BR1DPORT AND LYME REGIS MEETING. IxiX. 



which led to it, which are simply these : On the upper surface 

 of the ground is a rock of chalk and chert, which, being porous, 

 allowed the water to penetrate to the stratum below, which is a 

 bed of greensand 100 feet in thickness. This became thoroughly 

 saturated with water, which could not escape downward because 

 underlying it is a bed of clay impervious to water. The bed of 

 clay is not horizontal, but slopes gently towards the sea, and 

 the water following the slope scoured out the sand, and the 

 upper strata, having lost this support, slid down the slope 

 into the sea. Mr. Solly stated that a model of the landship, 

 made by Mr. W. Dawson, may be seen in the Geological 

 Museum, Jermyn Street. 



The existence of these conditions explains exactly what happened. The 

 autumn of 1839 was very rainy, and at Christmas the catastrophe occurred. 

 Christmas Day that year fell upon a Monday. Christmas Eve was celebrated on 

 the Saturday night, and some labourers who lived in cottages near the edge of 

 the cliff spent the evening in cheerful festivities at the farmer's house. Returning 

 home about midnight, they could not find their way. Great chasms had opened 

 in the ground ; the landslip had begun, and their cottages had gone down a 

 considerable distance, so gently, however, that what occurred did not even wake 

 the baby. They seem to have all gone to bed and slept till they were awakened 

 the next morning by a further movement of this very considerable landslip. 

 Sunday was busily employed by them in moving themselves and their furniture, 

 and it was well that they did not wait for further warnings, for on the Monday 

 night the great founder took place. The Coastguardmen made their rounds as 

 usual, and, fortunately for them, there was sufficient moonlight to show the 

 fissures and chasms opening around them, and, with some difficulty, they 

 escaped on to firmer ground. So quietly, however, did the heavy mass descend 

 that we are told no sound disturbed the silence of the night. The sight from the 

 heights on the morning of December 26th was most astonishing to those 

 acquainted with the place. A great gulf yawned beneath, "dividing fields and 

 pastures with which they had long been familiar." "The cottagers saw their 

 homes in new positions far away from their previous sites, and surrounded by 

 huge masses of earth and wild rocks which had been heaped around them by an 

 invisible and invincible agent There were still the little gardens around, and the 

 orchard contiguous, the latter, apparently, with an unbroken surface, with the 

 moss-covered trees still standing." This is what took place here at Dowlands. 

 On the 3rd of the following February, 1840, a similar disturbance affected the 

 neighbouring cliff on Whitlands. Some Coastguard cottages were tilted up in an 

 extraordinary manner, and their inhabitants fled with all possible speed. This 

 second catastrophe further increased the excitement and greatly extended the 



