Strata between Durlstone Head and Old Harry. 81 



among them the very same beds. Nothing can be more sa- 

 tisfactory than the evidence which the inspection of them af- 

 fords, that these changes took place when the strata were in 

 a soft and yielding state, yet after their complete formation 

 and separation from each other. The cliffs along the shore 

 are constantly foundering ; but it is easy to distinguish be- 

 tween recent and ancient changes : since the former produce 

 only straight fragments, mixed with soft clay, whereas the 

 latter have bent the strata into the most fantastic forms, and 

 the fragments are cemented together into a most singular rock, 

 of which plate xxxi exhibits an example. 



" At Durlstone Head, (pi. xxxii, No. 1), {fig. 7), these 

 appearances are the most extraordinary. Here the stratum is 

 dark grey bituminous limestone" (not, it seems, an oolite), 

 " intersected by numerous veins of calcareous spar, the sur- 

 face of which has been scooped into hollows. Upon this 

 surface are deposited the contorted and broken fragments of 

 the series of Purbeck beds, as one would build a wall over 

 rugged rocks. 



" It may here be evidently seen, that the contortions do not 

 in the least resemble those which may be supposed to be de- 

 rived from deposition upon an irregular nucleus, such as are 

 frequent in sandstone : and it is quite impossible to suppose 

 they could owe their forms to any original undisturbed for- 

 mation. The whole distinctly marks the changes which have 

 been produced by ancient revolutionary causes, the true na- 

 ture of which it is, perhaps, impossible yet to develope. 



" Underneath the series of Purbeck stone, in this hill, there 

 is a thick bed of clay, containing massy gypsum, both fibrous 

 and amorphous ; but at Durlstone Head, the clay is want- 

 ing. Could the contorted strata at this place, have, at one 

 time, occupied a higher situation ? And have they fallen in- 

 to their present position, by the subtraction of the clay exist- 

 ing below them ? 



" Turning round Durlstone Head, this dark coloured lime- 

 stone rises to the West, continuing till it forms the uppermost 

 stratum of the cliff, about half a mile off, at a place called 

 Tillywhim. The stratum below it here, is an oolite, and, in 

 fact, is the beginning of that series." (Englefield's Isle of 

 Wight, p. 172—174). 



In despite of all this, Dr. Mitchell says, " Throughout the 

 coast, for many miles, beginning at Swanwich, the strata, 

 though dipping a little, approach to horizontality of posi- 

 tion"!! 



In the elaborate monograph of Dr. Fitton, on the strata be- 

 low the chalk, just published in the Geological Transactions, 



