was 

 coarse sand once more. Further round, where the beach 

 trends to the north -north-west, there was fine sand, with a 

 very easy slope ; two or three small waves were flowing 

 on it at one time, the furthest out breaking at a height of 

 about a foot. Large pebbles projected above the sand in 

 places, and here, as at other places where there was sand 

 near the water-] ine, there was shingle higher up the slope. 

 Further on, the beach taking a north-westerly direction, the 

 material was coarse sand, with small pieces of shell. Beyond 

 this the trend of the beach was more northerly, and the 

 waves were larger. 



41. The coarse sand above mentioned was found on closer 

 examination to be really very fine shingle. It was met with 

 in other places also. It appeared to the author at the time to 

 be deposited by waves coming directly on-shore, as men- 

 tioned in the Appendix (c) to this paper. The following expla- 

 nation is suggested : — After the beach has been partly or 

 wholly denuded of its surplus shingle, the slope would be 

 reduced from the water-line upwards for a certain distance. 

 On-shore waves would now throw up material from below 

 the water-line without the power of carrying it down again. 



42. Some observations as to the action of waves from 

 different directions (on the Chesil Bank ?) were made by Sir 



