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It appears to me, that our harbours have become what they now are, entirely from neglect, and this neglect has been super-induced in most instances by cupidity. Engineers, and Inspecting Directors of havens and harbours, should have no local interests to warp their judgment, or affect their operations, but who, let us ask, are usually the conservators of our havens? The mayor and jurats forsooth, or in other words, the land-owners of the embankments, whose interest it is to win from the waters, and to advance their boundary at the expense of the navigation.

But to return to our shingle banks of the British Channel, they are called migratory and “roaming pebbles;" I believe they would be so, if the ocean tide had but ONE direction. If it was all an eastern set, and no reaction, the coasts of Holland and Belgium would have been blest with all the shingle which we so continually complain of. But the ebb and flood are so nearly proportioned in their effects, that the nature of our soundings in our charts are unaltered and decisive.* It is very natural it should be so; a body of water traverses periodically a strait or a channel, if the time occupied in one direction exceeds that of the other, a compensation for time is given in the increased strength of the receding current, and the action and reaction is thus equalized, the quantity being the same. This being admitted, our shingle beaches are more local, than might be at first imagined. It is this action and reaction also which continue the Goodwin and other sands, in their all but primitive form and station; for before their innumerable particles have advanced fur with the flood, the retrograde motion of the ebb returns them to their original position. But for this, the alteration not only in depths of water upon our shoals, but in the nature of the bottom, would be ever changing and perceptible. Let us take Sandwich and its haven, as another demonstration of the local nature of the shingle banks. Sand-Wick or Sondwich, is so named from the sandy peninsula upon which it formerly stood, and the last ten centuries have not altered the geological features of its strata. The sand hills it is true are further from the margin of the sea, because the course of the Stour has been neglected, and encroached upon by the landholders. But we find in the same ancient records, thus correctly descriptive of Sandwick, a neighbouring port called Stone Arr, or Stony shore. This arm of the great estuary, called the Wantsum, was choked up by shingle, and the banks of sea beach may be now seen for miles into the marshes, protruding through the green pasturage in isolated spots or patches, + But, if we commence our investigations from the haven entrance, throughout its whole vicinity, we shall get our soundings upon a clean chalk bottom, without a trace of any deposit from which the shingle could have been derived.

Again, Deal beach is of a corresponding character, but it does not

What immense accumulations of granite boulders are heaped up by the sea on the inclined planes of the Scilly Islands: the soundings between these islands and the Land's End will prove that they are local, and not migratory.

Oral tradition ascribes this change, in part, to a severe convulsion of Nature in the reign of Edward the confessor, followed by a second in that of William Rufus, when islands on the English and Dutch coast were destroyed, and the mouths of many havens choked up, and the rivers turned from their course.

extend even to the anchorage close along shore. There is a Boulder bank off Walmer Castle, but there are no boulders in the Small Downs. The ground there is a stiff blue clay, terminating to seaward in deep water upon a clean chalky bottom, till the Goodwin Sand meets it, upon which you may search in vain for a pebble or a shell. Now this would seem to warrant Lieutenant Evans plan, but although it is thus shewn to be circumscribed in extent, yet its quantity is immense, and the safeguard it affords to our shores in neutralizing the effects of the surf is invaluable in a national point of view. Where no shingle rests along the base of our chalk cliffs, the annual waste is almost incredible. But this waste, great as it is, has very little effect upon the accumulation of shingle, for independent of the immediate seizure of the flints at low water, for building walls and houses. The shoals formed by those which are drawn off into deep water, are of a different character to the pebbles which constitute the shingle banks, and the adamantine hardness of the silex or flint, would require ages of attrition to grind away the superficies which characterise them.* It is then very natural that we should seek for their probable origin, and I think we should not have to look far.

If we examine the geological features of our country, we shall find immense deposits of these antediluvian pebbles heaped up in extensive tracts along the scarp, and in some places aspiring even to the summits of our hills. Without detailing instances from our inlaid counties, let us take a line from the Highgate tunnel, which was excavated through a bank of shingle, containing perfect specimens of the lobster and other crustacea, and follow that line across the Thames and Medway, over to that extraordinary bank which extends into the British channel at Dungeness. We meet with it again in Greenwich and Westcombe parks, and at Woolwich through the valley towards Folkstone; in isolated patches in Romney Marsh (similar to those at Stonar and in Canterbury vale,) and terminating at last in the sea at Dungeness. Now all these pebbles have a corresponding character, they are more opaque than the silex of our present chalk cliffs, and I believe they are a diluvial deposit from antediluvian formations. Be this as it may, it is reasonable to infer that similar geological features, under water, are the storehouses from whence the shingle bars of our harbours are derived; and it would appear a hopeless task to remove them by convict labour, even with the aid of steam power, while, if properly attended to, and secured, they might form a material for extending our sheltering mole heads, enlarging the capacity of our havens, and redeeming from the waste of waters much valuable property. It is strange to perceive that the ancients paid more attention to this than the moderns. The sea once laved the walls of Richborough castle, and an inspection of these venerable ruins will shew that massive and lasting as they are, their enduring materials are a mixture of chalk rubble, flint, shingle,

