t 



I. — On the Geology of the 'Neighhourhood of Weymouth and the 

 adjacent Parts of the Coast of Dorset. 



By the Rev. W. BUCKLAND, D.D. P.G.S. F.R.S. 



(professor of geology and mineralogy in the university of oxford.) 

 And H. T. De la BECHE, Esq. F.G.S. F.R.S. &c. 



[Read April 2 and 16, 1830.] 



rEW parts of the world present in a small compass so instructive a series of 

 geological phsenomena as those which are displayed in the vertical cliffs of 

 the south coast of England. An important portion of this coast, including 

 the Isle of Wight and the Isle of Purbeck, has been well described by Mr. 

 Webster*, and subsequently illustrated by Dr. Fittonf. In the Second Series 

 of the Geological Transactions J, Mr. De la Beche has published sections 

 of the coast from Bridport Harbour to Sidmouth ; and in the same volume 

 Dr. Buckland has given drawings of the cliffs from Sidmouth to Beer Head, 

 and from Lyme Regis to the Isle of Portland§. The g-eological history of 

 the neighbourhood of Weymouth has been partially illustrated by Prof. 

 Sedgwick in the Annals of Philosophy || ; and it will be the object of this paper 

 to supply its full details, illustrated by a map and sections; beginning; our 

 observations at the point where Mr. Webster's sections end, viz., at the Pro- 

 montory of White Nore, about eight miles E.N.E. of the town of Weymouth, 

 and continuing them to Weymouth and Portland, and thence westward along 

 the Chesil Bank to the cliffs west of Lyme Regis. 



To our representations of the coast we shall add many inland sections of 

 the adjacent district, including- all the strata which occupy that portion of the 

 south frontier of the county of Dorset which lies between the great south 



* See Sir H. Englefield's History of the Isle of Wight ; the Geological Transactions, First 

 Series, vol. ii. p. 161 — 234 ; and Second Series, vol. ii. Part I. p. 37 — 44 : also Annals of Philo- 

 sophy, vol. XXV. p. ZS — 51. 



■\ Annals of Philosophy, Nov. 1824, vol. Ixiv. p. 376. 



X Geological Transactions, Second Series, vol. i. Part I. PI. VIII. § Ibid. Plate XIV. 



II Annals of Philosophy, 1826, vol. xxvii. p. 346. 

 VOL. IV. SECOND SERIES. B 



