140 INFLUENCE OF THE SEA. 
thrown over a rising ledge to the distance of 12 or 
15 paces; and an anchor, weighing about 22 cwt., 
was thrown upon the rock. Mr. Stevensen informs 
us that drift-stones measuring upward of 30 cubic 
feet, or more than two tons' weight, have, during 
storms, been often thrown upon the rock from deep 
water. 
Mr. Lyell farther remarks, that " in the old maps 
of Yorkshire we find spots, now sandbanks in the 
sea, marked as the an<:i>ent sit-es of the towns and 
villages of Auburn, Hartburn, and Hyde." " Of 
Hyde," says Pennant, " only the tradition is left ; 
and near the village of Hoonsea, a street called 
Hoonsea Beck has long since been swallowed. 
-Owthorne and its church have also been in great 
part destroyed, and also the village of Kilnsey ; the 
rate of encroachment at Owthorne being about /owr 
yards a year^ Upon the coasts of Norfolk, in Eng- 
land, the encroachment of the sea upon the land is 
rapid and incessant. The whole site of ancient 
Cromer now forms a part of the German Ocean, and 
the inhabitants are constantly moving inland to es- 
cape the ravages of the sea. In the winter of 1825, 
a mass was precipitated into the sea which cover- 
ed twelve a<ires, the cliffs being 250 feet high. 
The ancient villages of Shipden, Wimpwell, and 
Eccles have disappeared on the same coast ; sev- 
eral manors and large portions of neighbouring par- 
ishes having, piece after piece, been swallowed up ; 
nor has there been any intermission, from time im- 
memorial, in the ravages of the sea along a line of 
coast twenty miles in length where these places 
stood. At Durwich, also, the sea has committed 
extensive ravages. Here two tracts of land, which 
had been taxed in the eleventh century, were a 
few years afterward devoured by the sea. We 
have also an account of the losses, at a subsequent 
period, of a monastery, then of several churches, 
.then of 400 houses at once, then of the church of 
