I 80 EFFECT OF GALE ON REACH EAST OF WEYMOUTH. 



including the road. At about a quarter of a mile from Greenhill 

 Gardens it begins to widen, and gets wider as it approaches 

 Weymouth. The height at the old Gatehouse is about 7 feet 

 above high- water mark, and at the point represented in Fig. 3, 

 about a foot lower, the height falling gradually towards the 

 Coastguard Station, near which point the ground rises suddenly 

 and the beach entirely loses its peculiar character, becoming an 

 ordinary sloping sea-beach. This also occurs where the ground 

 rises at the Weymouth end. On the inner or land side lies 

 Lodmoor, a marshy and very low tract of land which is generally 

 flooded in the winter. The road to Preston from Weymouth runs 

 along the land side of the beach, which rises 5 or 6 feet higher 

 between it and the sea, whilst on the sea side, near the Preston 

 end, are still to be seen, at about the same level as the present 

 road, portions of concrete, which formed the road many years 

 ago. From this we may infer that the beach has been moving 

 inland at a rate possibly approaching 2 to 3 feet in a year, but 

 there do not seem to be sufficient data for accurate measure- 

 ment. It would also seem probable, considering the effect of 

 the storm of February last, that much, if not the whole, of the 

 movement was caused by large steps in previous storms and was 

 not the result of any gradual process, as except in very rough 

 weather the waves do not nearly reach the top of the beach. 



During the gale, an immense quantity of shingle was thrown 

 over on to the road, covering it for the space of about half a mile 

 of the Preston end to the depth of some feet ; in one place it is 

 stated to have amounted to 6ft., but usually the depth was about 

 3 feet. On the side of the road adjoining Lodmoor much damage 

 was done in places by the scooping out of large hollows in the 

 road, and down these hollows masses of shingle were poured, 

 forming promontories projecting into Lodmoor. This is well 

 shewn in Fig. 2, where the lady (Mrs. Richardson) is standing 

 at the middle of the road. This photograph was taken from the 

 edge of one of the shingle promontories. Preston Coastguard 

 Station is seen in the distance, and about midway lies a very long 

 shingle promontory. 



