4 



Mr. A. R. Hunt. 



[Apr. 20, 



tionably mucli disturbed, I looked forward with interest to ascer- 

 taining by the dredge what effect these waves of known dimensions 

 had had on the bottom. On the 31st of October, nearly a fortnight 

 after the gale, I had an opportunity of going out for this purpose, and 

 in places, in 6 fathoms (at low water spring tides), where the bottom 

 is usually a soft muddy sand that clogs the dredge in a few minutes, 

 the ground proved to be quite hard. One haul of the dredge brought 

 up a Buccinum shell, with the mollusc inside it dead, and two dead 

 ascidians ; and another in midbay, though with 30 fathoms of rope, 

 produced not a shell or a particle of the usual muddy sand, but only a 

 few red seaweeds that must have come from a distance. Never before 

 in my experience had I found the ground so hard in midbay, nor 

 dredged dead molluscs and ascidians. On the 11th November the 

 ground was still very hard, both the dredge and a fishing-lead tied to 

 a line bumping along as though over ridges. On the 8th December, 

 more than six weeks after the gale, I again tried the same spot in 

 midbay that proved so hard on the 31st October : it had now returned 

 to its normal state, and the dredge brought up the usual muddy sand. 

 These dredgings tended to show that the bottom had been, violently 

 agitated by the storm, and that as the seas subsided it had become 

 strongly ripple marked. Why it should change from soft to hard and 

 back again to soft is not very clear, but there is no doubt as to the 

 fact. 



It may be objected that as fossil ripplemarks have been said to be 

 limited to 10 inches, a dredge would scarcely detect modern ripples if 

 not larger than that ; but there is no doubt that modern ripplemarks 

 occasionally far exceed these dimensions. I have myself seen them 

 formed in Brighouse Bay, on the coast of Kirkcudbright, fully 2-J- feet 

 from crest to crest, and deep in proportion.* 



* Since writing the above my attention has been directed to the following im- 

 portant, though quite incidental, descriptions of ware-marks on the Goodwin Sands 

 by the Rev. John Gilmore, in his book intituled " Storm "Warriors, or Lifeboat 

 Work on the Goodwin Sands. " They are as follows : — 



" On the Goodwins where the force of the sea is in every way multiplied and the 

 waves break and the tide rushes with tenfold power, the little sand-ripples of the 

 smoother shore become ridges of two or three feet high. It is on these ridges that 

 the lifeboat so continually grounds. As the tide rises she is swept from one to the 

 other by the long sweeping waves ; she is swung round and round in the swirl of 

 the cross seas and rapid tide, thumping and jerking heavily each time that she 

 strands." — Op. cit , p. 109. 



" . . The heavy seas have driven the sands into high ridges, and the gullies between 

 these are waist-deep and full of running water with the sand soft and quick at the 

 bottom ; through these deep gullies the men have to wade." — Op. cit., p. 215. 



" . . At last all ai*e on board, but they cannot yet leave the sands, they must wait 

 until the water is high enough to float the lifeboat over the ridge which surrounds 

 her."— Op. cit., p. 222. 



