CORRELATION OF THE BOURNEMOUTH BEDS. 213 
Hengistbuwry Head.—The curious promontory of Hengistbury Head 
is mainly composed of strata which form the uppermost portion of a 
local and shore series, contemporaneous with the Bracklesham, which 
we may for convenience call the Bournemouth beds. It is a particularly 
interesting spot, as it reveals the presence of beds whose existence be- 
tween the base of the Highcliff beds and the white sands of Double 
Dykes would probably have been otherwise unsuspected. The compact 
nature of the strata forming it has preserved it during the denuda- 
tion of the surrounding area ; and the layers of irony septaria, falling 
into the water, have made a reef stretching a quarter of a mile sea- 
wards, and thus saved it from being entirely swept away by the 
sea. The contour of these rocks, known as the Beerpan rocks, 
is in almost all weathers sharply defined by the smoother water 
within their barrier, and probably marks the original extent of the 
headland. The dip of the beds would take them, just beyond these 
rocks, out of the reach of the sea. The general shape of the pro- 
montory is a parallelogram with its northern extremity obliquely 
truncated ; it is three quarters of a mile long, by about a quarter 
broad, the longer side running N.W. by 8.E. ‘The cliffs facing the sea 
are about 50 feet high at their 8. point, increasing N. to 100 feet. N. 
and E. they present bold escarpments to the sea; 8. and EH. they rise 
from a plain of blown sand, which forms the banks of the harbour and 
stretches one mile to Mudeford. The dip and strike of the strata 
follow the contour of the land, and are about 3° §., 2° 8.E., 3° E. 
Fig. 3.—Hengistbury Head, west side. 
N. 124 8. 
LIME TTI 
AN 
= 
1. Boscombe Sands. 
2. Lower bed with green grains, and Upper bed with ironstone, 
3. White Highcliff sand. 
The form of the Head must have rendered it a position of great 
importance to an invading or beaten army in early times; and its 
advantages were not neglected, as the ancient walls and fosses known 
as Double Dykes, defending it from the mainland, prove. It should 
be, with its barrows and legendary name, a place of interest to the 
antiquary ; it possesses many attractions to the artist, whilst its 
heather, to judge from the abundance of birds, is little disturbed by 
the gun. 
The highest beds met with in the headland are undoubtedly, ac- 
cording to my thinking, the continuation of the white sands at the 
base of Highcliff. They extend almost all over it and at the highest 
@,a.G.8. No. 138. Q 
