W. Whitaker — Raised Beach at Portland. 439 



In 1852, Mr. C. H. Weston/ noticed the occurrence of a "marine 

 stingle-bed " on the top of the cliff, in the following words : "This 

 remarkable bed consists of beach-pebbles (with a few chalk-flints), 

 rounded by continued sea action. The quarrymen said it extended 

 about a quarter of a mile north of the Bill." 



In 1860 this shingle was again noticed in Mr. E. Damon's 

 " Handbook of the Geology of Weymouth and the Island of Port- 

 land,"* and the occurrence of "comminuted shells" recorded. 



Mr. Bristow has suggested to me that the shingle-bed may have 

 been formed by the sea dashing up pebbles from the shore below, 

 as he has known it to do in stormy weather ; but I doubt whether 

 that action is enough to cause so large a deposit. At all events it 

 will not do so altogether, as the shingle is in part protected from 

 such action by a thick covering of subaerial origin. Mr. Bristow 

 tells me that, as far as he remembers, there was no good section of 

 the deposit at the time of his visit, which must have been before 1850. 



The southern side of " Cave Hole" is the most northerly point of 

 this beach, which is there thirty or forty feet above the sea, and 

 about three feet thick, being capped by a good thickness of angular 

 "bead" (the waste of Purbeck and Portland beds), and consisting 

 of pebbles of limestone, flint, and chert. Just southward is a pro- 

 jecting cave-worn ledge, with a rounded water-worn surface of 

 Portland Stone bared of the old beach. The next projection shows a 

 little of the same, but with pebbles and shells conglomerated 

 together into a hard mass adherent to the surface of the stone, 

 the shells being chiefly Littorina littorea, but Littorina littoralis and 

 Patella vulgata also occurring. 



Further southward there is less of the "head," indeed hardly any, 

 but there are remains of very small shallow pits, most likely dug for 

 sand, as a small hole close by passed through two or three feet of 

 clayey soil and more than three feet of coarse sand with shells, 

 which, as far as one can judge from position, overlies the shingle. 



The old beach ends, after a course of less than 250 yards, before 

 reaching the slight headland, where however there are traces of 

 it in the soil. 



Continuing my southerly walk, just before getting to the Beacon 

 at the Bill, I found shells (of the same species as those mentioned 

 above, and also Purjpura lapillus) jammed in with limestone-rubble 

 at the top of the low cliff (as noticed by Mr. Damon). 



At the Bill there is a little shingle, which increases after turning 

 westward, when the cliff rises a little. At one place a pit six feet 

 deep shows that this shingle is sandy and bedded, whilst near by it 

 is conglomerated into a hard mass at the top of the cliff", and further 

 inland another pit has been dug to a depth of eight feet. Close by, 

 at the cliff a little higher up, the shingle is covered by yellowish- 

 brown loam (calcareous ?) with bits of stone and with land and 

 freshwater shells {Bithinia, Pupa). A little further the latter 

 thickens and the former thins, but both end off at the projecting 

 spur of rock. 



^ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. viii., pp. 117, 8. 

 2 12mo. Lond., p. 141. Reprinted in 1864. 



