AND BRITISH CHANNEL. 



485 



cliffs, the ruins of which appeared to cover several 

 acres of ground, and must have contained many 

 thousands of tons. A fall of this kind, near 

 Beachyhead, on the Sussex coast, is noticed in a 

 paper by Mr Webster in the Transactions of the 

 Geological Society : the portion which gave way 

 extended 300 feet in length, and was 70 or 80 

 in breadth ; a clergyman who happened at the 

 moment to be walking on the spot, observing the 

 ground giving way, had just time to escape when 

 the whole fell with a dreadful crash. Shoreham 

 and Brighton also afford many examples of this 

 kind, particularly the latter, where a whole 

 street has within these few years fallen into the 

 sea." In the same manner, the opposite coast of 

 France is understood to be acted upon ; and the 

 numerous Islands lying off that coast and the 

 coasts of Germany and Holland. I might also 

 extend these observations to the shores of Hamp- 

 shire, Dorset, Devon, Cornwall, particularly to 

 the Isles of Wight and Portland, and the Scilly 

 Islands ; the wasting of the land, and the en- 

 croachment of the sea, being every where remark- 

 able, and always in proportion to the nature of the 

 strata or rocks composing the coast, whether allu- 

 vial, chalk, limestone, sandstone or granite. 



Nor are these effects of the sea confined to the st George's 

 shores of the German Ocean and British Chan- Channels, 

 nel ; for the wasting of the land is no less remark- 

 able in St George's Channel and the Irish Sea, in- 



VOL II. I i 



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