LAND LOST.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 566, 10 May 1913, Page 2

LAND LOST.

BY EROSION OF THE SEA. Concluding a fully illustrated seriei of articles on all systems of protecting the coast against erosion by the tea, "Engineering"says that the total area of England in 1867, excluding the foreshore and the area covered by the tideß, according to information issued by the Board of Agriculture, waß 32,590,397 acres. In 1900, or thirtythree years later, it had diminished to 32,549,019 acres, a reduction of 41,378 acres, after taking, into consideration tha land gained by accretion. Assuming the average value peracre of the lost land to have been £2O. this means a loss of £827,560. While this loss has been proceeding for centuries, the value per acre of the land eroded increases year by year, for the population of England is growing, while its area is decreasing. The whole matter is therefore of national importance, and should interest the inland owner quite as much as the man whose land abuts on the coast.

At Kingsdown, near Deal, Engineering continues, the chalk cliffs, at the foot of which the waves of the sea used to break, are now nearly a mile inland, and between them and the sea a village has sprung up. Geologists are fairly well agreed that after this country was heaved up out of the sea on the last occasion, the land level was much higher than it is to-day. Evidence of this mav be found in the various submerged forests around our coasts. Raised benches are also met with here and there, an interesting one having been discovered a few years ago on the Sewerby cliffs at Bridlington. Although it is difficult to prove it, the land is gradually sinking, as ia also the bed of the ocean The subsidence, however, is so Blow that it cannot be measured.