512 



ENCROACHMENTS OE THE SEA ON 



[Ch. XX . 



securely defended by these barriers ; affording a clear proof 



m 



that 



mines 



whether the sea shall be progressive or 



stationary, but the general contour of the coast. 



The waves 



undermine the low chalk cliffs, 



Weybourn 



them 



~ y • 



At the latter town I ascertained, in 1829, some facts which 

 throw lio-ht on the rate at which the sea gains npon the land. 



It was com 



that it would require seventy years for the sea to reach the 

 spot : the mean loss of land being calculated, from previous 

 observations, to be somewhat less than one yard, annually. 

 The distance between the house and the sea was fifty yards ; 



made 



/ 



ally accelerated every year, as the cliff grew lower, there 



matter to remove 



portions of equal area fell down. Between the years 1824 

 and 1829, no less than seventeen yards were swept away, 

 and only a small garden was then left between the building 

 and the sea. There was, in 1829, a depth of twenty feet 



(sufficient 



at one point in the harbour of 



that port, where, only forty-eight years before, there stood a 

 cliff fifty feet high, with houses upon it ! If once in half a 



amount 



mome 



filled with records of such wonderful revolutions of the 

 earth's surface ; but, if the conversion of high land into deep 

 sea be gradual, it excites only local attention. The flag-staff 

 of the Preventive Service station, on the south side of this 

 harbour, was thrice removed inland between the years 1814 

 and 1829, in consequence of the advance of the sea. 



com 



i 



loam 



sometime 



exceed 300 feet in height, the havoc made on the coast is 

 most formidable. The whole site of ancient Cromer now 

 forms part of the German Ocean, the inhabitants having 





