174 



KIMMERIDGB SHALE. 



spoils of the land through which it passed, including trunks of trees, 

 limbs, leaves, seeds, and other vegetable and animal remains ; the 

 heaviest Avould be the first to sink, the lightest would be carried 

 farthest out to sea, and after undergoing chemical changes by the 

 agency of the sulphate of lime in the sea-water would become 

 incorporated with the muddy deposit. 



Local Names of Beds which have more or less some Economic 

 Value. 



Kimmeridge Coal 

 Cement Beds 



Limestone 



The frequent occurrence of lathe-made discs of Kimmeridge 

 Shale, found in the neighbourhood and in other parts of the 

 county in connection with ancient interments, as late as the 

 period of the Roman occupation, indicates that in those early 

 days the Shales had some value in the estimation of I he people 

 living in those days ; but there is no record of the Shale having 

 been employed for economic purposes until towards the end of the 

 16th century, when Lord Mountjoy erected a manufactory for the 

 extraction of alum from the Shale, which from some unrecorded 

 cause was abandoned. Sir William Clavel), who was the owner 

 and Lord of the Manor, took on the woiks and used the 

 Blackstone to heat the furnace. The Blackstone crops out at 

 Cuddle-hill on the east side of Kimmeridge Bay where are a 

 number of depressions and refuse-heaps, the sites of adits and 

 shafts in connection with those early works. The system of mining 

 them must have been attended with difficulties, for instead of 

 working the shafts up the inclines of the strata to avoid the flooding 



