SAND-DUNES AND BLOTTING SAND. 
137 
The sands of the West of England have sometimes done- 
much damage by blowing over the adjacent land. The ancient 
churches of Grwythian and Perrauzabuloe, covered long ago by 
blowing sand, were afterwards laid bare by the drifting away of 
the sand. At Perran sands prehistoric barrows have been 
uncovered in the same way. 
The coasts of Cheshire and Lancashire are largely protected 
by sand-hills, some of the land behind them being below high- 
water level. The hills nowhere reach any great height; be- 
tween Liverpool and Southport they range to 70 or 80 feet, but 
elsewhere they are lower. Near Formby they cover a belt of' 
ground nearly three miles wide ; here they have made serious 
inroads during historic times. Southport lies amongst the 
dunes ; and here the blowing sand frequently penetrates into 
the houses. In this district the dunes are called 66 starr-hills,” 
“ starr-grass ” being the local name of the Arundo avenarict , 
which grows thickly on the sand. Mr. De Pance considers 
that some inland hills composed of sand — which, from a hill of 
that name, he has called “ Shirdley Hill Sand ” — are really old 
sand-dunes marking an old line of coast. 
There is much sand on Walney Island which travels east- 
ward, or towards the mainland, whilst the sea attacks the 
western coast. Further north, in Cumberland, there is some 
blown sand, especially near Drigg. 
The sand-dunes of England have been here described in some 
detail, from a hope that all readers of this article may be pern 
sonally acquainted with some one or other of the districts 
described. The dunes of Scotland and Ireland we must leave,* 
and pass on to consider those of greater interest and importance 
on the Continent. 
The sand-dunes of the Atlantic coasts of Europe attain an 
importance of which the comparatively small hills of England 
give us no adequate idea. From the Pyrenees to the Baltic 
nearly one-half of the coast is occupied by blowing sand. 
Fringing the Bay of Biscay, the north-eastern part of the 
English Channel, and the North Sea, there are large areas of 
siliceous sand; on the coasts of Normandy and Brittany the 
sand occurs in isolated patches, and is there more or less cal- 
careous. Brittany and the western part of Normandy strikingly 
resemble Cornwall and Devon in their geological structure, and 
not less so in the character of the superficial deposits with 
a recent formation of similar character. The dune-sands near the mouth 
of the Nile, and of parts of the Sahara, are sometimes consolidated into stone. 
* The dunes of Scotland (generally known as u links”) are described by 
Professor Geikie in his “ Scenery and Geology of Scotland,” ch. iii ; those 
of Ireland (often appropriately called “ rabbit-hills ”) have been described 
by Mr. Kinahan, “ Geological Magazine,” vol. viii. p. 155. 
