CORRELATION OF THE BOURNEMOUTH BEDS. 217 
is S.E. and E. about 7° and N.N.E. 6°. The laminated drab clay 
evidently contains well-preserved dicotyledons, but the other beds 
appear unfossiliferous. A pit higher in the hill-side confirms the 
supposition that the overlying beds are sand. 
We have thus at Hengistbury Head (fig. 3), in the first place, the 
Highcliff Sands; white sand with a maximum thickness, under the 
watch-house, of 25 feet; next, the Hengistbury-Head beds, com- 
posed of 45 feet, or perhaps a little more, of clay with ironstone 
concretions, and 12 feet of clay with green grains ; lastly, 30 or 40 
feet of Boscombe Sands, whose base is not exposed. At Alum Bay, 
the first is represented by 42 feet of yellow and white sand, ochre- 
ous at base, like these, No. 28 in Prestwich’s section*. The Hengist- 
bury-Head beds are equivalent to No. 27 of the Alum-Bay section, 
71 feet in thickness, and are confined to this Head as far as the coast 
of the mainland is concerned. ‘Their position is between 150 and 
200 feet down in the Bracklesham series. The Boscombe Sands 
extend to beyond Boscombe, and are the equivalents of beds Nos. 26 
and 25 at Alum Bay, where they comprise 147 feet of sand with 
occasional layers of pebbles. These, although on the mainland of 
plain white, buff, or chocolate-colour, are the most brilliantly 
coloured of all the sands at Alum Bay. 
A careful examination of the cliffs in the bay from this point to 
Bournemouth shows conelusively that there is a general sequence, 
and that the strata, although nearly horizontal, have a slight dip, 
sufficient, however, in so great a distance, to pass through two complete 
series of beds.- The upper series is the continuation of the Boscombe 
Sands just noticed, and has a probable thickness of at least 100 feet, 
but is here entirely composed of sands shading from orange to white 
and enclosing heavy shingle-beds. The second series is composed of 
sands and dark clays of marine origin, which we may provisionally 
callthe Bournemouth Marine Beds, and which contain numerous and 
interesting fossil remains. Both these series extend to within a third 
of a mile of Bournemouth pier, the lower one partly thinning out 
and being partly replaced by freshwater beds. 
Passing over the irregular patches of white sand which are seen 
underlying the shingle already mentioned as forming low cliffs be- 
tween Hengistbury Head and the main coast-line, we find the first 
regular rise of the beds at a place called the Cellars, exactly 1 mile 
west of the Head, and about 700 yards E. of the Coastguard flag- 
staff. The lowermost beds are chocolate-coloured sands and dark 
sandy clays with vegetable remains, belonging to the Bournemouth 
Marine Beds, which rise in successive layers at angles of about 5°. 
At a distance of 110 yards west of the Cellars they have risen but 
5 feet, and are frequently obscured by heaped-up shingle. The 
overlying white sand beds rise with them and are here 10 feet thick. 
176 yards further west we have a small patch of dark clay 25 feet 
across, presenting a lenticular section, underlain by shingle, a very 
unusual arrangement. Iam particular in noticing this clay patch, 
as I have no doubt it was a similar patch, if not this very one, which 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. ii. p. 258. 
