s, nearly three miles long, and for the most part out of reach of
the highest tides. The point of the Ness projects from the base of the
original cliff to the distance of 660 yards. This accession of land,
says Mr. Taylor, has been effected at distinct and distant intervals, by
the influence of currents running between the land and a shoal about a
mile off Lowestoff, called the Holm Sand. The lines of growth in the
Ness are indicated by a series of concentric ridges or embankments
inclosing limited areas, and several of these ridges have been formed
within the observation of persons now living. A rampart of heavy
materials is first thrown up to an unusual altitude by some
extraordinary tide, attended with a violent gale. Subsequent tides
extend the base of this high bank of shingle, and the interstices are
then filled with sand blown from the beach. The Arundo and other marine
plants by degrees obtain a footing; and creeping along the ridge, give
solidity to the mass, and form in some cases a matted covering of turf.
Meanwhile another mound is forming externally, which by the like process
rises and gives protection to the first. If the sea forces its way
through one of the external and incomplete mounds, the breach is soon
repaired. After a while the marine plants within the areas inclosed by
these embankments are succeeded by a better species of herbage affording
good pasturage, and the sands become sufficiently firm to support
buildings.

_Destruction of Dunwich by the sea._--Of the gradual destruction of
Dunwich, once the most considerable seaport on this coast, we have many
authentic records. Gardner, in his history of that borough, published
in 1754, shows, by reference to documents, beginning with Doomsday Book,
that the cliffs at Dunwich, Southwold, Eastern, and Pakefield, have been
always subject to wear away. At Dunwich, in particular, two tracts of
land which had been taxed in the eleventh century, in the time of King
Edward the Confessor, are mentioned in the Conqueror's survey, made but
a few years afterwards, as having been devoured by the sea. The losses,
at a subsequent period, of a monastery,--at another of several
churches,--afterwards of the old port,--then of four hundred houses at
once,--of the church of St. Leonard, the high-road, town-hall, jail, and
many other buildings, are mentioned, with the dates when they perished.
It is stated that, in the sixteenth century, not one-quarter of the town
was l