J. A. Steers - The Sea Coast

T HERE ARE many ways of studying the coast of a country. In this book the approach is physiographicalthat is to say a study of coastal scenery in relation to its origin. This is a vast subject, and cannot be treated fully in a volume of this size, nor by one author. The proper understanding of the coast must be the result of the combined research of workers in several subjectsincluding geography, geology, ecology, and botany. In the meantime it is perhaps worth while for someone to try to give a comprehensive picture and to call attention to some of the ways in which our knowledge of the coast needs augmenting. I can only make two claims to do this; first I love the coast, and secondly it has been my good fortune to see the whole of the mainland coast of Great Britain and by far the greater part of that of the adjacent islands. This experience has emphasized only too clearly how impossible it is for any one person adequately to deal with so big a subject!

In this volume there are three main themes: (1) A brief synopsis of the relation of coast to the structure of the country and a summary analysis of the physical agencies working on the coast; (2) a discussion of the nature of different types of coastal scenery; and (3) a short account of the evolution of parts of our coastline. The final chapter on raised beaches and submerged forests is conveniently treated by itself, but its subject matter is relevant to all the other chapters.

So far as I am aware no one has attempted to deal physiographically and in some detail with the whole coast of Scotland. To do so at this stage would, I think, be difficult, much as the subject deserves it. This is so for several reasons. First of all a great deal more local work is required on specific problems and places. The interesting and extensive dunes of Aberdeenshire are now for the first time being studied. The Machair of the Western Isles, the Ayres of Orkney and the numerous saltmarshes all demand attention. Extremely little has been written about the cliffed coasts of Scotlanda study involving the relation of structure to marine erosion and other factors along miles of interesting and beautiful coast, and presenting problems for many workers. The investigation of raised beaches and associated phenomena has hardly begun in the sense of explaining how they were cut and the human uses to which they are now put. Moreover, the actual sequence is not always quite clearwhere, for example, does the pre-Glacial beach of Islay, Colonsay, and the Treshnish Isles fit? Perhaps the controvery concerning the origin of fiords is settled, but there is still scope for much work on the local differences in form of the western sea-lochs. Still more important, and this applies to England and Wales with equal force, is the examination and mapping of the topography of the adjacent sea floor. The full study of a coast must depend a great deal on a knowledge of the adjacent submarine floorand yet how little is this matter discussed in many coastal studies in which its introduction would be highly relevant!