O'Reilly — On the Waste of the Coast of Ireland, S^c. 97 



extents of the coast are formed by the drift, the surface of which elopes 

 down towards the sea, and seems to have met it at some former period. 

 Forming at present a cliff of more or less altitude, it is being steadily 

 eaten into by the tidal action and waves to such an extent and so 

 rapidly, as to have given cause to the witlidrawal of the railway line 

 further inland during the last quarter of the past century, more par- 

 ticularly along the part lying between Bray Head and Greystones -, 

 and to have rendered necessary frequent if not incessant, and therefore 

 very costly, defence and embankment work by the Railway Company for 

 the safety of the line (quite lately, January 22nd, 1901, the Chairman 

 of the Company estimated this cost at £18,000). It is to be regretted 

 that such inroads of the sea along our coasts are not more carefully 

 noted, measured, and mapped for future record and information as 

 their total amount must in time become very appreciable. 



Besides this steady corrosion of the coasts, especially on those most 

 exposed to the Atlantic waves and storms, are to be counted with, the 

 slow alterations of level which have been noticed in Great Britain, if 

 not in Ireland, during historic time. Hence, it may be inferred that 

 imless land be reformed proportionally to the waste along our coasts 

 arising out of the tidal and wave action and erosion, the superficial 

 area of these countries must be slowly decreasing, and presuming that 

 the same causes have been in action during the past, this area must in 

 former times have been greater than it is at present. This decrease of 

 superficial extent of land is thus noticed in a criticism of "The Reclama- 

 tion of Land from Tidal "Waters," by Alex. Beaseley, m.inst.c.e. (1900), 

 which appeared in Nature, vol. 62 (19th July, 1900), p. 266 :— 



" The area of this country is gradually diminishing by the con- 

 tinual waste that is going on all round the coast. On the Yorkshire 

 coast it is estimated that two miles have disappeared since the Roman 

 occupation, and more modern records show that towns and villages 

 have disappeared with their houses and churches, and in some cases 

 the whole parish has been washed away. Along the Norfolk coast the 

 only record of several villages is ' washed away by the sea,' and on 

 the Kentish coast churches and houses have fallen down the cliffs, on 

 which are to be seen the bones formerly deposited in a vanishing church- 

 yard. On the south coast, although the chalk cliffs at the east end of 

 the English Channel are subject to continual falls and slips, more care 

 has been taken to protect them, but along the clay cliffs of Dorsetshii-e 

 the waste is continuous ; here 20 acres slipped down seaward in one 

 night from the cliffs at Axminster. 



"On the west coast the nets of the fishermen are said to becouie 



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