FROM START POINT TO PORTLAND. 535 



As we pass along the thirty-fathom line and come to a point east 

 by south of Berry Head, and south-west of Portland, we meet with 

 a long bank or ridge of gravel, shells, and stones, which extends on 

 to the rocks off Portland. This ridge is not shown on the smaller 

 charts, but on the large chart of the Channel by Laurie it is signifi- 

 cantly marked as " rotten ground," " coarse," and " sand and small 

 stones." The first designation probably refers to the oyster and pecten 

 shells which abound there in great quantities. The Brixham men call 

 the ridge the " Scruff," and state that there used to be a western scruff 

 of similar material in the Corner off the Start. The western limit of 

 the Scruff is not clearly defined, but there is a break between it and 

 what are called the " Clumps," the rough ground about fifteen to twenty 

 miles off the Start. The Scruff and the Clumps are, however, of similar 

 nature, and if we continue the same line westward we come upon the 

 rough stony tract which forms the centre of the Channel. 



The breadth of the Scruff seems to be about a quarter of a mile. 

 Its outer boundary is parallel and close to the line followed by steamers 

 passing up and down Channel from Portland to the Start. Within the 

 line of the Scruff there is a broad band of bright yellow sand of medium 

 to coarse quality, which the trawlers call " biscuit dust." This extends 

 as far as the twenty-five-fathom line, where it changes to fine sand 

 of a brown colour. This continues all round Lyme Bay until fifteen to 

 sixteen fathoms are reached, when it gives place to rocky ground with 

 intermediate patches of sand. 



The western side of the Great West Bay is just the reverse of the 

 eastern. Outside the Skerries we find gravel and coarse sand, but from 

 there onward to off Teignmouth Bay the offshore grounds consist of fine 

 sand and mud. This, in fact, is the peculiarity of the western part, that 

 its central region, from twenty-seven fathoms right into Torbay, consists 

 of mud (Tables I. and II., p. 540, Sample x.). There is no place in the 

 English Channel, nor, so far as I can discover, round the British coasts, 

 where mud — non-estuarine in character — has accumulated to such an 

 extent as off Berry Head. 



Within Start Bay, and along a narrow strip from Berry Head to the 

 Mewstone off Dartmouth, the bottom-soil is quite different. Gravel 

 and coarse to medium sand are found between the rocks off" Downend, 

 and on the bank off the East Blackstone. There is a tract of mud 

 across the mouth of the Dart until we come to the centre of Start Bay 

 off Torcross. The mud then gives place to fine yellow sand, and this, 

 towards the shore on the one hand and the Skerries on the other, grades 

 into coarse sand. Along the beach from Blackpool to Start Point the 

 soil gradually changes from medium sand, through mixed sand and 

 stones on Slapton beach, to a fairly uniform spread of gravel and pebbles 

 at Hallsands. 



