our miles. This phenomenon appears to be of the same character as
that at Holworth, in the neighbourhood of Weymouth, described by
Professor Buckland and Mr. De la Beche in the following terms: "It is
probable that in each case rainwater acting on iron pyrites has set fire
to the bituminous shale; thus ignited it has gone on burning at Holworth
unto the present hour, and may still continue smouldering for a long
series of years, the bitumen being here so abundant in some strata of the
shale, that it is burnt as fuel in the adjoining cottages; the same
bituminous shale is used as fuel in the village of Kimmeridge, and is
there called Kimmeridge coal."* Wingen, the aboriginal name, is derived
from fire. The combustion extends over a space of no great extent (see
Plate 5) near the summit of a group of hills, forming part of a low chain
which divides the valley of Kingdon Ponds from that of Page's River. Thin
blue smoke ascends from rents and cracks, the breadth of the widest
measuring about a yard. Red heat appears at the depth of about four
fathoms. No marks of any extensive change appear on the surface, near
these burning fissures, although the growth of large trees in old cracks
on the opposite slope, where ignition has ceased, shows that this fire
has continued for a very considerable time, or that the same thing had
occurred at a much earlier period. In the form of the adjacent hills I
observed nothing peculiar, unless it be a contraction not very common of
the lower parts of ravines. The geological structure is, as might be
expected, more remarkable. Other summits of the range are porphyritic,**
but the hills of Wingen present a variety of rocks, within a small space.
In the adjacent gullies to the south of the hill, we find clay of a grey
mottled appearance, and shale containing apparently a small quantity of
decomposed vegetable matter; and near the fissure then on fire, occurred
a coarse sandstone with an argillaceous basis. To the north-west, in a
hollow containing water which drains from beneath the part ignited, is a
coarse sandstone, in some places highly charged with decomposed felspar,
and containing impressions of spirifers. The hill nearest to the part on
fire, on the south-west (b) consists of basalt with grains apparently of
olivine; and on a still higher hill, on the east (a) I found ironstone. A
small hill (c) connecting these two, and nearest to the part actually
burning, appears to consist of trap-rock,