dock, and other groynes have also been placed between Landguard Point and the fort.

On the west side of the harbour the cliffs, consisting of London Clay, rise to a height of 50 feet, the most prominent part being known as Beacon Cliff, which projects out from the coast-line 150 yards. These cliffs have been wasting for a long period, but their disintegration was hastened by the removal of septaria for cement-making. With the beating of the waves on the projection of Beacon Cliff, the septaria stones became denuded and fell on the beach, forming a natural groyne from 4 to 5 feet high on the beach to the north in front of Harwich. At the beginning of the last century a large demand sprang up for these stones, as many as from 100 to 200 boats being engaged in the trade, employing from 400 to 500 men. As this natural protection was removed, the cliff rapidly wasted. Between 1700 and 1750, 40 feet was washed away; from 1750-1800, 80 feet; from 1800-1841, 126 yards of cliff were reported as washed away, and low water gained 200 yards on the shore; the vicar's field and glebe and 40 acres of land, part of a battery, and several houses disappeared, and a house, mill, granary, and stables were washed away in 1824; and the harbour became deprived of a natural breakwater from southwest gales (Report Tidal Harbour Commissioners). In 1847 a breakwater, projecting out from the Beacon Hill 500 yards long, was constructed by the Government, which not only afforded protection to the harbour from south-west gales, but led to a large accumulation of material on the beach-a process which also has been aided by the construction of groynes.

Walton. South of Harwich Harbour the coast-line recedes in the form of a bay lying between Beacon Point and the Naze. The shore is low, and the beach consists of alluvial clay covered with sand.

From the centre of the bay two large salt-water creeks, called Hanford Water and Walton Creek, extend inland for 2 or 3 miles, winding amongst salt marshes. This tract of alluvial land extends for 4 miles along the coast to Walton Naze.

At the Naze is a cliff about 30 feet high, of gravel and crag, resting on London Clay, of which the beach is composed. The shore here has been protected by a stone wall, and groynes extend to Walton-le-Soke.

At Frinton, along a frontage of half a mile, the cliffs, which are of the same character as at Walton, have suffered much from

the encroachment of the sea, 60 yards having been lost since 1874, or about 3 yards a year.

At the south end of the Frinton Cliffs the coast is low for a mile, a small river discharging into the sea at Holland Haven. A tract of salt marshes is here enclosed from the sea. On the beach is a bank of shingle which extends to low water, the top being 10 feet above the shore.

Beyond this the Clacton cliffs commence and continue for 3 miles.

Clacton. The cliffs, which here are from 30 to 60 feet high, consist of London Clay capped with beds of gravel and flints. Before protective works were carried out these cliffs were constantly falling on the beach, either from slips caused by want of drainage or erosion by the waves. The gravel from the beds on the cliffs has afforded a limited amount of shingle, which is drifted along the beach in a westerly direction.

The beach consists principally of sand with some shingle from to 2 inches in diameter, and slopes at an angle of 1 in 10. There are also on the beach large lumps of vermiculated cement stone.

A sea-wall and promenade was erected at Clacton by the Sea Wall Commissioners along part of the frontage east of the pier in 1881, and was extended to the eastern limit of Clacton in 1900. A description of this wall, and also of the timber wall previously in use, will be found in Chapter V. on Examples of Sea-walls.

The denudation of the beach in front of the sea-wall first erected was so great that a concrete apron had to be placed at the foot of the wall for its protection, and in order to prevent further denudation of the beach low groynes were placed at right angles to the wall, spaced from 50 to 100 yards apart, extending to low water. They consist of fir piles and planks placed horizontally, and raised about 3 feet above the beach. They are of service in collecting the sand and shingle-the beach, after strong easterly gales, being from 1 to 2 feet higher on the side from which the supply of shingle comes than on the lee side. Some of these groynes do not reach up to the wall, but terminate at about the point to which mean tides extend. The waves breaking round the upper end of these groynes scour away the beach, which is lower at this part than where the groynes are carried up to the wall. To the west of the promenade pier the timber walling has recently been extended for a distance of about 2000 feet. This

part of the shore lies under the lee of the pier, and the sand on the beach at the eastern end is about 3 feet below the top of the wall; further on, the effect of easterly gales is more felt, and the beach is being scoured away, and at the time of my inspection was 6 feet below the top of the wall. A timber landing wharf which has been run out from the coast at the extreme west end, acting as a groyne, has collected the sand and shingle, and the beach is higher.

After the timber wall and breasting were erected on the east side of the pier in 1889, the beach, the bed of which consists of London Clay-locally called "platimore "--became gradually broken up and lowered 4 feet from the action of the waves beating against the wall.

During heavy gales and rain in the winter of 1896-97 the water, saturating the gravel and sand in the cliffs, caused some landslips; at the same time the waves denuded the beach in front of the timber wall protecting the promenade at the east end, and the beach became considerably lowered, the consequence being that the piling and woodwork were carried away over a length of about 50 yards. After the wall was repaired, groynes were placed on the beach 100 yards apart. These consist of a triangular box 10 yards long, the base resting against the wall being 7 feet wide, and beyond this are single 9-inch by 3-inch planks fastened to 11-inch by 5-inch piles, spaced 8 feet apart. Sand and shingle were accumulating against these groynes, the beach being from 1 to 2 feet higher on the windward or east side. In 1901 four additional groynes were placed opposite the Grand Hotel, which collected a small amount of sand.