Many thousand tons annually are taken away at low water from the shoal near Ramsgate, called the Dike, these are large flints, covered with limpets and sea worm and weed, yet although the action of the water upon them is incessant, their rugged form is but slightly changed. They are as unshapely as those still imbedded in the chalk strata, and there is no shingle among them. In all the shingle banks I have seen, recent deposits are few, and may easily be selected from the primitive pebbles.

and sand, held together by a concrete of shelly lime. There they stand in rough sublimity, the hoary witnesses of a thousand years, while a half century consigns much of our smoothly worked and highly-finished masonry to premature oblivion! The ancients worked in the gross! We have greater advantages and neglect their example. A row of iron cylinders in which timber piling might be inserted at a proper level for necessary repairs, might be driven through a bank of shingle, for the extension of a mole head or pier. Masses of chalk and flints concreted upon the upper strata of the shingle would bind it together, and in this way advancing upon the sea line, deep water entrances, might in most instances be secured to the mouths of our harbours.*

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With respect to the waste and refuse of the Portland quarries, Lieut. Evans says, with great justice, the legislature ought to interfere, to prevent their being thrown over where they may be prejudicial to the navigation! and so it should be, wherever any injury may be inflicted, legislative power should be exerted. How many millions of tons of ballast have been thrown overboard in the vicinity of our northern ports, by the fleets of colliers, preparatory to entering for their cargoes of coal, merely to save the expense of landing it, while there are few rivers or havens thus frequented, whose breakwaters or embankments could not be improved by a judicious application of this material.+ think the examination of the line of strand and contiguous roadsteads, and havens of the British Channel has been going on time immemorial, and there are few pilots or masters of coasters, but could tell you the nature of the bottom where he is about to anchor. The Channel charts are also correct in their delineations and recent surveys, and every day soundings by ships passing through are a test of their accuracy; but, let the shingle be derived from whence it may, I fear it would be impossible to remove it from the coast into the interior, (as proposed by Lieutenant Evans,) without incurring a far greater expense than he imagines; and that outlay would be more beneficially employed in the construction of piers, groins, and jetties.

By his plan the sea would be assisted in its encroachment, to the ruin of much valuable property. By the extension of well constructed piers, we should add to our present possessions, and be it remembered that in many instances this is an actual return for the capital invested. Sandwich and Rye havens are silted up, but will any person doubt the practicability of rendering them once more navigable by straightening their channels, increasing their depths, and enclosing the muddy flats in their entrances, thus redeeming from the sea many thousand acres convertible into rich and fertile pastures.

⚫ I am of opinion, that piling is not sufficiently assimilated with masonry in our harbours. Holland and Belgium exist only in proportion to the perfection of their jettys, piers, and groins, and experience has taught them that nothing so effectually neutralizes the raging surf which beats incessantly on their shores, as timber piers and open piling.

+ Perhaps there is no place on the whole coast of England, where refuse stone could be more advantageously employed in the construction of a breakwater than at Portland. The whole of the small Downs might also be converted into a splendid anchorage, (as recommended in my pamphlet on harbours of refuge.) There are not more feet in depth of water on the brake and its line of shoals, than there was fathoms, where the breakwater at Plymouth is constructed. The freight during time of peace from the nearest quarries would be easy enough. ENLARGED SERIES.-NO. 1.-VOL. FOR 1841.

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I have offered these few remarks with a view to elicit further inquiry into this interesting subject, and while I differ from Lieut. Evans, as to the derivation and removal of the shingle, I admire the spirit which I trust may urge him and others to further investigation, and to decisive results.

Ramsgate.

K. B. MARTIN, Harbour Master.

VOYAGE OF H.M.S. BEAGLE, ON A SURVEY OF THE COAST OF AUSTRALIA. By a Naval Officer.

