J. C. Mansel-Pkydell — Geology of Dorset. 407 



on the southern side of the Chalk range at Long Bredy, where it 

 takes a westerly direction to Burton Bradstock, and forms the bed of 

 the river Bredy through the whole of its course. From. East Fleet 

 to Melcombe Eegis and Weymouth it forms a belt of low ground, 

 and winds round the eastern extremity of the Forest Marble at 

 Eadipole and Lodmore, and from the base of Jordan Hill and Ham 

 Cliff, about three miles east of Weymouth. 



CoEAL Eag. — This series of limestones, clays, sands, and marls 

 overlying the Oxford Clay, has received the name of Coral Eag, the 

 lower calcareous beds in Wiltshire and Oxfordshire being chiefly 

 composed of corals, which are, however, of exceeding rarity in 

 Dorsetshire. Its most northern point is Silton, from whence it runs 

 to Sturminster Newton with a breadth not exceeding two miles. 

 At Marnhull and Todbere the limestones of this formation make a 

 beautiful building-stone ; between Haselbury Bryan and Mappowder 

 a fault dissevers it by an upthrow of Kimmeridge Clay, and nearly 

 surrounds the Cretaceous outlier of Castle Hill. Its southern ex- 

 tremity, in the Vale of Blackmore, is between Hermitage and Hilfield. 

 An outlier consisting of the lower beds of the series occurs at 

 Buckshaw. South of the villages of Litton Cheney and Long Bredy 

 a narrow zone of these beds occurs in this very disturbed district, 

 reposing upon a parallel bed of Oxford Clay : it again appears at 

 Linton Hill south of Abbotsbury, passing through Broadwey and 

 Jordan Hill, from whence it forms the coast-line almost without in- 

 terruption to Eingstead Bay. Its most southerly extension is in the 

 neighbourhood of Weymouth, where it is the most Oolitic ; it forms 

 a triangle, of which the Nothe and the Fleet at Lynch form the 

 base, and Smallmouth Sands the apex. The average thickness of the 

 formation here is about 150 feet. It is highly ferruginous, especially 

 in the upper beds. At Abbotsbury the Coral Eag is associated with 

 hydrate of iron, which is as capable of being brought under smelting 

 treatment as the corresponding Oolitic beds of Westbury. 



Kimmeridge Clay. — This lowest member of the Upper Oolite or 

 Portland beds, universally recognized under this characteristic 

 name, is so called from a small Dorsetshire village, which, with the 

 exception of a range of hills which form the northern boundary, is 

 situated exclusively on this formation. It is composed of a series of 

 clays and bituminous shales interspersed with several tabular layers 

 of argillaceous limestones, which are brought into a marketable 

 condition in the form of Medina cement. In the vale of Blackmore 

 it forms the eastern boundary from the foot of Shaftesbury Hill to 

 Harepath Lane, winding eastward round the base of the indented 

 green fringe of the confines of this fertile vale. At Buckland 

 Newton it meets the great fault which runs north and south from 

 Goathill near Sherborne to Holcombe and probably to Cerne Abbas ; 

 and. after joining the base of Castle Hill, finally disappears imder 

 the Grreensand about half a mile south of Eevel's Inn. At Litton 

 Cheney it appears to a very limited extent with much dislocation 

 of strata, and again at Abbotsbury, continuing eastward through 

 Fortisham, where it flanks the Purbeck beds fi'om Upwey to the 



