rule.

Besides, a band of forty monks would have been useless to him, unless some of them could follow a secular calling useful to the mission, for Bede informs us that they were unacquainted with the British language, and therefore could not act independently.

6. Masonic monks were not uncommon, and there were such monks associated with the Comacine body, so that qualified architects were readily found in the ranks of the religious orders.

7. Gregory would be likely to choose architects for the mission from the Comacine Order, which held the old Roman traditions of building, rather than those of a Byzantine guild, and the record of their work seems to show that he did.

8. In Saxon, as in the earlier Comacine carvings, there are frequent representations of fabulous monsters, symbolical birds and beasts, the subjects of some of these carvings being suggested apparently by the "Physiologus," which had a Latin origin.

9. It may be added that in the writings of the Venerable Bede and Richard, Prior of Hagustald, we meet with phrases and words which are in the edict of King Rotharis of 643 and in the Memoratorio of 713 of King Luitprand, which show that these writers were familiar with certain terms of art used by the Comacine Masters.*

* Merzario, I Maestri Comacini, Vol. I., Chap. ii., pp. 87-89.

An Experiment on the Movements of a Load of Brickbats Deposited on the Chesil Beach.

By NELSON M. RICHARDSON, B.A., F.E.s.
(Read Feb. 25th, 1902.)

THE experiment which forms the subject of the following paper was carried out by myself in December, 1898, after consultation with Dr. Vaughan Cornish, who most kindly offered to bear half the expense of this and a possible future series of experiments of a similar nature. As more than three years have, however, now elapsed and these further experiments are still unmade, I have thought it best, having obtained Dr. Cornish's approval of that course, to lay the results before the Dorset Field Club.

Dr. Cornish's observations on the Chesil Beach, with which it had been originally intended that these results, as well as those of the further experiments alluded to above, should be incorporated, are contained in the "Geological Journal" for May and June, 1898, and in the "Proceedings of the Dorset Field Club," Vol. XIX., p. 113.

We agreed that it would be best to make the first experiment with brickbats, these being the only things conveniently available that answered, though imperfectly, to the conditions of being easily distinguishable from the pebbles, and yet approximating to them in size, hardness, and specific gravity. On December 19th, 1898, a load of brickbats, nearly all half bricks or thereabouts, but with a slight mixture of three-quarter and quarter bricks, was carted down to the Fleet, taken across in a boat, and carried in baskets over the beach and thrown into the sea about half way between high and low water-marks. Eighteen basketfuls of about 26 half bricks each were carried over and a few by hand, so that the total number was about 480.

The tide was low at about 3.0 p.m., and the bricks were thrown in between 11.30 a.m. and 1.15 p.m. A few (about 50) were not covered by the sea till the next day.

It was new moon on December 13th, so the tide was a fairly high one.

The direction of the Chesil Beach from Bridport to the beginning of Portland is from a point between N.W. and N.W. by W. to a little E. of S.E., and it is convenient sometimes to speak of the Bridport end as the N.W. end and the Portland as the S.E. end. They are often spoken of as the W. and E. ends respectively, but this is perhaps apt to convey a wrong impression of the real direction.

There was a slight breeze from the N.N.W., and the waves, which came somewhat from the Bridport end, instead of straight on to the shore, were not large-perhaps 2 feet high or less. The bricks were very soon, generally in a few minutes, washed down out of sight, and some occasionally washed up again and then taken down, so that they required to be noted immediately they were seen, or they would probably disappear.

I took the following notes at the times mentioned. I found that none of the bricks moved towards Bridport, except that once one was seen a few yards north-westwards of its original position,

The bricks were deposited opposite to the flagstaff of the Fleet Coastguard Station, which is erected at the top of the beach.

Below this the continuous slope of the pebbles to the sea is broken by several small secondary ridges, of which one lies parallel to the sea, and at 3.0 p.m. was distant from it about 15 yards. This small ridge, which is regular and continuous for a long way on each side of the flagstaff, and is marked D in the accompanying sectional plan of the beach, I have used as a basis from which to measure the position of the bricks to show how far they have been cast up by the waves.

These secondary ridges are not at all constant, but frequently change their form and position.

The current south-eastwards was most of the time from 12.0 to 3.0 about 20 yards a minute, as judged from floating objects thrown in, but part of this would be due to the wind. There were about nine waves per minute.

The following notes show the distances travelled by some of the bricks up to 2.0 p.m. :—

11.30 a.m.

12. O

First basket of bricks emptied.

One brick 10 yards to S.E. of flagstaff.

12.45 p.m. Three bricks cast up nearly beyond the reach of the waves at 7, 8, and 12 yards to S.E. of flagstaff. Several 20 yards to S.E. below in the

From 2.45 to 3.0 p.m. I noted the positions of the bricks, which were then visible, but their appearance was often only momentary. The approximate distance below the ridge is also given in the following table :

On the next day, December 20th, I reached the flagstaff at 3.10 p.m. and walked south-eastwards towards Portland, noting the positions of the bricks visible. The wind was much the same as yesterday and very slight; the waves were smaller and came somewhat from the Bridport end. As before, the bricks were washed up and then back again, so that some visible on my outward walk were not so when I returned and vice versâ. The water on both days was thick, so that, if a brick was covered by it, I could not see it at all. On returning to the flagstaff from my south-eastward journey, I went north-westwards for 300 yards, but saw no bricks. Before leaving at 4.0 p.m. I threw in about 50 bricks (the last two basketfuls) which had not been taken down by the sea, being deposited about high watermark.

The following are the notes taken by me to-day, the ridge, &c., referred to being the same as yesterday. All bricks visible were on the Portland side of the flagstaff, except one about 3 yards N.W.