For boating people the bay affords a daily delight, although Christchurch and Poole are the nearest real harbours. At the close of a summer's day, when sea and sky and shore are enveloped in soft mist, nothing can be more delightful than to flit with a favouring wind past the picturesque Chines, or by the white cliffs of Studland. The water in the little inlets and bays lies still and blue, but out in the dancing swirl of waters set up by the sunken rocks at the base of a headland, all the colours of the rainbow seem to be running a race together. Yachts come 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.