98 Notes made during a Visit to the 



to the view of those who boat it from Weymouth to Poole ; — 

 all these beauties and wonders are to be seen at a few hours' 

 journey from the Isle of Portland : while the extraordinary 

 organic remains found in the lias of Bridgenorth and Lyme 

 Regis ; the Pterodactyli or flying lizards, the various species 

 of Icthyosauri and Plesiosauri, with their extraordinary and 

 invaluable coprolites, manifesting to us the ichthivorous — if I 

 may^be allowed the expression — the ichthivorous and cannibal 

 propensities of those monsters of " the vasty deep," in a world 

 which existed millions of years before the flood ; the tertiary 

 beds of Christchurch and Hordwell, in Hampshire, and the 

 meiocene and eocene clays, sands, and freshwater strata of the 

 Isle of Wight, — are all within a day's distance of the same 

 place. That such an island should have been, though often 

 visited, so seldom described, so inaccurately and carelessly 

 examined, is certainly extraordinary, but is nevertheless a 

 fact. Any information, therefore, however slight, from a field 

 naturalist respecting it will, I feel convinced, be deemed of 

 interest by your readers ; and on this account I shall make no 

 apology for sending you the subjoined notes in the same rough, 

 but I hope accurate, shape in which they were taken down 

 on the spot. 



The Island of Portland is about 14 miles in circumference, 

 with a population (in 1832) of 27,280 souls. There is very 

 little wood on the island, but the ground, being well manured 

 with lime,produces very fair wheat, and affords fine grazing 

 land for cattle. There are above 500 men, including sur- 

 veyors, supervisors, clerks, persons employed in the shipping, 

 &c. engaged on these quarries. The pygmy curlew, a rare bird, 

 I believe, in most parts of England, is found occasionally in 

 considerable abundance on the Chesil Bank, a long, elevated 

 and narrow ridge of shingle, 10 miles in length, and 12 ft. 

 high, which, with the exception of a narrow passage, where 

 there is a ford at high water, though it may be passed on foot 

 at low water, connects the island of Portland with the main- 

 land. The whole isle rests on Kimmeridge clay, and on one 

 side is rapidly diminishing in size ; no less than 40 ft., it is 

 said, having fallen into, or been carried away by the sea, 

 within the last 50 years. 



I. Section of the Strata in Ring's (the largest) Quarry in the 

 Island, from the Surface to thefrst " Dirt-bed" 



All the strata are very much dislocated ; saddles are numerous, and the 

 marks of elevation and depression very strongly developed. 



The names of beds marked with inverted commas are the names in use 

 amongst the workmen. 



