The Washington times., 1912-06-18
SEA EATING AWAY
! LARGE AREA Of
ENGLISH COASTS
Fall of Thousands of Tons
/; Only Part of Continual
~ Process.

Just ar the new year arrived the
greatest landslide In many years on the
south coast Of England occurred, and
hundreds Of thousands of tons OF the
famous white cliffs OF Dover-the chalk
cliffs that gave the name albion" to
this island-slipped into sea. Between
Dover and Folkestone, for a quarter
CT a mile, the debris resulting from the
landslide Is to be seen. It shot itself
into the sea with mighty roar and
splash and displacement that caused
vast wave to speed into Folkstone har-
Dor.
The principal slide was at place call
ed Abbotscliff, and the fallen chalk there
extends like a causeway 400 yards to
sea. 1t is in some places thirty feet
deep. It is feared that this slide will
be followed by others on the same
coast.
Folkestone was the scene of SEMI
panic when the slide occurred The peo-
pie there heard a great roaring sound,
and, OF course, ignorant Of its cause.
imagined that some great cataclysm
was beginning. Golfers broke their
cables and got adrift, causing great
alarm in the outer harbor. Fishing
smacks danced like corks. 1t was not
until the morning that 1t was discover
eA that q landslide was the cause of
the wave.
Ever since the sea first crept in and
split away England from the Continent,
It has been gradually gnawing away and
swallowing up the cliffs of Albion. once.
from Kent to the Pas de Calais, extend
ed continuous downs, and Great Britain
was no island, but a peninsula jutting
1.
many thousand of years ago, so geolo-
gists assert.
But the waters of the Atlantic impelled
by the prevalent southwest winds and
by the Gulf Stream, gradually ate away
the bedrock Of the downs, and in course
Of time there suddenly came a fissure,
and the Atlantic rushed through and
mingled with the German ocean. Since
then the waves have been beating
against the soft chalk cliffs and gnaw-
ing them away, and. with the help of
atmospheric conditions have swallowed
them up until the tissure is now twenty
miles wide.
Proofs of the original continuity of
France and England are to be found In
the correspondence of the geological lay
ers In Brittany with those Of southeast
England. as also in the comparative
them. which lies between the limits OF
10 feet and 2H0 feet.
From 1905 to 1911 there sat Royal
Commission on Coast Erosion and Affor-
the subject and made valuable recon-
mendations. Sir H. Rider Haggard, the
newly knighted novelist and land expert,
was n member OF the commission, and
chairman Of the reclamation and unem-
ployed labor committee.
Although the sea Is encroaching on
certain parts Of the coast" he said
a n tfd Oh Ntif fny In
land. will win the battle. On the whole.
the coast Is growing outward, and much
more land is being added to the country
than Is being lost.
coast the sea Is making serious inroads.
At Pakeficld, near Lowesstoft, for in
stance, the village is gradually being
swallowed up by the waves. There can
the sea at PakeAeld is due to the pro-
tective methods for keeping back the
sea at Lowcstnft II the sea is held
Of at a certain point 1t is apt to get
It will get its own back. 1t cannot be
set back.
"1he only way to protect the coast
sffectively iS to protect It everywhere.
value Of the land hardly justifies such
an expense.
"a great deal Of coast erosion In East
Anglia is caused by the surface water
out the lower strata of the cliffs. The
cliff rall near Dover was most probably
caused by the working of the land
springs at the top. thus loosening and
undermining the mass of chalk"
The landsl!p recalls the tale Of Eng
lands cities that the sea has buried.
The most famous OF these Old Cromer
and Old Dunwich. are on the East An
glian coast. punwich. in Saxon times.
was the cspital of East Anglia and a
h!e city. Nov all that remains Of It Is
the ruined abbey. four miles south of
Southwold. and the title of the Earl of
Stradbroke's little son.
Among the poppies and the corn on
the clirs a mile or so to the southeas st
Of Cromer is a round tower. famous in
song as the Church Of the Garden OF
Sleep" P1ve hundred years ago this
church was in the midst of village
well inland, and not long before that
the neartst waves were two miles away.
Rut the sea has crept mercilessly on.
and a new Cromer has sprung up in
place of the old town buried beneath the
waves.
The extent Of the seas ravages on
the Pritish coasts Is shown by table
given In the report OF the Royal Com
II