"The Chesil":

The Chesil is the stone beach that connects the Isle of Portland to the mainland: "a long thin neck of pebbles 'cast up by rages of the sea,' and unparalleled in its kind in Europe." (I,i) Hardy described this view as "the vast concave of Deadman's Bay, rising and falling against the pebble dyke." (I,ii)

#2 "Portland Strata":

Portland, or "The Isle of Slingers," is a "solid and single block of limestone four miles long." Hardy mentions that "the sun flashed on infinitely stratified walls of oolite." (I, i)