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shingle-beds of the Boscombe sands—Gardner’s lowest Braekle- 
sham—is obvious to everyone, and lithologically most striking. 
For the purpose of description of our local cliffs it is easier to 
adhere to Gardner’s divisions. 
THE CLIFFS AT BOURNEMOUTH PIER. 
At Bournemouth Pier it was formerly possible to see the re¬ 
mains of a submerged forest, but this has long been concealed by 
beach shingle and sand, and was last uncovered in excavations 
for the L'ndercliif Walk west of the Pier, when beds of peat 8ft. 
thick, lying in dark blue clay and covered with 9ft. of beach 
material, were exposed for a few weeks. This old forest was evi¬ 
dently connected with the valley of the Bourne, and its former 
extension seaward, for its remains ceased about 70 yards west of 
the Pier and were not found east of it. 
From the Pier the cliffs rise gradually to the east, the edge of 
the Bourne Valley being about 300 yards from the commencement 
of the ascent. On the west side the ascent is slightly more 
gradual, owing to its nearly coinciding with the dip-slope of the 
Freshwater Beds (middle Bagshot), of which it is composed. The 
total width of the valley is about 700 yards from bluff to bluff. 
The strata at this point, forming the western extremity of the east 
cliff, consist—from the beach level to a point some 250 yards up- 
the slope—of Bournemouth Freshwater Beds. They are covered 
by a thinned-out layer of the Bournemouth Marine (Tapper Bag- 
shot) Beds. Fifty yards further up the cliff eastward we come 
upon the westerly edge of the Boscombe Sands or Lower 
Bracklesham of Gardner. (Plate XY. Fig. 1). These two 
latter beds terminate here and are not found in the west 
cliffs, which are composed entirely of Middle Bagshot 
(Freshwater) Beds. On each cliff is a capping of Plateau 
gravel of diminishing thickness downward, which I have 
traced on the east side of the valley about half-way down the 
slope, but on the west side its edge cannot be defined. This fact 
suggests that the valley had been excavated to half its present 
depth in glacial or pre-glacial times, for it was at the close of 
the glacial period that the lower gravels were deposited which cap 
the cliffs. The study of the Plateau Gravel is of great interest and 
importance, but I do not propose to consider it here beyond recog¬ 
nising its presence in a fairly uniform sheet from 3ft. to 12ft. in 
thickness along the summit of the cliff section. It lies upon an 
eroded surface of Lower Bracklesham (Boscombe Sands) and 
consists chiefly of subangular flints having a deeply ochreous 
patination. 
THE BOURNEMOUTH FRESHWATER BEDS. 
These are the Middle Bagshots of Gardner and are found in 
our section only from the Pier to the East Cliff Lift, where they 
merge into Marine Series both horizontally and vertically, it being 
impossible to accurately define the junction. Their full develop- 
