GREAT CLIFF FALL.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13331, 21 March 1911, Page 7

GREAT CLIFF FALL.

HUGE BREAKWATER FORMED. Earthquake Alarm. The heaviest fall of cliff in the history of Dover occurred in the course of a recent Sunday night. People in the district were awakened by sounds as of thunder in tbe distance. One family near tbe cliff says it was like an earthquake. When morning dawned a great projection of white cliff had disappeared, and there in the sea, forming a mighty breakwater to the; hulk d the German sailing ship Preussen, was m immense white mass of what was but i few hours before British cliff. The sea and the land here have been n conflict for many years. In the construction of the great harbour at Dover, -jinch laud was reclaimed from the sea. t bad its revenge in one night in a great dice of the coast. .Worse still, there are itbcr ominous cracks in the neighbourhood which portend further landslides. The affected part is three miles from the town n the direction of St. Margaret’s. Close by the snot arc three lonely cottages perched 3Ooit. above the sea, within i few hundred yards of where the cliff disappeared. The inhabitants could not have chosen a more desolate spot to make dicirh nines the old coastguard cottages, they are bare to the full force of the terrific winds which blow across the cliffs while at night the only signs of life came from the Fan Point Lighthouse, which is half a mile distant. HELP TO SALVAGE MEN. In addition to this. Miss Jennings, one ■if the occupants, informed a representative of the Express that they lived in an atmosphere of earthquakes, and that hardly a week passes without a chunk of c.-. falling with a mighty crash to the shingle hundreds of feet below. “Ever since I lived here,” she said, “I lo not recollect such a great fall. I have never been in a real earthquake, but 1 should think Sunday night’s experience is os good—or as bad. Everything in the house rattled, and I thought that the place would collapse. It began with a cracking sound, and ended in a deafening thud so groat that it was impossible to hear the roar of the wind for some minutes.” Miss Jennings added that she was not afraid to live among the roar of earthquakes, as she knew that the cottage was perfectly safe. “Besides,” she added, “we always have warning, because there always appears a large crack iiU the cliff some time before it breaks away.” Tec fallen cliff lias spread itself out a great distance across the shore, and some thirty feet of it juts out of the sea and keeps the waves from washing over the side of the Preussen. For this; the salvage men are thankful, as they can do their work easily while the vessel thus lies in a placid pool. The men were working when the cliff toppled over, and they state that theywere almost blinded by the vast cloud of white dust which followed the crash