190 ON THE EROSION AND DESTETTCTION, ETC. 



From the Short Sands to Sharpness Point great changes have 

 occurred. There was no surface drainage until about six years 

 ago, and the day water which fell on the road and flowed over 

 the edges caused continuous falls of the banks and supporting 

 rocks. I can distinctly recollect, about fifty years ago, a schooner 

 running into a narrow creek or cove at a point about opposite to 

 the present gardener's cottage at Percy Gardens. This cove must 

 have been at least forty feet in depth from its seaward edges. The 

 crew of the vessel clambered along the bowsprit and jib-boom and 

 so got safe to land. Such a creek as that entirely disappearing 

 shows how much of the cliff has fallen in the fifty years since 

 the crew of the schooner stepped on shore. Sharpness Point has 

 altered greatly since the time just referred to, although it is of 

 hard sandstone and a range of large rocks outside protects it 

 from the sea. 



There have been serious falls near the site of the Two-gun 

 Battery at the south end of the Long Sands. The road authorities 

 have, however, built a protecting wall at the foot of the bank ; 

 but to the east of that the seas continue to encroach. 



The seas recoiling from the North Pier have washed out the 

 sand and shingle from the extreme north end of the Long Sands 

 down to the clay. The waves seem to have been high enough to 

 reach to and recoil from the bank, and so washed out the loose 

 materials. 



The Smugglers' Cave, south of CuUercoats Bay, has been much 

 altered. The central pillar of rock at the entrance fell about 

 two years ago, and it is probable that the cave, in the course of 

 not many years, may be a thing of the past. 



At the north side of CuUercoats Bay the clifi' has suffered 

 much, and costly cement walls have been built for the safety of 

 the houses built on the cliffs that overlook the bay. This brings 

 us near to the boundary of the Borough of Tynemouth. 



During all the great changes in the cliff line, the sand dunes 

 below the Grand Parade have, if anything, increased in mass. 

 Sand seems to be the ordained barrier impassable by the sea. 



One of the ancient Prophets wrote : — " Fear ye not me . . 

 which have placed the sand for the bound of tlie sea by a 



