sailing in from Cowes, proud, beautiful shapes, their
polished brass-work glinting in the sunlight, while farther out in the
Channel a great ocean liner steams steadily towards the Solent,
altering her course repeatedly as she nears the Needles.

And yet, with all her desirable qualities and attractive features,
Bournemouth is not to everyone's taste, particularly those whose
holidays are incomplete without mediaeval ruins on their doorsteps. The
town, however, is somewhat fortunate even in this respect, since,
although she has no antiquities of her own, she is placed close to
Wimborne and Poole on the one hand, and to Christchurch, with its
ancient Priory, on the other. Poole itself is not an ideal place to live
in, while Wimborne and Christchurch are out-of-the-way spots,
interesting enough to the antiquary, but dull, old-fashioned towns for
holiday makers. The clean, firm sands of Bournemouth are excellent for
walking on, and make it possible for the pedestrian to tramp, with
favourable tides, the whole of the fourteen miles of shore that separate
Poole Harbour from Christchurch. By a coast ramble of this kind the bold
and varied forms of the cliffs, and the coves cutting into them, give an
endless variety to the scene; while many a pretty peep may be obtained
where the Chines open out to the land, or where the warmly-coloured
cliffs glow in the sunlight between the deep blue of the sea and the
sombre tints of the heather lands and the pine-clad moor beyond.

The clays and sandy beds of these cliffs are remarkable for the
richness of their fossil flora. From the white, grey, and brownish clays
between Poole Harbour and Bournemouth, no fewer than nineteen species of
ferns have been determined. The west side of Bournemouth is rich in
Polypodiaceae, and the east side in Eucalypti and Araucaria. These,
together with other and sub-tropical forms, demonstrate the existence of
a once luxuriant forest that extended to the Isle of Wight, where, in
the cliffs bounding Alum Bay, are contemporaneous beds. The Bournemouth
clay beds belong to the Middle Eocene period.

Westwards from the Pier the cliffs are imposing, on one of the highest
points near the town being the Lookout. A hundred yards or so farther on
is Little Durley Chine, beyond which is a considerable ravine known as
Great Durley Chine, approached from the shore by Durley Cove. The larger
combe consists of slopes of sand and gravel, with soft sand hummocks at
the b