STUDLAND. 



435 



Studland Bed Kock. 



1, Strata lines 2, Joints. 3, Concentric curves. — (53 6). 



Se e fig. 53a. 



Double shift in the 

 joints at 6, fig. 53, 

 magnified. 



Joints in the sand rock behind Stud- 

 land Church. The joints are 

 lighter coloured. 



The shore is strewed with fallen masses of the rock, which 

 are exceedingly hard ; and this is also the case with the sur- 

 face of the sand throughout nearly all the cliff, for inscriptions 

 made in 1809, were quite fresh and perfect in 1837 ; so that 

 it does not decay rapidly from atmospheric causes. At the 

 extremity of the Red Rock, and in the fallen masses, there 

 are a great number of cylindrical tubes, corresponding, as Mr. 

 Lyell observes, with those of the Isle of Wight and Sussex, 

 but of which he offers no explanation. They are, certainly, 

 extremely curious, but I think the circumstance is capable of 

 solution. On turning round the end of the Red Rock, which 

 projects a little beyond the rest of the coast, the surface of 

 the cliff, in a corner facing the north, is seen perforated by 

 these tubes, many of them of enormous length, and all tra- 

 versing the rock, not perpendicular to the strata, but to the 

 horizon. In two or three instances, these tubes occur in a 

 sort of groove (fig. 54), which descends the whole cliff; and 

 on examining them, the interior is found to be coated with a 

 hard oxidized crust, the sand on each side appearing as if it 

 had been sucked downwards towards the tubes. It would, 



