486 Coast-cliff Denudations. 



the cliffs, chiefly composed of clay and sand, are so soft, 

 that, as in Sheppy and Holderness, every year large 

 masses of country slip out seaward and are rapidly 

 washed away by the waves. 



The waste of this southern part of England and of 

 Holderness has been estimated at the rate of from two 

 to three yards every year. In the course of time, 

 therefore, a great area of country must have been de- 

 stroyed. At Selsey Bill there is a farmhouse standing, 

 twenty years ago about 200 yards from the shore, and 

 since the farmer first settled there, as much land has 

 been wasted away as that which lay between his house 

 and the sea. The site of the ancient Saxon Cathedral 

 Church that preceded that of Chichester is known to be 

 far out at sea. But this waste is not confined to the 

 softest kinds of strata, for further west, in Devonshire, 

 we find the same kind of destruction going on, one 

 remarkable case of which is the great landslip in the 

 neighbourhood of Axmouth, which took place in the 

 year 1839. The strata there consist on the surface of 

 Chalk, underlaid by Upper Grreensand, which is under- 

 laid by the Lias Clay. The Chalk is easily penetrated 

 by water, and so is the sand that underlies it. After 

 heavy rains, the water having sunk through the porous 

 beds, the clay beneath became exceedingly slippery, and 

 thus it happened, that the strata dipping seaward at a 

 low angle, a vast mass of Chalk nearly a mile in length 

 slipped forward, forming a grand ruin, the features of 

 which are still constantly changing by the further 

 foundering of the Chalk and Green sand. The waves 

 beating upon the foundering masses destroy them day 

 by day, and in time they will entirely disappear, and 

 make room for further landslips. If we walk along the 

 southern coast of Dorsetshire and Devon, and criticise 



