53° [P">c. B.N.F.C., 



from the tunnelled caves and imposing sea-stacks of our Irish 

 coast, but the encroachment of the sea at Cultra Bay, on the 

 southern side of Belfast Lough, to which I wish to draw atten- 

 tion in the present paper, has left no such impressive features. 

 Much land has been washed away, of which no trace would 

 have remained, had it not been for one insignificant landmark, 

 and before it, too, disappears, I have made a few notes of the 

 encroachment of the sea to which it testifies, which I hope may 

 not be devoid of interest. The landmark to which I refer is a 

 shaft of crown Memel pine, about 23 feet high, standing on the 

 beach opposite Cultra Point, a mile north-east of Holywood. 

 It formed part of a windmill pump, erected, I am informed by 

 Mr. John Lennox, in 1824 or 1825 to remove the water from an 

 old quarry. The upright standard above the much-decayed 

 suction-pipe of the pump still remains, with a loose iron rod 

 attached to a small handle at the top. Although 50 feet distant 

 from present high water mark, and surrounded by the sea to a 

 depth of three feet at high tide, this old pump marks the 

 centre of a sandstone quarry, opened on what was formerly 

 known as the " point field." An inhabitant of Holywood, Mr. 

 William Nimick, who remembers the locality since 1829, 

 informs me that the sea was at that time fifty feet distant 

 from the centre of the quarry, and that the fields, through 

 which a broad carriage drive passed to Cultra Quay, and in 

 which he saw numerous tents pitched, and large crowds of 

 spectators assembled to watch one of the celebrated regattas 

 of the Northern Yacht Club, have now completely disappeared. 

 He estimates that at least four acres of land have since been 

 washed away between Cultra Point and Cultra Pier. Disin- 

 tegrated by the action of rain, frost, and other subaerial agents, 

 portion after portion of the low cliffs has slipped down, an 

 easy prey to the warfare of wave and current ; the destruc- 

 tion of the land still further aided by the removal of sand and 

 gravel from the beach below. And now, at ebb tide, instead of 

 the vanished fields, we see low denuded reefs that carry us back 

 through vistas of time immeasurably vast. Here in this one 



