220 EXCURSION TO WALTON AND FRINTON.
forced apart by water making its way in by capillary attraction.
Under such conditions, the whole becomes practically a viscous
fluid, and cliffs or railway-cuttings are subject to perpetual slip-
ping in greater or less degree. Every hillside of similar material
is perennially on the down-grade from the same cause, and even
gentle slopes have a like movement in minor measure. Expan-
sion by moisture will be vertical only in absolutely level ground,
where no cause exists for divergence to any side. If ever so
slight a deviation from the vertical is possible, the expansion
will be fractionally towards that side. Subsequent contraction
will be truly vertical, unless a lower position is possible by a
further lateral movement. On a cliff the action is more percepti-
ble, because more rapid, and the prompt removal by the sea of
whatever reaches the beach has induced the popular belief that
the sea is the primary agent of destruction. Neptune has been
blamed for what is mainly the action of Jupiter Pluvius. That
Neptune assists in the spoliation cannot be denied, but he is
accessory after the fact, the receiver of the proceeds.
In the later section of the day's operations, the modus operandi
of these confederate powers was clearly demonstrated. The
cliff-top between Walton and Frinton is practically a plateau,
from which a covering sheet of gravel, probably of Post-Glacial
date as at Clacton, has been but lately denuded, small patches
of pebbles and sand being of frequent occurrence. The margin
is indented into much the same form as that to which a child
reduces a slice of bread-and-butter, a series of irregular, more or
less circular scallops, with projecting points. At these salient
angles, often very acute, the fall is nearly vertical; in the inter-
vening recesses, a steep slope of a few yards generally reaches a
ledge still covered with the original turf of the summit, and often
fairly horizontal, but breaking into columns by intersecting
cracks, as it passes by infinitesimal slips down the treacherous
slope. Lower down a chaos of angular lumps of all sizes leads
to the beach, interspersed with flows of viscid mud where surface
waters seek exit through the obstructing masses. In every case
the determining cause of the recess is seen to be one of the
patches of residuary gravel already mentioned, its presence
implying a slight hollow on the surface of the clay, and a collect-
ing ground for the rainfall of the immediate vicinity. Near the
edge, in every recess, new cracks show the initiation of a further
loss. Where a continuous esplanade has been constructed, it