Cu.\*-] 



PORTLAND. 



535 



force of the sea increases southwards, and as the direction 

 of the bank is from north-west to south-east, the size of the 



must 



masses ^""^"6 «~— — 



always be largest where the motion of the waves and currents 



most violent. 



Colonel Eeid states that all calcareous 



stones rolled along from the west are soon ground into sand, 

 an d in this form they pass round Portland Island.* 



The storm of 1824 burst over the Chesil Bank with great 

 fury, and the village of Chesilton, built upon its southern 

 extremity, was overwhelmed, with many of the inhabitants. 

 During another gale on the 23rd Nov. 1852, the south-west 

 wind threw in upon the bank during the night and early 

 part of the following day a mass of shingle amounting by 

 measurement, according to Mr. Coode, C.E., to no less than 



t 



storm 



the Breakwater at Plymouth, and huge masses of rock, from 



bottom 



One 



emi 



weather side, and rolled fairly to the top of the pile, 

 block of limestone, weighing seven tons, was washed round 



the western ext 



feet t The propelling power is derived in these cases from 

 the breaking of the waves, which run fastest in shallow water, 

 and for a short space far exceed the most rapid currents m 



It was in the same month and also during a 



swiftness. 



spring-tide, that a 

 England, in the year 1099. 



mentioned 



Florence of Worcester says, 



Nov 



men 



VUU U.JJWJLL U11U ^XiWJ-v^ m/**~. r ^ 



oxen and sheep innumerable.' We also read m the Saxon 

 Chronicle, for the year 1099, < This year eke on St. Martin s 



"Novembre 



ever afore did, and there was the ylk day a new moon. 5 

 South of the Bill, or southern point of Portland, 



is a 



* See Palmer on Motion of Shingle 

 Beaches, Phil. Trans. 1834, p. 568 ; and 

 Col. Sir W. Eeid, Papers of Eoyal 

 Engineers, 1838, vol. ii. p. 128. 



t Coode, Papers of Royal Engineers, 



1852-3, vol. xii. p. 545. 



X De la Beche, Geological Manual, 



p. 82. 



