135 
marine denudation must have been formed over this district, leav¬ 
ing Creech Barrow as an island, but levelling off the land gener¬ 
ally to the surface upon which subsequently the Plateau Gravel 
was deposited. It must be remembered that the whole district 
during Eocene times was comparatively level, there were no hills. 
It was during or near the close of Miocene times that the chalk 
ridge forming the axis of the Isle of Wight and to the west the 
Purbeck Hills was raised up as a great anticline. This was 
accomplished by the mighty earth movements which charac¬ 
terized that period, and so was formed—with the corresponding 
northern chalk hills of Hampshire and Dorset—what is known as 
the Hampshire Basin. This great depression of the Cretaceous 
strata forms the foundation upon which repose the Eocene strata 
of the district. But it must be remembered that originally when 
they were deposited it was a comparatively level plaim It is as a 
result of these earth movements of Miocene age that the Eocene 
strata have been preserved in the hollow so produced, for beyond 
its protecting area, as between the Hampshire and Thames 
basins, the Tertiary Beds have been removed by denudation. But 
for this our Bournemouth cliffs would never have existed as they 
do now, and we should have been living in a chalk district with 
chalk cliffs similar to those at Margate and around the coast of 
Kent. We may well be thankful that the mighty earth movements 
of a long past age treated our district so kindly, otherwise 
Bournemouth would have had no pines or chines, and its chief 
distinguishing charms would never have existed. 
List of the principal Minerals found in the Bournemouth 
cliffs:— 
Limonite. 
Marcasite. 
Magnetite. 
Glauconite. 
Quarts. 
Chalcedony. 
Jasperite. 
Flint. 
Rutile. 
Zircon. 
Kaolin. 
Melanterite. 
Succinite. 
Lignite. 
