FULLONIAN : BRIDPORT. 233 
extent represented by the Upper Estuarine Series of the Midland 
counties. Geologically, the most important development of the 
Fullonian Beds is in Dorsetshire, where its thickness is about 150 
feet. North and north-east of Bath the thickness diminishes, and 
the " Fuller's Earth," excepting that it promotes landslips, occupies 
an insignificant part in the surface-features of the country. Its 
thickness near Stroud and Cheltenham is about 70 or 80 feet, and 
it dimininishes eastwards. 
LOCAL DETAILS. 
Bridport and Weymouth to Crewkerne. 
The Fullonian Beds form the dull grey and somewhat trea- 
cherous cliffs between Bridport Harbour and Eype mouth; these 
are known as the " West Cliff/' but have also been described 
under the names of Fourfoot Hill and Watton Hill. The forma- 
tion (so far as exposed) consists of about 100 feet of pale bluish- 
grey marly clay, with many nodules and occasional bands of grey 
earthy limestone. Small concretions of carbonate of lime (" race ") 
are also met with. About 9 feet from the top of the Fullonian 
formation, there is a prominent band of hard and fissile white 
marl (3 feet thick in places), and another impersistent band of the 
game rock occurs, a little higher up, in the bluish -yellow marl 
that here forms the uppermost portion of the strata. These beds 
are surmounted by the Forest Marble. (See p. 342.) At the 
western end of the cliffs the " Fuller's Earth " is faulted against 
the Middle and Upper Lias, and at the eastern end, it is faulted 
against the Midford Sand.* The latter fault cuts the cliff 
obliquely, and the " Fuller's Earth " in proximity to it, consists 
oi grey marl with hard bands of earthy limestone and much 
fibrous carbonate of lime (" beef "), the beds being more or less 
disturbed. We are not here presented with the full thickness of the 
Fullonian formation, which may, as stated by Dr. Wright, attain 
a thickness of 150 feet. (See Fig. 99, p. 343.) 
Fossils are by no means numerous. Towards the upper part of 
the formation I obtained Ostrea acuminata, and, near the foot of 
the clay-cliffs, there were to be found a number of tender bivalves 
of the genera Lucina and Myacites. 
The lowest beds of the Fullonian, consisting of grey marly clay, 
are exposed in the cliffs between the mouth of the Bride or 
Bredy, and Burton Bradstock. There they rest evenly on the 
Inferior Oolite, and are faulted at one point with a downthrow of 
10 or 15 feet on the east; but the beds are not accessible, except 
in the tumbled masses that may occasionally be found on the 
foreshore. (See Fig. 32, p. 55.) 
East of Burton Bradstock, at Cliff End, we again find the 
upper beds of the Fullonian, overlaid by Forest Marble, Near the 
* See section by Buckland and De la Beche, Trans. Geol. Soc., ser. 2, vol. iv., 
plate 2, and pp. 29 and 40 ; also Fig. 41, p. 52, in Memoir on the Lias of England 
and Wales. 
