390 
Farming of Dorsetshire- 
kingdom. From the Bagshot sands down to the lias there is not 
a member of the eocene, the cretaceous, the oolite, and the lias 
series missing. The Bagsliot sands, the London tertiaries, the 
chalk, the upper green sand, the gault, the Purbeck limestone, 
the Portland oolite and sand, the Kimmeridge clay, the coral 
rag, the Oxford clay, the cornbrash, the forest marble, the inferior 
oolite, the marlstone overlying the lias, and the lias itself, have 
all here a representative. These unbroken series supply in 
abundant quantities materials of general usefulness. The quarries 
of Portland (the refuse of which, under a genial system of prison 
discipline, is providing a magnificent harbour of refuge for the 
vessels of all nations) have given to the metropolis, as, indeed, is 
well known, some of its finest edifices, of which St. Paul's 
Cathedral, many of Queen Anne's churches. Goldsmiths' Hall, 
and the Reform Club, may suffice for examples. The Purbeck 
marble may be seen in the beautiful Temple Church, in 
Salisbury Cathedral, the shafts and columns of which are com- 
posed of it, and in many other ecclesiastical edifices, wherein it 
has been used for columns, window-shafts, and monuments. The 
limestone slate of Purbeck is in extensive use for marine works, 
such as lighthouses, steps, and landing-places for quays, &c. 
The freestone found in the coral rag at Marnhull has helped to 
raise some of the neighbouring churches. The green sand of 
Shaftesljury, Cerne Abbas, and other places, also affords an excel- 
lent building material ; and the chert which lies on the sand- 
stone supplies material for rougher purposes, and is excellent for 
making roads, being tougher than flints. The clay pits between 
Wareham and Corfe yield annually thousands of tons of fine 
material to the manufacturers of Staffordshire and Scotland, and 
even of Spain and Holland, the inferior clays being largely 
employed in the manufacture of alum, rough delf, drain-pipes, 
&c. The Smedmore shale of the Kimmeridge clay furnishes 
botli naphtha for lamps and carbon for the disinfection of manure, 
and its refuse has been tried with some effect, though not exten- 
sively, upon the neighbouring turnip-crops. The lias furnishes 
a good hydraulic cement ; the chalk the best of lime for building 
purposes, and a useful manure for the farmer ; to which it is 
hoped may some day be reported a supply of the soluble silicates 
to which Professor Way has recently directed attention, and 
which have already been traced in this county, though not in 
sufficient quantities. But it is in the geologist's great glory — in 
fossil remains, that the geology of Dorset stands most con- 
spicuous. Passing over the smaller fossils of the chalk, we may 
be permitted to name the Goniopliolis Crassidens — the Swanage 
crocodile (the bones of which may be seen in the British 
Museum), " a powerful carnivorous reptile, resembling in its 
