The PRESIDENT announced that the Council had heard with regret that day of the death of one of the Honorary Members of The Institution, Mr. Octave Chanute, of the United States. The Council had passed the following resolution : " That the Council record the regret with which they have learned of the death of Mr. Octave Chanute, who has been an Honorary Member since May, 1895." (Paper No. 3923.) '' Coast-Erosion." By WILLIAM TREGARTREN DOUGLASS, M. Inst. C.E. THE Author proposes to discuss in this Paper the various causes which operate in the erosion of foreshores and of the bed of the sea in their vicinity. The principles which should guide the engineer in designing works useful for defensive purposes will also be dealt with ; including the pitfalls to be avoided, the circumstances which have to be permanently borne in mind, and the limitations which Nature imposes on all human activities that aim a t restraining the working-out of her laws. From what has been accomplished already in different parts of the country, remedial and other effects may reasonably be expected to ensue on the construction of soundly-designed sea-defences over isolated sections of the coast. Lastly, expenditure, with its necessary variations according to differing local conditions, and the financial requirements of the situation as it affects the United Kingdom as X whole, will be taken into consideration.
THERE are few if any lighthouses of more importance to sailors, or of more professional interest to the engineer, than the Bishop Rock. The scene of the disaster to Sir Cloudesley Shovel's squadron in 1703, may well be an object of popular curiosity, even if there had not been besides, many a catastrophe there fatal to ships and their crews. The recent works undertaken at this rock have a special interest for mariners, as those operations have almost completely nullified what was once a great peril, dreaded by seafarers of all nations. Accordingly a brief record of the lighthouses erected on the westernmost landfall rock of the Scilly Islands, between the years 1847 and 1888, embracing, together with recent improvements, the iron-pile and granite structures designed by
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