CHAPTER IX.

OBSERVATIONS UPON THE CLIFFS CONTINUED.—LAND-SPRINGS, THEIR INJURIOUS EFFECTS, WITH PLAN TO COUNTERACT THEM.—REDUCTION OF THE CLIFFS CONSIDERED ADVISABLE, ESPECIALLY WHERE GREAT IRREGULARITIES IN SAND DUNES EXIST, WITH A PLAN TO INCREASE THEIR HEIGHT WHERE NECESSARY.

HAVING considered the cliffs with respect to the contour they present, the different strata composing their structure, the injury they experience from the atmospheric air, from drought, from heavy rains, from severe and successive frosts, and from the formidable visitations of the German Ocean against their base; yet, they possess an internal enemy peculiar to themselves, which in certain localities is more formidable than the ocean itself—these are the Land-springs previously alluded to.

To check their baneful influence is a task that requires consideration, for although we know their existence, we cannot tell whether they arise from a broad or a narrow surface, at a great depth, or at a considerable distance from whence they are seen to issue; and although so serious in their consequences, yet the extent arising from such contingencies, on this part of the coast, is generally limited.

Wherever they abound, the cliffs ought, where practicable, to be reduced from a perpendicular to an inclined plane; then let stakes, or rather strong piles, be driven in a parallel direction to the extent required, and sufficiently deep into the solid strata beneath, at short distances one from another, with splines fastened horizontally, or what would be preferable, strong wooden faggots interposed between the piles and the cliffs, especially where the materials consist of a loose texture; these would be found efficient, until a more natural, solid, and lasting support could be obtained.

Great benefit might be derived by sinking wells on the inner or land side of the cliffs, subjected to their influence; for at Trimingham, the loss of four acres and a half of land, mentioned in a previous chapter, is primarily attributed to a foolish individual, who a few months before filled up three wells in the immediate neighbourhood.

The question now comes—would it not be advisable to remove generally, where practicable, the taller, cliffs?—Possibly it would.

1st. The air in heavy gales of wind would not be so much condensed against their base, and add so much weight to the waves when nearing the shore as is now evidently the case, and the latter would be less liable to disarrange the legitimate beach during its formation.

2ndly. Wherever land-springs abound, an egress for the fresh water would ensue, without causing shoots of land to take place, where the former exist beyond or rather above the reach of the stakes recommended, which might retard the formation of the legitimate beach.

3rdly.—It will be decidedly applicable, where dunes or hills of blown sand from their irregularity, produced from the north-east winds, are reduced to an extent liable to admit an irruption of the sea, observable at Eccles, Palling, &c.

And lastly. The application of a plough in a locality where such fissures exist, upon the plan recommended in the ensuing chapter; and due attention to the transplanting the marram {67} from time to time as required, will accomplish the rest without directly interfering with the land belonging to private individuals on the inner side of those banks.