MARINE DENUDATION INSTANCES ON BRITISH AND OTHER COASTS Geologically considered, the oldest rocks in Britain lie along its western and northern shores ; while the newer, and therefore softer, strata are in general limited to its eastern and southern districts. The sea-cliffs on the southern and eastern coasts of England are largely composed of chalk, soft sand, or clays, and are therefore more subject to the erosive action of the sea than the older and harder rocks on the west coast. This, as Huxley points out, is strikingly shown in the configuration of the east and west coasts re spectively. The sites of some of the former seaports of York shire are now about a mile from the present shore, and the site of Old Cromer is now entirely covered by the waters of the German Ocean. Several other well-known villages of former days on the coast of Norfolk and Suffolk have disap peared; "manors and large portions of neighbouring parishes have been swallowed up, piece by piece ; nor has there been any interruption, from time immemorial, in the ravages of the sea." 1 In the Isle of Sheppey, at a spot where the cliffs are from 60 to 80 feet high, fifty acres have been lost in twenty years.' The church at in Kent, was, three centuries ago, nearly a mile from the sea ; now the towers alone remain, and these are preserved only by means of an artificial causeway on the beach.
The opposite shores of the German Ocean bear witness to the same destructive activity of the sea. The tract now covered by the Zuyder Zee was, until the 13th century, dry laud, with the exception of a small depression filled by the waters of Lake Flevo. Since then the sea has, again and again, inundated large tracts, overwhelming towns and villages ; and were it not for the natural sand-dunes and artificial dykes, the sea and rivers would inundate the greater part of the Nether lands. The Texel, and other islands to the north of Holland, and, still more, Heligoland, have been gradually reduced and altered. The latter was at one time connected with Sandy Island, now many miles distant. In 1825, the narrow strip of land that separated the Lym Fiord in Denmark from the North Sea was cut through during a violent storm ; but the channel thus formed, though still open, is not adapted for commercial purposes. The Channel Islands and the neigh bouring French coast appear also to have been denuded to some extent, there being at the present time 20 feet of water over what was once dry land. 1