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beds of Boscombe sand is seen very clearly, except where it may 
be hidden by falls. Heavy, dark clays capping lignitic sands form 
the lower twenty feet or more of the cliffs, whilst the upper 
two-thirds consist of white and yellow sands, with occasional 
pebble beds, capped, as usual, with plateau gravel. Above this 
are layers of blown sand, which formerly were much thicker— 
thirty feet was spoken of in 1879—and extended for some distance 
inland, as do the sand dunes along the new Overcliff Drive 
beyond Boscombe Pier. Owing to the friable nature of the upper 
beds from here almost to Boscombe Pier, falls are very extensive 
and frequent. The lower clay beds stand out far in advance of 
those above them, but are frequently smothered in talus, and 
hence invisible. This talus is Nature’s method of reducing the 
cliff face to the angle of rest, at which no further falls would 
take place, but as the protective talus is continually washed aw T ay 
by the sea, the desired slope is never attained and the falls 
continue. The new drive will prevent this, but will itself become 
smothered instead, and its being cleared of falls by manual labour 
instead of by the waves will in no way protect, the cliffs from 
further sub-aerial erosion. Something, no doubt, may be done 
by encouraging the growth of vegetation, as has been successfully 
effected west of the Lift, but the conditions in these more friable 
cliffs are far more difficult, and it will be impossible to put an 
end to falls until the cliff top has receded in places faff beyond 
the present road, which will have to be removed further inland 
in probably a very few years. The process, however, will be 
much retarded if pains are taken to intercept and drain away the 
various streamlets of land water which now trickle through the 
sandy soil and fall over the edge of the lower clay beds. 
The Bournemouth Marine Series is here about forty feet in 
thickness above the beach, consisting of about thirty-two feet of 
dark sandy clay, with very stiff black or lead-coloured clay for 
the upper few feet, forming a projecting bluff from which the 
upper eight feet, consisting of whitish-grey sands, recede abruptly 
in places owing to their friability and the fact that the impervious 
clay throws out all land streams. Water that has percolated 
through the beds above can be frequently seen falling as 
miniature water-falls from the top of the clay ridge, 
which presently breaks down, forming V-shaped recesses 
which are blocked below by fallen masses of clay upon which 
the water pours. 1 hese features illustrate in miniature the first 
step in the formation of our chines. 
The next point of interest is at a spot where formerly some 
wooden steps descended to the beach. Here sand dunes at the 
top attain their largest dimensions, for here the prevalent winds 
striking the cliff face where it is most friable,- blow up the sand 
grains and deposit them above. It is unlikely that any beach 
sand is carried so high, but clouds coming from the white glass 
sand occurring so largely in the upper cliffs here can be seen 
on a rough day whirling inland from over the cliff-edge, after 
