WITH A DESIGN TO ARREST ITS FURTHER DEPREDATIONS; TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS OF THE ADMIRALTY. By W. HEWITT, Surgeon . NORWICH: PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, BY MATCHETT, STEVENSON, AND MATCHETT, MARKET-PLACE. SOLD ALSO BY EDWARDS AND HUGHES, 12, AVE-MARIA-LANE, LONDON. 1844....

To the Right Honourable the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty . My Lords and Gentlemen , A communication with your Lordships in 1843, led me to infer that an Essay upon the interesting subject connected with the present inquiry, would be received with a degree of attention according to its merits, and the importance of the object connected with it.  But should you, in your superior wisdom, perceive sufficient evidence has not been advanced to render it deserving the consideration requisite at

Many persons may consider it a remarkable circumstance, that an individual, whose profession requires his leisure time to be devoted to the acquirement of knowledge for the comfort of man in his corporeal ailments, should find an opportunity to direct considerable attention to a subject, so very different in character, as the one now submitted to the reader. [5]   The suggestions, however, of a near, respected, and venerable relative, aroused and stimulated me to make the strictest investigation

INTRODUCTION.—THE FORMATION OF THE TIDES CONSIDERED, THEIR VARIATION, AND EFFECTS. For, lo! the sea that fleets about the land, And like a girdle clips her solid waste, Music and measure both doth understand: For his great crystal eye is always cast Up to the moon, and on her fixed fast: And as she danceth in her pallid sphere, So danceth he about the centre here. The above lines, so beautifully expressed by one of our earlier poets, introduces a subject generally understood, but the important o

THE ORIGIN OF CURRENTS THEIR VARIATION, EFFECTS, AND VELOCITY CONSIDERED. Another impulse communicated to the waters of the ocean arises from its currents.  These are caused by the winds blowing for many months in one direction, which produce on an expansive ocean movements of considerable magnitude: this may be easily conceived when we observe the effects produced on our own seas by the temporary action of the same cause. A strong south-west or north-west wind invariably raises the tides to an

THE GERMAN OCEAN—ITS GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION—ITS TIDES—DISASTROUS EFFECTS IN COMBINATION WITH GALES OF WIND FROM THE NORTH-WEST ON DIFFERENT PARTS OF THE COAST UNDER CONSIDERATION—EXAMPLES. The workings of Nature itself, under the control of an Allwise and Omnipotent Being, ever exhibit a restorative as well as a destructive power.  Its laws and constitution being no where directly revealed to us, are only to be inferred from the inspection of particular facts, obtained from observation and experi

REMARKS ON THE GERMAN OCEAN CONTINUED.—ITS RESTORATIVE POWERS ON OTHER COASTS DEMONSTRATED.—INCREASE OF THE SHOALS OF SAND OFF HASBOROUGH, CAISTER, &C.—THE SMALLER SHOALS OF SAND ALONG THE COAST—THEIR FORMATION AND EFFECTS CONSIDERED. Having now brought together ample proofs of the destructive operations of the waves, tides, and currents upon our eastern coast, let us observe examples of their restorative power, in many instances aided and assisted by the hand of man. The German Ocean is

MEANS TAKEN TO ARREST THE DEPREDATIONS OF THE GERMAN OCEAN BY PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INDIVIDUALS.—THE ERECTION OF JETTIES, PIERS, AND GROINS CONSIDERED.—THE BENEFICIAL EFFECTS ARISING FROM THE TWO FORMER AT YARMOUTH AND CROMER—THE PARTIAL FAILURE OF THE LATTER AT TRIMINGHAM, AND THEIR INJURIOUS EFFECTS ON OTHER COASTS DEMONSTRATED. It appears, from the observations of Mr. Palmer and others, that if a pier or groin be erected anywhere on our southern or south-eastern coast, to stop the progress of th