Mr. Cressy, the surveyor of the Commissioners, who has charge of these works, expresses his opinion, as the result of experience of this part of the coast extending over thirty years, that groynes are beneficial, not only in preventing the removal of the sand and shingle which overlie the clay on the beach, but also in preventing the breaking up and scouring away of the clay itself; and that the best results are obtained with long low groynes running from the sea-wall to low water, rising 18 inches above the beach, and raised as the beach accumulates.

Beyond the Clacton boundary there are no cliffs, but some low sand-hills. The beach consists principally of sand with a limited amount of shingle, and slopes at an angle of about 1 in 10. Low timber groynes have been fixed along the frontage,

consisting of 6-inch by 6-inch piles, spaced 5 feet apart, and placed on alternate sides of the 2-inch planking.

The top of these groynes is about 2 feet above the beach. At the windward groynes the beach is about a foot the higher on the east side.

Beyond this to Colne Point a sandy beach extends out seaward from the high land for nearly a mile.

At St. Osyth's there is a bank of shingle backed up by sandhills 12 to 15 feet high, which extend for 2 miles.

The Thames Estuary.-Southward of Walton and Clacton there is a large embayment in the coast-line extending from Walton Naze to the North Foreland, a distance of 34 miles, the depth of the embayment being 16 miles, the area being approximately 500 square miles. In this bay the Thames, Medway, Colne, Blackwater, and Crouch discharge their waters. The mouth of the Thames from Shoeburyness to Sheerness is about 3 miles wide. The bay is interspersed with numerous beds of sand and some shingle patches, derived mainly from the débris brought down by the Thames. Through these sand-banks are two deep channels, one from the North Sea, the other from the English Channel, which are maintained by tidal action, the former having from 5 to 10 fathoms at low water, and the latter from 6 to 10 fathoms.

This bay is exposed to winds from the north-east to southeast, and the wave-action is too great to allow of the permanent deposit of the alluvial matter brought down the river by the ebb current. The same remarks also apply to the large area of the Maplin and other sands adjoining the shore.

The coast from Colne Point to Shoeburyness and in the estuary of the Thames consists of a tract of low, flat alluvial land, the greater part of which has been embanked from the sea; at the mouth of the Colne and Medway, however, is a large tract of salt marshes covered with water at spring tides.

At Southend is a low cliff of London Clay capped with Tertiary crag. This cliff is liable to continual falls, due to the saturation of water in wet seasons.

A sea-wall and promenade half a mile long have recently been constructed, the total length of the road along the sea front being 4 miles. The face of the wall is made at a slope of 1 in 3, and pitched with pentagonal blocks of basalt 6 to 9 inches deep, the joints being grouted with cement.

On the south side of the Thames, from Sheerness to Reculvers are low clay cliffs, and thence round by Margate to Ramsgate the cliffs are of chalk with flints. Between Westgate and Margate the cliffs are from 25 to 40 feet high. These cliffs have been much perforated by the waves, due principally to gales from the north-west, and large caverns formed. Where not protected by sea-walls the cliff is wasting, as much as 20 feet having been lost in the six years 1880-86.

A sea-wall built at Westgate, and one at Margate, are described in Chapters IV. and V.

The beach is bare of sand and shingle, except in the bay at Margate, the chalk floor being exposed. It is very flat, the tides, which rise 15 feet at springs, receding back 300 yards.

At Westgate a low groyne, 160 yards long, has been constructed across the chalk beach.

From Margate to Ramsgate the chalk cliffs increase in height, the top being 80 to 350 feet above sea-level.

At Broadstairs and Ramsgate sea-walls have been constructed at the foot of the cliffs.

There is little or no sand on the beach at the foot of the cliffs, from which recently there have been some large falls of chalk.

Reculvers and Herne Bay. The chalk cliffs which border the estuary of the Thames from Margate westward terminate at Birchington, and from this point to Reculvers is a low tract of land which has been reclaimed, and is protected by an earthen wall.

In the British Association Report of 1895 it is stated that some groynes which had been placed on the beach at Birchington had been swept away by a storm, and that an esplanade near the terminus of the chalk cliff was then being rapidly destroyed.

West of Reculvers are cliffs from 20 to 30 feet high, consisting of Thanet Sands with layers of rounded flints, the base where exposed on the beach at low water being a soft yellowish sandstone. The formation of the cliff changes towards Herne Bay, and consists of London Clay with septaria nodules interposed. The greatest height of this cliff is about 113 feet. Beyond Herne Bay are clay cliffs from 40 to 70 feet high, which are succeeded by another low tract of land which has also been reclaimed, and which extends more or less past Whitstable to Faversham.

The beach along this line of coast is either clay or sandstone,