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reputation. They did not neglect the recovery of the volatile 

 matter, for it is on record that from one ton of shale they produced 

 71 gallons of naphtha, 10 gallons of lamp oil, and 12f gallons of 

 lubricating oil, as well as a small quantity of wax ; a very good 

 yield. The life of this enterprise was unfortunately short, for after 

 three or four years' working the company closed down. Yet 

 another company stepped into the breach, and, taking over the 

 plant, installed modern and complete machinery with a view of 

 producing oil on a large scale. They were ambitious enough to 

 contract to light Paris with gas, and undoubtedly imparted much 

 energy into their work, producing some 50 tons of oil and 500 tons 

 of fertilisers per month besides exporting about 1,20(3 tons of shale 

 per annum. A light pier was erected in the bay in 1859 and work 

 was commenced on the erection of a massive stone pier on the site 

 of one erected some 200 years before. The company dissolved in 

 1872. Some three or four years afterwards an attempt was made 

 to revive the exploitation of the shale, this time by the manufac- 

 ture of Sanitary Carbon, but this proved a failure likewise. The 

 many failures presented themselves to would-be adventurers as a 

 sort of bogey, for nothing of importance has been done for the 

 past 40 years. In 1914, however, a company was in course of 

 formation to raise capital for the purpose, among other things, of 

 working and distilling the shale seams at Brandy Bay, immedi- 

 ately to the west of Kimmeridge. To overcome the objectionable 

 feature of the great excess of sulphur in the distillate their pro- 

 position Was to mix the oil with other shale oil to be produced 

 from much less sulphurous Irish deposits. The Great War pre- 

 vented the proposal from maturing, though in the course of the 

 war attention was directed to the urgent necessity of obtaining 

 supplies of mineral oils from the home deposits of bituminous 

 shales, of which those of the Kimmeridge Clay are among the most 

 extensive. 



At Ringstead, where is the next exposure of kimmeridge Clay 

 along the Dorset coast westwards, the cliff below Holworth House 

 contains several layers of " coal," now for the most part obscured 

 by talus and landslides and therefore rarely seen. This cliff was 

 once better known as the " burning cliff" from the circumstance 

 that here the coal caught fire spontaneously in 1826 and burnt for 

 several years. It seems very probable that this fire originated by 

 the self-oxidation of the iron pyrites, or more accurately the 

 rnarcassite variety of iron sulphide, which is common in the clay. 

 The fire caused little fumaroles emitting bituminous and sulphur- 

 ous fumes with occasional deposition of sulphur. 



Rich oil shales were reached by shafts and borings in the 

 Portesham exposure betwen the Ridgeway and Weymouth by 

 Mr. Mansfield in 1883, and a fair quantity of coal was sent to 

 Scotland for distillation, though eventually little came of the 

 enterprise. A coal seam was formerly dug for fuel towards the 

 base of the cliff overlooking Portland Bay. 



