130 
gusts of wind have impinged upon the face of the cliffs. The 
sequence of beds is here much the same as in the last section 
described, except that the lowest sandy beds become darker at 
the beach level and contain fragments of rolled wood and stems. 
Here also is the furthest point westward at which Nipadites 
have been found. These fruits are rare except in or near Honey- 
combe Chine, and so do not enter into our present subject.* 
This also is the last point eastward where seeds, resembling those 
in the seed-patch, are occasionally found. A little nearer 
Boscombe, in the lower beds, which are of very dark, almost 
greenish, sandy clay, very ill-preserved small round bodies may 
be detected in splitting lumps of the clay, which lie together 
in layers. Mr. Gardner identified these as casts of small oysters, 
and records them as occurring in abundance from here to the 
east side of Boscombe Pier. As found in recent years, all trace 
of shell has gone, the beds being entirely decalcified, but since 
he observes that some of them were coated with Bryozoa, they 
must have then been better preserved than those I have seen. 
For the last 300 yards, to near Boscombe Pier, the lowest 
beds, averaging 6-ioft. in thickness, consist of'dark lignitic sand, 
crowded with black rolled fragments of wood and stems. They 
are markedly current bedded, and show evidence of having 
formed banks of muds and sand which were subjected to frequent 
disturbance by storms, probably at the river’s mouth. Some 
of these beds are harder than others owing to traces of ferruginous 
cement, and these could formerly be seen standing out in ridges- 
and small bluffs. Xo leaves, seeds or fruits have I ever found 
in them, in fact, this woody matter which composed, perhaps, 
a third of their substance has been so ground and pounded by 
wave action that no perfect forms could survive. As evidence of 
local hardenings I can recall that for many years a hard, isolated 
mass, about the size and somewhat of the shape of the toad- 
rock near 1 unbridge Y\ ells, stood upon the beach some twenty 
yards from the cliff face, this was gradually worn down, largely 
by children climbing on it, until its much diminished base was 
at last destroyed by the Undercliff Drive works. 
From, here there is little to observe in the lower marine 
series until arriving at Boscombe Chine. I he beds there dip at 
about 8. degrees, and it could formerly be seen within the Chine 
- this is now hidden by sand—that they rise rather rapidly 
inland. The western bluff guarding the end of the Chine has 
been formed by wind denudation. The upper friable beds having 
been denuded back some years ago by southern and south-easterly 
gales impinging upon it and rushing up the Chine. Thus a 
plateau has been formed for some yards upon the harder beds 
of the marine series, which were unaffected by wind-action * 
thence there is a gradual slope upwards to the cliff summit. 
For a full account see article by Sir Daniel Morris in Proc. B’mth. Nat. Sc. 
Soc., vol. iii., p. 78. 
