180 KIMMERIDGE COAL-MONEY. 



glass, amber, or stone. Mr. William Augustus Miles, stimulated 

 by Mr. Hutchins' short notice of these objects, commenced a 

 systematic search in the year 1826, and under the guidance of a 

 labourer of the neighbourhood, he examined Flower's Barrow, a 

 Koman encampment on the summit of the chalk-cliffs of Worbarrow 

 Bay, which is separated from Kimmeridge Bay by the limestone 

 headland of Gadcliif. The east side of Worbarrow Bay is com- 

 posed of the Wealden and Purbeck beds. I notice this, as it will 

 bear upon what follows further on. At Flower's Barrow Mr. 

 Miles found some animal remains, pieces of pottery, a few marine 

 shells, and several rounded stones or pebbles from the sea shore. 

 These were all lying at the summit of the cliff, associated with 

 black-mould, and some pieces of highly-glazed pottery" (pseudo- 

 Samian). Among this curious assemblage Mr. Miles found a piece 

 of Kimmeridge shale, upon which were traced, with mathematical 

 precision, both circles and angles ; the centres of the circles were 

 marked as if indented by the points of a compass. He found no 

 coal-money in kistveins as described by Hutchins. The fishermen 

 of the district told him that the coal money was formerly much 

 more abundant, and that several large pieces of Kimmeridge shale 

 had been found on which they affirmed were some kind of 

 characters engraved, but owing to the friableness of the material 

 had been obliterated. One of the causes for finding the coal-money 

 less frequently than now may be attributable to the encroachments 

 of the sea by the crumbling away of the cliffs and atmospheric dis- 

 integration. At least one-half of Flower's Barrow has been swept 

 away into the sea below. The thigh-bone of a human skeleton was 

 seen by fishermen projecting from the face of the cliff at Worbarrow 

 Bay ; having climbed to the spot they found it to be an interment, 

 and, hoping to find some hidden wealth, they demolished the 

 rude tomb and hurled the bones down the precipice. The 

 interment consisted of two ranges of stones set perpendicularly 

 supporting two other flat-stones, which served as a cover, and 

 not unlike a drain or gutter. An urn, which contained coal- 

 money and on which rested the humerus of the skeleton, 



