nt n'liicli fifty years sincii produced wliat is cnllcd the llougciiieut at IJeci-. The whole of the
bsided tract has in this cast! advanced considerably towards the sea, so as to form a promonfroin
tory
Lyme Cobb, «-hence il was before masked by the intervention of Pinhay
should in this case propose exactly the same theoretical explanation of the pha
ill tlie foi iuer instance. It cannot be nece&sai y again to enlei'into a repetition of detail:
Here wc hare ngain the «'eight of a subsided mass of chalk and cherty stiudstone hal
length and sixty feet in height, pi-cssiug on a loose quicksand of fox mould, ichich
¡)Oscd in many jilaccs along tlic base of tlic ne>i- cliff, fiom which that mass has beei
and sunk. 'J'his pressiue iins squeezed upwards the first elevated ridge of fux mould
saiuistonc along the line of least I'esistauce, where a tmct of it intervened between I
id subsided masses of chalk «'liich hud been si
the sen level. The re -emergence <)f aporlioil ofthese massesli n the second or outer raised tmct
•if beach is the part of the phrene )st difficult to he
iif this tract beneath high water r nark previ :nts that inspectic
»•ould probably remo' ve the diflicu
A similar landsU|> 1 ^corded is statcd to have tnk en place in an adjacent portion of
the IVhitlands underc :l!ir, a little fl
Many minor lissuit .•s and subsid enees hiiv. ediiringthe sanie wet season which ushered ia the ,
year ISIO occurred |i ri nei pall y in the lower region of the iind lorclilT in the adjoining headland i
ofl'iiihay; none of tl lese, howcvei -, cxceedetl 1 from eight to ten feet.
Before closing this account of tl roditced by the late \vet SKison ia
Bast Devon, we must add that in 1 he inland hills of the sumefi
fox mould, a subsiden cc occurred i in March 1910 ofan acre or two of wood land to the depth of
nilud up and efñiced by the ploiigl
§VI. ACCOUNT OF THE GREAT SUBSIDENCE OF A PORTION OF THE
CHALK CLIFFS, AND ELEVATION OF SUBMARINE ROCKS NEAR
BEER, IN THE SPRING OF 1790.
erected. a very considerable landslip occurred in March 1780. iviiich. for importance and pie-
! effect, w;is unrivalled until tl
the sea, suddenly : lunk down from 200 to 260 feet, pieseating
a stoking group of sliattere. 1 pinnacles and col umns of chalk intermingled with the
sunken . fragments of the fields thus to rn away fi-om their mitivesile! the remains of hedges still
d on tlie summit of one of the subsided
columm •ild scene of ruin, saw it finely backeil
by the d. eep binc of the channel bcn<: ath: for in this ca se tbe landslip in question formed the
undercliff; which fresh fulls and the
lapse of centuries will be required t. 0 bring into the st. itc of that already described between
Lyme a, iKl Seaton.
Sever: il persons still liring well ren md the interest excited by the late rei
of similar phniuomena, hash. :cn the means of revi iving their recollections, and led to their
being rr corded ere yet they had perisi
stated that many previous s ymptoms had foresi liown this catastrophe. A fissure had
opened i iloug the line where the disruf ition afterwards oeci irred, for months before the subsidence
stream of very fine water, whieh used to fl
now, abont the middle of the cliff. The
persuasion of tlie neighbours t
the cause of tbe subsequent convulsion ;
channel tlu-ough so.ne of the fissures wlii
e then opening. A fresh stieu
the landslip, nearer the beach.
The subsidei! mass pressed forward ini
ea, so as to approach within H
marine eing called the Sherborne Rock,
distant by three or four times
the coast line; the common charts pince.
n considerably further off, but
erroneouslv. This
Whilland.s, namely, the <il evation of the adjacent subinarin crocks; for the survi ving fishermen
relate, that points on wl lich they had laid their crab-pots i beneath the water, a nd over which
they had sailed the night . before with a depth of eight or ti ;n feet, they found, to
inent, raised far above th e sea level on the next morning, n 'ith their pots strandec I on a reef at a
height of fifteen feet in th e air. As the catastrophe occurre d during the night, no ' eye witnessctl
were out (the night being fine) wi tinual crashing
of the cliff.
