join the
Hampshire Avon close to its mouth. It receives the Cale, Lidden and
other streams in its upper course, and breaches the central hills in its
middle course between Sturminster Newton and Blandford. The Lidden and
Cale are the chief streams of the well-watered and fertile district
known as the Vale of Blackmore. The small river Piddle or Trent and the
larger Frome, rising in the central hills, traverse a plain tract of
open country between the central and southern ranges, and almost unite
their mouths in Poole Harbour. In the north-west the Yeo, collecting
many feeders, flows northward to join the Parret and so sends its waters
to the Bristol Channel. The Char, the Brit and the Bride, with their
feeders, water many picturesque short valleys in the south-west. The
coast is always beautiful, and in some parts magnificent. In the east it
is broken by the irregular, lake-like inlet of Poole Harbour, pleasantly
diversified with low islands, shallow, and at low tide largely drained.
South of this a bold foreland, the termination of the southern hills
(here called Ballard Down) divides Studland Bay from Swanage Bay, after
which the coast line turns abruptly westward round Durlston Head. The
peninsula thus formed with Poole Harbour on the north is known as the
Isle of Purbeck, an oblong projection measuring 10 m. by 7. St Albans or
Aldhelms Head is the next salient feature, after which the fine cliffs
are indented with many little bays, of which the most noteworthy is the
almost landlocked Lulworth Cove. The coast then turns southward to
embrace Weymouth Bay and Portland Roads, where a harbour of refuge with
massive breakwaters is protected to the south by the Isle of Portland.
The isle is connected with the mainland by Chesil Bank, a remarkable
beach of shingle. After this the coast is less broken than before and
continues highly picturesque as far as the confines of the county near
Lyme Regis. This small town, with Charmouth, Bridport, Weymouth,
Lulworth Cove and Swanage, are in considerable favour as
watering-places.

_Geology._--Occupying as it does the central and most elevated part of
the county, the Chalk is the most prominent geological formation in
Dorsetshire. It sweeps in a south-westerly direction, as a belt of
high ground about 12 m. in width, from Cranborne Chase, through
Blandford, Milton Abbas and Frampton to Dorchester; westward it
reaches a point just north of Beaminster. From about Dorches