176 Sketch of the Geology of the Neighbourhood of Shaftesbury. 



attention to the forest marble^ as it is called, which borders the sea 

 for some distance between Portland and Bridport, and then runs 

 on to Wincanton and northward. It forms a poor wet soil, mostly 

 pasture, and consists of a shelly limestone, which has in some places 

 the character of ornamental marble. Some varieties, quarried in 

 the neighbourhood of Sherborne, are polished and sold as " Yeovil 

 Marble." Over this, and appearing to the west of it as a narrow 

 band of about half-a-mile in width, and about 30ft. deep, we find 

 the cornbrash giving evidence, by its composition, of having been 

 deposited in shallow water. This formation, when partially de- 

 composed at its surface, forms a very fertile soil, and hence it derives 

 its name of cornbrash, or corn-growing rubble. You will notice 

 that Stalbridge and Templecombe are situated on it. 



Overlying this comes the Oxford clay, across which the Somerset 

 and Dorset Railway runs from Templecombe to Sturminster, and 

 which in that district is drained by the Stour. This Oxford clay is 

 stiff and diflBcult to work, consequently most of it is permanent 

 pasture land. 



Above this, still further to the east, we find the coral rag, on 

 which Stour Provost and Sturminster Newton stand, and in the 

 railway cutting near Sturminster Station a good section is seen. The 

 soil is a light arable one, the pasture is poor and unproductive, but 

 in places the rock is harder, and is quarried for building purposes — 

 the stone from Todber being well known. 



Next we reach the broad belt of Kimeridge clay, taking its name 

 from Kimeridge, in the Isle of Purbeck. It skirts our greensand 

 all along the west, and forms a flat or undulating country, across 

 which we get so fine a view from the western end of the escarpment 

 of Castle Hill at Shaftesbury. The soil is clay, and in rainy seasons 

 the countiy is often converted by floods into a series of shallow 

 lakes, which, though most cordially detested by the dwellers in the 

 vale, certainly supply temporarily the one thing, from a picturesque 

 point of view, wanting in our scenery — namely water. This Kim- 

 eridge clay is a most extensive formation ; it is to be met with at 

 the surface in various places all the way from Dorset to Yorkshire, 

 - and deep borings in the wealden district of Kent and Surrey have 



