[Plate I.]
In their well-known paper on the Geology of Weymouth, Buckland and De la Beche[1] give but a very brief notice of the Quaternary beds of the district. They observe that there are no very "extensive and continuous beds of gravel," and that "the largest deposit of diluvium we have noticed is at Upway Street, four miles north of Weymouth; but in smaller quantities and irregular patches it is disposed over the whole surface of the country, on the summits and slopes of the hills as well as in the valleys." These scattered drift-beds are all referred, as usual at the time, to one great inundation, which excavated the valleys and overspread the country with patches of diluvial gravel.
Mr. Bristow, in 1850[2], recorded the presence on the top of the cliff at Portland Bill of a recent conglomerate, which Mr. Weston in 1852[3] described as a "marine shingle," consisting "of beach-pebbles (with a few chalk flints);" and in 1860 Mr. R. Damon[4] mentioned that it contained in places "numerous shells of species now living in the neighbouring sea."
Mr. Whitaker[5] was the first to give, in 1869, a more particular account of this beach, and to specify the occurrence of Littorina litorea, L. littoralis, Patella vulgata, and Purpura lapillus, extending on the east side of the Bill for a distance of half a mile northward. Over the beach Mr. Whitaker noticed near "Cave Hole" the presence "of a head" (the waste of Purbeck and Portland beds) consisting of pebbles of limestone, flint, and chert; and at another place, of a yellowish brown loam with "Bithinia and Pupa"
In 1870, Mr. Pengelly pointed out the occurrence, in this raised beach, of Budleigh-Salterton and "granitoid" pebbles, and gave a list of seven shells[6].
With respect to the occurrence of mammalian remains, the only specimen mentioned by Dr. Buckland[7] as having been found in this district was the tooth of an elephant, picked up on the Chesil Bank. The first notice of such remains in Portland was made in 1852 by Mr. Neale[8], who states that fragments of bones and teeth had been found about 400 feet above the sea-level, in a superficial deposit, red at top and passing into a black sand with large round black blocks of stone. The only species named is "horse;" but I find that Mr.
- ↑ Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. 1836, p. 44.
- ↑ Geological-Survey Map.
- ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 1.
- ↑ Geology of Weymouth, and the Island of Portland, p. 141.
- ↑ The Geological Magazine, vol. vi. p. 438.
- ↑ Trans. Devonsh. Assoc. Sc. Lit. & Art, 1870.
- ↑ Op. cit. p. 44.
- ↑ Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. viii. p. 109.