THE RESTORATIVE POWER OF THE GERMAN OCEAN PROVED IN CERTAIN LOCALITIES.—ASSISTANCE GIVEN TO IT FROM THE STRANDING OF A VESSEL AT PURBECK, AND ON THIS COAST AT HASBOROUGH.—HILLS OF BLOWN SAND OR DUNES CONSIDERED—EXAMPLES OF THEIR STABILITY GIVEN AT WELLS, CLEY, &C., AND OF THEIR INSTABILITY AT ECCLES, PALLING, &C.—SEA-BREACH COMMISSIONERS APPOINTED.—THE ENGAGEMENT AND OPINIONS OF AN EMINENT ENGINEER IN 1804.—CONCLUDING REMARKS. Examples of Nature endeavouring to combat with hersel

THE GENERAL FEATURES OF THE COAST.—THE VARIATION AND EFFECTS OF THE WIND FROM DIFFERENT POINTS CONSIDERED. To combat successfully with so restless and powerful an agent as the ocean, requires great consideration and attention; for the obstacles presented on this coast are of no ordinary character.  Among them may be enumerated powerful tides and currents, a confined space for a large body of water upon extraordinary occasions, cliffs of a soft yielding nature, a limited and irregular shore, with

THE GENERAL FEATURE OF THE CLIFFS CONSIDERED—CAUSES OF IRREGULARITY, AND THE GEOLOGICAL STRATA COMPOSING THEM. The cliffs [55] extending from Hasborough to or a little beyond Cromer, are found, upon approaching near, to be extremely irregular.  In some places small promontories or points project, in others small bays are formed, according to the influence of the sea, and the materials composing their structure.  Their perpendicularity is partially averted from the fallen masses deposited at thei

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 f

THE AUTHOR’S PLAN FOR EVENTUALLY COUNTERACTING THE INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF THE GERMAN OCEAN ALONG THE EASTERN COAST OF NORFOLK, COMPRISED WITHIN A DISTANCE OF THIRTY MILES, EXTENDING FROM WINTERTON-NESS TO OR A LITTLE BEYOND CROMER.—A PLAN FOR THE ERECTION OF JETTIES SUBMITTED, &C. The knowledge gained upon this interesting subject, the instances adverted to in the former chapter, prove almost beyond a doubt, that the question—Whether art can arrest the progress of the German Ocean along th

THE CONCLUSION. Let not the plan proposed in the previous chapter make too hasty an impression, or cause the reader to be too sanguine as to the result, however it may bear the semblance to truth and reality; but, if upon inquiry, consideration, and inspection, it is found to originate in facts, not theory alone, let no longer time be wasted in delaying a trial of its efficacy than is really necessary. For a series of years, the wondrous body of waters has committed most dreadful ravages upon th

Bacton or Backton, termed in the Doomsday Book Baketuna, is situated about four miles and a half north-east by east of North Walsham.  From bordering on the sea, it continually experiences its devastating effects, which is the more to be regretted, as the land, about 1600 acres, is extremely fertile. The Church, dedicated to St. Andrew, is a neat edifice, situated on elevated ground, about a quarter of a mile distant from the sea; and the interior, though unadorned with costly monuments, contain

The Right Honourable Lord Wodehouse , the Lord Lieutenant for the County of Norfolk. The Right Honourable Lady Wodehouse . The Honourable Miss Wodehouse . The Right Reverend Dr. Stanley , Lord Bishop of Norwich, President of the Geological and Linnean Societies. The Most Honourable the Marquis of Douro , M.P. The Most Honourable the Marquis of Cholmondeley . The Right Honourable the Earl of Stradbroke , Lord Lieutenant for the County of Suffolk. The Right Honourable the Countess of Stradbroke .

His Grace the Duke of Norfolk. The Right Reverend Dr. Allen, Lord Bishop of Ely. Sir Henry Pelly, K.C.B., Trinity House, London. J. F. Leathes, Esq., Herringfleet Hall. Robert Lee, Esq., M.D., London. F. H. Ramadge, Esq., M.D., London. W. Beattie, Esq., M.D., Hampstead....

Page 43 , line 10, instead of northward, read eastward. [109] line 17, instead of southward, read westward. Page 53 .  Observations in addition to line 20:—Wind blowing from the east produces these effects to a greater extent than from the north-east, and wind blowing from the south-east causes the sand on the sea-shore to be extremely loose and porous, while the north wind renders the sand firm, solid, and compact. Page 68 , line 18, read two hundred and ten, instead of one hundred and sixty. P