121 
m^nt can be studied from the Pier westwards to Canford Cliffs* * 
and it was from this section that the important and varied collec¬ 
tions of sub-tropical plants that have made the Bournemouth 
“ leaf-beds ” so celebrated were obtained. Their termination east 
of the Pier has not yielded much palseontologically. The section 
begins with a low cliff: of yellowish sand with little or no clay. 
But about 200 yards thence drab coloured clay appears in the 
upper part and gradually descends eastwards, until at the Zig- 
Zag it stands out as a clay bluff about 25ft. in height, the more 
fragile sandy upper beds having been more rapidly denuded back 
recede somewhat from its front. (Plate XV. Fig. 1). In 
this clay bed Gardner describes* the last leaf-bed (pro¬ 
ceeding eastward) which bore evidence of having been 
deposited in fresh water. This was in 1879, since when 
the slight indentation of the cliff some 3-f yards across 
formed by a spring,” as he described it, has widened and 
deepened considerably, and the leaf bed he referred to has long 
since disappeared. Eighteen years ago, however, I obtained some 
fern leaves from this spot, probably Polypodium and Osmund a , 
but the thin layers of pinkish clay which he refers to had vanished. 
Indeed this fine cinnamon-coloured clay, in which the best pre¬ 
served leaves used to be found has become increasingly rare of 
late years, and is now very seldom met with and only in very 
small fragments. 
At this point the beds have greatly changed since the sketch 
given by Mr. Gardner was drawn, owing to the frequent faffs 
and cutting back of the cliffs. But it is here that the fresh water 
conditions that prevailed from the west begin to give place to 
marine influence, which now continues eastward, although the 
fresh water clay described above does not finally disappear until 
just beyond the Lift. The beds, however, are greatly broken up 
both horizontally and vertically and for some distance be3^ond both 
the lower clay series and the marine beds above them. The plant 
remains found in various^ patches of clay here suggested a marshy 
vegetation, whilst some fresh water JJnios were found by Mr. 
Gardner, as well as remains of a shore-crab, of which I found 
a specimen some four years ago, all of which indicates that “ this 
was the actual debatable margin betwixt sea and river, beyond 
which, to the west, it seems clear the encroaching sea never in 
these ages penetrated.”* 
1 he last of the Fresh Water Beds (Middle Bagshot) disappears 
below the beach just beyond the Lift. (Plate XV. Fig. 2). The cliff 
face here has always been so obscured by falls and washings from 
above, that I have seldom been able to trace it. But some years 
ago after a severe storm it was well exposed at the beach level* 
* Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxxv., pt. 2, p. 225. 
* Op. cit., p. 227. 
