THE GREAT TIDE OF NOVEMBER, 1897. 355
certainly changed its base of attachment, with the curious
result that there is a partly double shell, a fresh growth
having been formed to fit the new basal curve.
The septum within is invariably of pure enamel white, with
out a trace of colour; but the other portions differ much in tint,
though always bearing a glossy enamel. In some the interior
is of a rich dark-brown; others the same, with splashes of
the pigment and often spotted around the margin; while others
are marked with radiating bands.
The contour of some shells shows a deep excavation,
including even the septum; but all modifications of shape
are comparable in every way with the parent species in North
American waters.
SOME FURTHER NOTES ON THE EFFECTS OF
THE GREAT TIDE OF NOVEMBER, 1897.
By PERCY CLARK, B.A.
SINCE my short account of the encroachments by the sea on
our Essex coasts, which was written in the spring of this
year 1898, and appeared in the last part of the Essex Naturalist
(ante pp. 297-9), I have had an opportunity this summer of
examining again the scene of the floods and destruction which
then took place.
It may be said with truth that during the November gale,
1897, the whole of the low-lying seaboard of Essex and its neigh-
bourhood was for the time being completely submerged. In most
cases, after the tide subsided, the overflow gradually disappeared.
In some cases it did so in a day or two, in a great many it took
weeks, but everywhere the cereals, and in places the pasturage,
were destroyed or seriously damaged. Strenuous exertions in
repairing the walls as soon as possible met their reward in being
the means of saving the country from a second deluge in the
succeeding storms of the spring. But at a great many points the
breaches were too large to be effectually dealt with at once, and
the sea-water continued to flow in and out for months together.
Of these more or less permanent and more serious cases I send a
few notes.
Taking the coast in the same order as I did in my last