on this shore. These Mr. A. R. Hunt recorded in our Transactions in 1873; and although some were of French origin, the fact that dates as late as 1465-1483 were represented makes it impossible that they should be relics of Du Chastel's adventure. Mr. Hunt's suggestion that some formed part of the treasure of Warwick's fleet in 1470 is, at least, a very probable explanation of their presence, and if correct constitutes another link of Blackpool beach with the history of our land.

Blackpool Sands are, to all intents, isolated from the other beaches of the Start Bay. They correspond with Slapton Sands and Hallsands in that they form the seaward defence of a low-lying valley, the surface of which is little above high water. Across the mouth of this valley the beach extends as a barrier, rising some feet above the general level of the land behind it.

From time to time exceptional gales have had the effect of driving the sand and shingle away from one or other end of the beach, and piling it up at the farther end, or in some cases of withdrawing it from at or below high water and distributing it at or below low water. Such disturbances of the sand and shingle expose at times the remains of a submerged forest, clays, peat, and tree trunks.

The dates on which such occurrences have taken place appear to have been the year 1802, another date some fifty years later, again in 1869, and yet again, after an interval of sixteen years, in 1881. The latest stripping took place in 1903, and Mr. R. L. Newman then secured a photograph of the exposed submerged forest, which he has kindly permitted me to use for the illustration of this paper.

Mr. A. R. Hunt has described the stripping of this beach as it occurred in April, 1881. The eastern end was then denuded of its sand and shingle, and apparently about twelve feet in depth of its materials were removed, the footing of the sea wall was laid bare, and the wall itself was damaged. The material removed from the eastern end had been piled up at the western, and so far as Mr. Hunt could judge the additional depth there created amounted to sixteen feet or thereabouts of sand.

66

The wall, to which reference is made above, bears at its western end the following inscription. This Sea WallPlanned by Thos. H. Newman, Esq., of Blackpool, and constructed by H. Wills, of Strete, under the superin

BLACKPOOL SUBMERGED FOREST, LOOKING WEST, 1903.
Tree stump and roots in foreground, fallen trunks behind,

Sea

wall.

tendence of Mr. Michelmore, of Berry, Totnes, was commenced in 1860 and finished in 1873. Total length 1823 feet, average height 16 feet, average thickness at foundation 6 feet."

It was so placed that the grass-grown summit-levels of the old beach lay behind it, while for about 700 feet at the eastern end it fronts and protects the cliff; here, of course, it was built at the shoreward limit of the beach. The foundation is for the more part on the materials of the submerged forest beds, and hence an exposure of these by the occasional fall of the beach has usually been followed by considerable damage to the wall.

If the foundation is at times exposed, on the other hand the sand and shingle sometimes rise to within one foot of the top of the wall, but never throughout its whole length at once. They stood at this height when I visited the spot on the 14th August, 1908. It follows that against the wall there is from time to time a variation of at least fifteen to sixteen feet in the level of the beach.

On the same date I observed the gradients of the beach. At high-water mark of that day the gradient was 1 in 41, and this passed through a decreasing range to a fall of 1 in 6 at low-water mark. Above high water, and separated from it by a narrow level surface, was an old fall of the beach, which had a gradient of 1 in 2%, probably the steepest at which this sand and shingle would naturally dispose itself.

On the whole the material is distinctly smaller in size than at Hallsands, but I have not estimated the proportion of finer and coarser on this beach, or taken any measures for accurately comparing it with the Hallsands shingle. Much fine gravel is, however, to be found on the foreshore at Blackpool of a grade which is practically confined to parts below low water at Hallsands.

The fine gravel I have graded through sieves with round holes, with the following result, the percentages being expressed by weight.

Particles over 15 mm.

per cent.

4.9