In many places the fallen blocks of sandstone are covered in relief with stems and bulbs of the Siphonia Websteri (ante, p. 177), and contain numerous shells. At Ventnor there are (or were) some bold vertical sections of the firestone; and an enormous mass of rock overhangs the road east of the Marine hotel. The calcareous sandstone here abounds in shells and molluskite. The terrace and sea-cliffs that form the southern boundary of this rapidly-increasing town are entirely composed of fallen masses of the upper groups of the cretaceous strata. In many instances huge fragments of white chalk appear imbedded in the greensand of the firestone; and I observed (in 1844) a series of chalk strata forty feet in thickness, surmounted by many feet of marl and firestone, forming a low headland on the sea-shore, the entire mass having been retroverted in its fall from the heights above. The diagram in lign. 20, p. 188, will serve to elucidate the above remarks.

The vicinity of Ventor is rich in the shells and zoophytes of the cretaceous system. The following localities have been pointed out to me by Mr. Saxby :—

The bank on the roadside at the Shute, above Ventnor, abounds in chalk-marl fossils.

Horse-shoe Bay, in black malm rock; many shells. Under the

cliff to the east, called High-port, at low water, nodules of pyrites, generally having a terebratula or other shell as the nucleus.

East of Colin's Point and Mill Bay, the galt is visible and contains shells. In a highly-inclined fallen mass of sandstone, sharks' teeth, coprolites, molluskite, and many shells. Firestone with fossils occurs on the shore, eastward of the Parsonage.

In the gravel-pits on "Little-town Down," above Ventnor, the flints abound in sponges. They sometimes contain a sharp conical body fixed by its base, and projecting into an elongated fusiform cavity. This appearance has been produced by a belemnite, of which the large cavity is the impression,

and the conical body the cast of the phragmocone, or chambered shell of this curious cephalopod.*

LIGN. 20.-SECTION OF THE UNDERCLIFF, NEAR VENTNOR.

In the chalk marl above Bonchurch numerous fossils, comprising turrilites, scaphites, ammonites, incocerami, &c., have been found. The bone of a reptile and the stem of clathraria, previously described (ante, p. 179,) were obtained from this locality.

THE COAST FROM VENTNOR TO SANDOWN BAY.-From Rocken-end, east of Blackgang Chine, to Bonchurch, the sea-cliffs, in consequence of the displacements which have produced the Undercliff, present no continuous sections of the strata of sufficient importance to require especial notice. It may be briefly stated, that after passing along that ruinous district, and arriving at the eastern termination of the promontory formed by the southern chalk downs, a repetition of the section observable at St. Catherine's Hill on the western extremity, is presented to view on the east of Bonchurch Cove, at Dunnose Point and Shanklin Down. This section of the nearly horizontal strata of chalk, firestone, galt, and greensand, is shown in the diagram, lign. 9, p. 96. The white chalk forms the upper series of deposits; of the firestone, which varies in total thickness from 70 to 100 feet, a good section is seen above the ravine at Luccomb, between Bonchurch and Shanklin. The galt underlies the firestone as at Sandrock, near Black

See "Medals of Creation," vol. ii. p. 459.

gang; and beneath are the ferruginous sands and dark clays of the greensand. The layer of ironstone nodules full of casts of shells (see ante, p. 165) extends through the upper part of the cliff at Dunnose; but the perna mulleti bed has not been observed along this part of the coast.

Luccomb Chine, which lies between Chine Head and Dunnose Point, is an extensive gully like that of Blackgang, formed by springs derived from the high land on the north-west, and which, falling over a perpendicular cliff of sand and clay, have worn a deep ravine that is slowly receding from the shore. The celebrated chine of Shanklin is of the same character: the cliff here is 230 feet high, and the chasm extends 150 yards from the shore, being 300 feet wide at the top, and narrowing down to the bed of the torrent. The steep sides of the ravine are clothed with verdure and overshadowed by underwood, except where bare masses of rock protrude, and contribute to the picturesque effect of this romantic glen.

The character of the scenery around Shanklin so entirely depends on the geological structure of the country, that I am led to transcribe the following vivid description of this part of the Island by Sir H. Englefield :—“As we approach the village of Shanklin, its appearance is equally singular and interesting. It is seated in a small vale hanging towards the sea, at a great height above that level; the houses are detached from each other, and almost buried in groves of elms; and every cottager, however humble, being in the habit of letting lodgings in the summer season, surrounds his dwelling with a garden full of flowering shrubs. The whole spot has a most cheerful and uncommon character. The little church, which is of a pretty form, stands on a broken knoll open to a beautiful pasture, with groups of elms carelessly disposed about it; and it is backed by the high hill of Dunnose, whose lower part is covered with thickets and groves hanging down its steep sides.

From among these in one part a range of rocks starts out; the northern face of the same great stratum to which the Undercliff owes its existence and its beauty. The route from Shanklin church, by the road which winds through the open groves up the flank of Dunnose, is eminently beautiful, affording, as we ascend, the most lovely views. The village, with its groves, forms a charming first distance -the bay of Sandown with the Culver Cliffs present a noble winding shore; and beyond the low land of Sandown, in the direction of Brading Haven, a part of the anchorage of Portsmouth with its shipping is visible. From the top of the ascent the elevation of the ground is so much greater than the chalk hills of Yaverland, that the sea is visible over them; and the distant blue heights of Hampshire and Sussex form an uninterrupted line, till to the eastward they are blended with the horizon of the sea; emerging out of whose waters the white cliffs from Brighthelmston quite to Beachy Head are distinctly visible, though from forty to sixty miles distant.'

The western cliff of Shanklin Chine consists of an alternating series of clays and sands. The upper part is greenishwhite sand, resting on a bed of dark-blue clay; beneath this is another stratum of sand, and a second bed of clay lying on a deposit of greenish-grey sand, with bands of sandstone. The lower part consists of ferruginous sands, with concretionary layers of greensand full of terebratulæ. The argillaceous partings have given rise to narrow ledges, which are verdant from a covering of rank grass; but slips are continually taking place from the wasting away of the sand, by the oozing of the water arrested in its descent from the porous strata above, by these beds of clay.

Along this shore numerous specimens of the gryphea sinuata are generally to be met with loose in the sea-sand, as at Atherfield; and ironstone concretions, full of shells * Sir H. Englefield's "Isle of Wight," p. 70.

that have fallen from the cliffs. In these nodules, leaflets of the Wealden fern (lign. 21) are sometimes found associated with trigoniæ, terebratulæ, &c.

At the foot of the cliff near Shanklin Chine, the lower series of greensand strata emerge, and gradually rising to the surface, form the western coast of Sandown Bay. The view of the bay from Shanklin is extremely interesting, for the white chalk strata of Culver form the eastern promontory, and the galt, firestone, and greensands of Redcliff, succeeded by the low Wealden cliffs, may be distinctly traced.

Beyond the cliffs at Sandown is the vale of Newchurch, a low alluvial plain, protected from the inroads of the sea only by a thick bed of shingle; beneath which, at low water, the Wealden clay may be seen extending under the greensand strata on the east and west. The little inn on the shore and the fort now appear, and we reach the spot where our examination of the eastern side of Sandown Bay terminated.

Our excursions have now extended round the Island, and embraced the whole series of coast sections, with the exception of the Wealden cliffs that intervene between Compton Bay and Atherfield Point. A visit to Brook Bay will enable us to complete our survey, by an investigation of those highly interesting natural records of one of the most remarkable epochs in the physical history of our globe.