122 
and exactly corresponded to Mr. Gardner's description.! A com¬ 
pact bed of dark bluish clay was seen, containing quantities of 
vegetable fragments. Stems, twigs, some being pyritized, with 
various dicotyledonous leaves, and also seeds and fruits; one of 
the latter, probably Cupvessus , I have been able to preserve. In 
the upper beds thin layers of lignite occur, and can be traced con¬ 
tinuous!}' for many yards, often between layers of carbonaceous 
sand. Blocks of teredo-bored wood are also common, the sandy 
clay filling the borings being often pyritized. 
Beyond this point the Fresh Water Beds give place to those 
that have been deposited under marine conditions, but in which 
numbers of plant remains carried down by the river, and its 
tributary streams, are found. 
BOURNEMOUTH MARINE BEDS (UPPER BAGSHOT). 
Commencing at the top of the East Cliff, about 250 yards 
from the commencement of its rise, the Marine Beds of the 
Bournemouth Series, dipping very slightly E.S.E., extend to 
Southbourne and disappear into the Beach a few yards beyond 
the site of the former pier. They are covered continuously by 
the Boscombe Sands, and form rather more_th an the lower half 
of the cliff between Bournemouth and Boscombe, but beyond that, 
sinking gradually towards the beach, the Boscombe Sands form an 
increasing portion of the cliff face, as one proceeds eastward. 
These are the beds described as Bracklesham in Mr. Clement 
Reid’s pamphlet.* It is impossible accurately to estimate the 
proportionate thickness of the three divisions of the Bagshot 
Series in this district—I have given the total as 700ft. in the table 
of strata on p. 118—owing to the impersistence of the beds, and 
irregularity of the dip, but the middle series of Marine Bagshots is 
probably well over 200ft. in thickness. It consists of sands and 
clays in various proportions, with but few continuous beds, there 
being great irregularities in deposition with evident current bed¬ 
ding. Many of the beds are curved vertically, especially the 
more sandy ones, indicating their origin from sandbanks in the old 
river channel, which probably frequently changed their positions. 
The clay beds tend to lie in larger masses, and are thicker than 
in the Lower Bagshot, west of the pier. The section we are now 
describing is partly estuarine, and was probably formed at the 
river’s mouth. It contains a large proportion of black, or brown, 
vegetable debris, often deposited in layers, but also disseminated 
throughout both the sand and the sandy-clays, so that a some¬ 
what dark colour is imparted to the whole section, which con¬ 
trasts strongly with the lighter beds of the Boscombe Sands 
above, and of the Freshwater beds west of the Pier. This is 
caused by the presence of comminuted lignitic material supplied 
from the floating wood brought down by the river, for here meet- 
fOp. cit.. p. 224. 
* “ The Geology of Bournemouth,” Mem. Geol. Surv., p. 7. 
