Here we stand on the top of a cliff composed of a soft calcareous rock--on the exposed edge of a bed of chalk that extends far inland. All the country round is gently undulating, and devoid of any of the features that make up a wild and romantic scene. The coast-line, too, is wrought into a series of gentle bays, separated by inconspicuous promontories where the rock, being slightly harder, has better withstood the eroding action of the sea; or where a current, washing the neighbouring shore, has been by some force deflected seaward. The cliff, though not high, rises almost perpendicularly from the beach, and presents to the sea a face which is but little broken, and which in itself shows no strong evidence of the action of raging, tempestuous seas; its chief diversity being its gradual rise and fall with each successive undulation of the land. The same soft and gentle nature characterises the beach below. Beyond a few small blocks of freshly-loosened chalk, with here and there a liberated nodule of flint, we find nothing but a continuous, fine, siliceous sand, the surface of which is but seldom broken by the protrusion of masses from below. Such cliffs and beaches do not in themselves suggest any violent action on the part of the sea, and yet it is here that the ocean is enabled to make its destructive efforts with the greatest effect. The soft rock is gradually but surely reduced, partly by the mechanical action of the waves and partly by the chemical action of the sea-water. The rock being almost uniformly soft, it is uniformly worn away, thus presenting a comparatively unbroken face. Its material is gradually dissolved in the sea; and the calcareous matter being thus removed, we have a beach composed of the remains of the flints which have been pulverised by the action of the waves. Thus slowly but surely the sea gains upon the land. Thus it is that many a famous landmark, once hundreds of yards from the coast, now stands so near the edge of the cliff as to be threatened by every storm; or some ancient castle, once miles from the shore, lies entirely buried by the encroaching sea. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--CHALK CLIFF]