(Continued from p. 857, of vol. for 1840.)

We left Port Philip on the 25th November, and with a moderate breeze from the eastward, with fine weather, coasted along towards Cape Otway, from one to four miles off shore. Westward from Point Londsdale for five leagues the coast is low and sandy, and forms a rather deep bay, about the centre of which is the flat topped hill before mentioned, a remarkable lump of land, a hundred and fifty feet high, curiously situated on the beach with a reef of rocks extending a short distance off it.

About a league from this hill is the embouchure of the river Barwin; on the banks of which is situated the town of Geelong. It was with much difficulty it could be distinguished, for at this time of the year it merely filters through the beach into the sea, and I question, if at any time, it has sufficient strength to make an outlet for itself, sufficient to admit even a small boat.

At the end of this sandy bay, the feature of the country changes to high sloping downs (to all appearance well adapted for grazing,) terminating in bold cliffy projections, with small sand bays between; until abreast of Cape Patton. From thence there is a sudden change to high well-wooded hills, the slopes of which reach to the sea coast and give it a rocky outline.

These hills run towards Cape Otway, becoming gradually lower as the Cape is approached; indeed it may be said, that Cape Otway, a bluff headland four hundred feet high, is the termination of this range of hills.

About two miles E.N.E. from Cape Otway there is a low sandy point, with a few rocks extending off it to the south-east, to the distance of half a mile; there are no other dangers that we saw along this coast, neither is there any spot that a vessel could lie sheltered in. A small stream of water was seen running from the heights, on the south side of a rocky point a few miles to the southward of Cape Patton.

Leaving this part of the coast, our course was shaped for the north end of Kings Island, but the wind fell light during the night, so that by the morning the current had taken us considerably to the westward, and it was not till late in the afternoon, with a south-west wind, that we reached the bay between New Years Isles and the north part of Kings Island.

We were surprised on anchoring, to find a neat looking cottage on some rising ground at the south-east corner of the bay, and immediately

after to perceive a fire on the northern islet; the glasses were soon turned in that direction, and a party was observed with a red flag hoisted in the bow of a boat hauled up on the beach.

Of course there were numerous conjectures as to what they were, we had heard of there being runaway convicts on Kings Island, but could hardly suppose they would readily disclose their hiding place; and as no intimation had been given us of settlers being in this neighbourhood, we could only suppose them the survivors of the crew of some unfortunate vessel that had been wrecked; and we became naturally anxious to relieve them.

However, on landing, our doubts were put an end to, by learning that the cottage, seen in the distance, was the residence of a retired officer, (a Capt. Smith,) who had settled there from Hobart Town, about three years since, and the island party were his sons, with two labouring men, collecting the mutton bird and eggs for the family's consump

tion.

The following day Capt. Wickham went over to the cottage, and found every thing, although on a small scale, still in a prosperous and flourishing state. Capt. Smith had preferred this bay, as being the best anchorage on the island; and out of compliment to the governor of Van Diemens Land, had named it Port Franklin.

It certainly cannot be said to merit the name of a port, yet it is a tolerable stopping place, only exposed from north to north-west. We anchored with the north end of the northern island bearing W.N.W., half a mile distant in ten fathoms water.

There is convenient landing at all times on these islets, and abundance of fresh water on each of them.

Having completed our observations by the return of the boat from the cottage, we weighed with a fresh breeze from the north-east, and stood along the west side of Kings island, about a league from the land; and by half-past seven came to a tolerable bay on the north side of a cliffy point about two leagues from the south extreme of the island. This appearing a good stopping place for the night, the anchor was dropped in sixteen fathoms on a mixed bottom of sand and clay, a mile from the nearest shore.

The coast passed along this afternoon had a most uninviting appearance, the land was moderately high with a number of barren leafless trees, having more the appearance of stakes driven in the ground, than animated nature.

These heights slope gradually towards the rocky outline which is much cut up by the heavy sea that is constantly rolling in upon it, and to add to its forbidding aspect to the mariner, innumerable scattered rocks lie off it, in one place (about the centre of the island,) to the distance of a league.

At noon the next day, the wind set in from the westward, the anchor was again weighed, and with a freshening breeze we reached the Bay of Seals at four o'clock.

Between these bays the coast is bolder and more cliffy, falling gradually towards the south extreme, which for the last two miles is merely a sandy spit with a few hillocks upon it, and terminates in a flat ledge of rocks on which the sea breaks with great violence.

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