COAST EROSION.
95
as there is gain of land." Also that the erosion of foreshore is
ten times as much as the erosion of land. And being asked
(p. 45) why the area of foreshore is so much less than it was.
twenty-five years ago, Colonel Hellard thought that it might
be due to the reclamation : "What was foreshore has been
taken in ; it is not all lost by sea."
Mr. W. Whitaker (p. 88-89) thought that there was no
definite evidence of either subsidence or upheaval in recent
times. As regards the foreshore, he remarked that it had
"diminished where the beach has formed over it." He added
that "In some cases I imagine the foreshore may increase. It
has diminished very often as the result of the formation of
land above it. Diminution of the foreshore, I think, is an
expression which is rather misleading in that case.'' In
addition he remarked :—
" You make a harbour, what is the result ? You accumulate beach for some
little way, and as you have the beach you have less foreshore ; so that harbour
work, and pier work, and protection work may have an effect in that way." And,
"where reclamation works enclose large areas of marsh they actually absorb the
foreshore."
Mr. Whitaker doubted that there was any considerable loss
of foreshore to sea. In short, we need not be greatly alarmed at
a diminution of foreshore.
There is evidence in the report from every part of
England and Wales. As regards the coast between the
Wash and the English Channel, we learn from the Hon.
T. H. W. Pelham, C.B. (Assistant Secretary, Board of
Trade), that complaints have been received of local erosion of
the coast between Cromer and Happisburgh in Norfolk,
between Pakefield and Southwold in Suffolk, and near Clacton-
on-Sea, in Essex, at Hampton and Herne Bay, in Kent, and
also at St. Margaret's Bay and near Dover. West of Dover, Mr.
R. Ellis Cunliffe (Solicitor to the Board of Trade) states that
there has been a considerable accretion of shingle west of the
Admiralty Pier.
This accretion of shingle west of the Admiralty Pier is, of
course, the result of the fact that while the shingle between the
Wash and the mouth of the Thames travels from the north
southward, it travels from the west eastward along the southern
coast. As to this point some experiments by Lord Montagu, of