O'Eeilly — On the Waste of the Coast of Ireland, S^c. 117 



p. 279, " On the mode and extent of the encroachment of the sea on 

 some parts of the shores of the Bristol Channel." He says : " In a 

 paper read before this Society, November 8, 1865 (see vol. xxii., p. 1), 

 Mr. Goodwin Austin brought forward very satisfactory reasons for 

 concluding that the area of the Bristol Channel was diy land during 

 the (now submarine) Forest Era, and that it must afterwards have 

 subsided to a depth of at least 120 feet, as a submerged land is now 

 found at that depth under the sea level. Whatever relative changes 

 in level the land and sea may have subsequently undergone, it is 

 obvious that the general tendency of the " waves " and " ground sea," 

 or " Atlantic drift," which is sensibly felt beyond Watchet (18 miles 

 west of Bridge water), has been to destroy the contour of the gradually 

 rising shores by wearing them back into cliffs. As a consequence, the 

 extent of the encroachment since the forest area went down may in 

 some localities be approximately ascertained." 



He then gives a section of the coast-line near "Watchet, and ex- 

 amines the relation of the cliffs to the exposed shore, and says : "It 

 will be obvious that the sea has recently had no small share in the 

 denudation of the Bristol Channel, whatever may have been the cause 

 of the original excavation." 



As evidence of the "recent rate of encroachment, he says: "I 

 learned from a very old fisherman at Watchet, whose veracity no one 

 seemed to doubt, and whose statements concerning the encroachments 

 of the sea were directly or indirectly corroborated by others, that not 

 more than 1 50 years ago a brewery, belonging to a Mr. Davies, stood 

 at a distance of at least 200 yards from the present cliff, east of 

 Watchet harbour, and that the rocks under its site are still recognised. 

 There was likewise a village (or hamlet ?) called Easenton, to which 

 the fisherman's great-grandfather was in the habit of going for a mug 

 of beer, the site of the fui'thest east part of which is now about one- 

 fourth of a mile from the coast." 



He adds a note: "I found the following record among the 

 documents of a solicitor of Williton : — ' North of Eacloze, a part of 

 Watchet in 1662, a barn and other buildings, with orchard and garden 

 beyond; in 1751, all gone to sea.' To the west of Watchet the sea is 

 encroaching on a high ridge and undermining large blocks of sandstone, 

 interwoven with alabaster, which it carries away entii'ely, or scatters 

 and piles in a strange confusion. The configuration of the sea-bed, 

 under and for some distance from the cliffs, very much resembles the 

 xmeven ground at the base of many inland escarpments." 



(p. 281.) — " Encroachments on Weston-super-mare. — The sea is 



