But if, as some
geologists suppose, a range of older rocks underlies the Weald, on the
flanks of which the overlying sedimentary deposits might have
accumulated in thinner masses than elsewhere, the above estimate would
be erroneous; but this source of doubt probably would not greatly
affect the estimate as applied to the western extremity of the
district. If, then, we knew the rate at which the sea commonly wears
away a line of cliff of any given height, we could measure the time
requisite to have denuded the Weald. This, of course, cannot be done;
but we may, in order to form some crude notion on the subject, assume
that the sea would eat into cliffs 500 feet in height at the rate of
one inch in a century. This will at first appear much too small an
allowance; but it is the same as if we were to assume a cliff one yard
in height to be eaten back along a whole line of coast at the rate of
one yard in nearly every twenty-two years. I doubt whether any rock,
even as soft as chalk, would yield at this rate excepting on the most
exposed coasts; though no doubt the degradation of a lofty cliff would
be more rapid from the breakage of the fallen fragments. On the other
hand, I do not believe that any line of coast, ten or twenty miles in
length, ever suffers degradation at the same time along its whole
indented length; and we must remember that almost all strata contain
harder layers or nodules, which from long resisting attrition form a
breakwater at the base.
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