184 THE LANDSLIP, LYME REGIS. 



and its movement must have been the first to take place. 

 Probably this began on the Saturday night, Christmas Eve, and 

 was the movement which so considerately warned the labourers 

 of what was still to come. The great founder is, no doubt, what 

 took place on the following Monday. This was the subsidence, 

 or vertical descent, of another great portion of cliff further 



3. VIEW OF RAVINE LOOKING WEST. (G. Roberts.) 



inland. Mr. Jukes-Browne's diagram and Mr. Roberts' view 

 show this well, and indicate that the land did not merely fall 

 into the chasm caused by the sliding away of the detached field, 

 for in that case the chalk furthest from the sea would be highest, 

 whereas it is lowest. What happened was like a person slipping 

 and falling backward, not tripping and falling forward. The 

 lowest layers of the greensand must have been so loosened (the 

 autumn of 1839 was extremely wet) that they were quite unable 

 to bear a heavy weight when the support of the detached field 

 was removed. A second great slip, therefore, took place, and 

 then the disintegration of the lower portion of the cliff will 