ENUMERATION OF SIMILAR FOUNDERS AND LANDSLIPS WHICH HAVE
BEEN RECORDED TO HAVE HAPPENED AT PREVIOUS PERIODS
AND IN OTHER LOCALITIES.
^ 1. FOUNDERS.
\Vr have already fully proved that the catastrophe among the Culverbole cliffs, which lias lately
excited so strong a sensation, is by no means a single instance, by the account of similar events
which have bappeneil both before and since, on the same line of coast; and we have shoivn tliac
this coast owes its reniarkoble featui-es to the repeated rccurrcDce of similar convulsions in former
aps. But we may still further confirm this impression by a brief recital of numerous other
ha^•c ever referred them to the
vhich It has been oi
interesting class of geological [
The earliest account we shal
ais cite is a record in th
of a subsidence whieb occurred
Lymne in Kent in that
sponding in its geological cond
ns to the Cast Devon ui
and sandy beds emerging from
neatb the ueighboiiring
count is as follows:
in the night, a
, The house i
al Transactions for 1728,
is a region exactly cone-
North Downs. The aclad
fallen on the uplands
ee of a very wet season, when the w
jy drains, soaked into the ground in such quantities as to foi
e dei>th in the earth, which not being able to bear tbe weig
he hill, letting the brow sink down from forty to fifty feet,
s not perceived by the farmer's family (inhabiting a cottage
change in the morning b j their door cases not suffering t
langely rent by this aeeideni; and had it not been timber
thi-ough the mid<lle of it, and split n large kitchen cli
Wc here observe a distinct reference to the rainy season us the cause of tl
and the description of all the effects, especially the mode in which the building
autly accords with what happened in the subsidences of East Devon.
Four yeai-s previously, in 1716, a subsidence had taken place in cliffi of the
Folkstone; below Torlingham House it is said to have extended 130 feet in lei
depth. It is mentioned in the Philosophical Transactions for that year, and ir
The nest similar event to which ive can advert, occurred after a singularly wet winter in
March 1764, amid the strata of elinlk, inarle, grecnsand, and gait, which skirt the Weald of
Sussex at Hawkley Hanger near Selbornes it ia described by the distinguished natural historian
of that district with all his characteiistlc precision and gra])hlc power in bis 45th letter; his
narrative is so excellent, that we shall insert it entire in tlie Appendix. It will be sufficient here
to state, that he ascribes it distinctly to the agency of land-springs, and observes that none of
the tremors of an earthquake were experienceil. It much resembled in character and extent
the subsidence at VVhitlands, its length being a quarter of a mile, and its depth seventy feet.
Here also a cottage and farm-house were rendered uninhabitable cxactly in the saute manner as
those in East Devon.
In the undcrcliffof the Isle of Wight, (itself in its whole extent, the creation of similar subsidences,)
foundei-s, ns they are there very appropriately named, are i-ecorded from time to time to
have taken place. Very considerable examples occurred about the close of the lost and l>eginning
of tbe present century, at East End near Boncliurch, am! Rocken End below St, Catherine's
Ilill. The scenes of ruin they proiliiced are strikingly described in Sir Harry Englefield»
Memoir on the Isle of Wight, and Mr. Webster's letters in the Appendix to that splendid work;
and a narrative of them may be found in many of the Guides to that island. Similar convulsions
iively prevalent through the w. f 1839-40'
scale n
•nticnl formations, yel
0 that
jlume of Lyell's Principles of Geology.
"The peninsulas of Purbeck and Portion
rgillaceous substratum hastens the dilapii
565 the clilfs adjoining the princij-al quar:
i and in Septenil
ctvveen the undeicllffs of the Isle of Wight and East
turbances. Its geological constitution, though not exsimilar
combination of rock, sand, and clay
ible to the undermining effects of land-springs). For
ck reposes on the Portland sanil, and that agsiin on the
onvulsions which have there happened, appear to have
Bendon. The following account is given In the first
side of the isle, by w
History of Doiîetshire. Earl)
increasing; and before 2 o'cio
motion, but attended by no oti
I skeletons buried bi slabs of stone were discovered."
vas observed to crack : this conti
2veral feet, and was in one conti
asioncd by the separation of roots
a little, but soon moved again ;
: Appetuiii, So. 2.