"relief to my ears. The alarm which we "fpread was the more general among these

legions of birds, as we principally disturbed "the females who were then fitting. They "had nefts, eggs, and young to defend. They were like furious harpies let loofe against us. 66 They often flew fo near us, that they flapped their wings in our faces; and though

we fired repeatedly, we could not frighten "them. It seemed almoft impoffible to dif"perfe the cloud. We could not move a step "without crushing either eggs or young ones. "The earth was entirely ftrewed with them."

There is, befides these flights of birds, another picturefque circumftance frequently feen on the coasts of the Isle of Wight, which may be mentioned, though it is a dreadful one, that of shipwrecks. As the diftreffes of mankind furnish the choiceft fubjects for dramatic fcenes, fo do they often for painting. And among these, no marine fubject is equal to a fhipwreck in the hands of a master. I put it into the hands of a master, because I have more frequently feen this fubject mismanaged than any other. A winter feldom paffes in which

the inhabitants of thefe dangerous coafts are not called together to fee fome dreadful event of this kind. Long experience has taught them to judge, when the mischief is inevitable. They see that every wave, which beats over the perishing veffel, drives her nearer fome reefs of rocks, well known to them, though the feaman knows it not. Signals can be of no use; yet they make what signals they can to point out the danger. In a fhort moment the dreadful crash arrives. The labouring veffel, now beating among the rocks, gives way in every part; and the hofpitable iflanders, very unlike their neighbours on the Cornish coaft, have nothing left but to do every thing in their power to fave the miserable people, and recover what they can from the wreck.

Having now finished our view of the Isle of Wight, we returned from the rocks of Freshwater to Yarmouth, where we took boat for Lymington,

IT

SECT. XXXVI.

T has long been a question among naturalists, whether the Isle of Wight was ever joined to the coaft of Hampshire? Its western point has greatly the appearance of having been torn and convulfed. Those vaft infulated rocks, called the Needles, feem plainly to have been washed away from the shores of the island. One of them, which was known by the name of Lot's Wife, a tall spiral rock, was undermined and swallowed up by the sea not many years ago; and there is every probability that the reft will follow.

What renders this separation of the island from the main ftill more probable is, that the sea makes yearly depredations along that part of the Hampshire coaft called Hordle-cliff, which is juft oppofite to the Needles. It has been obferved too, that there are chalk-rocks at the bottom of the water, exactly like the Needles, all along the channel towards Christchurch.

The best recorded authority which we have of this early union between the Isle of Wight

and the main, is given us by Diodorus Siculus. This writer, speaking of the tin trade in Britain, informs us, that the people of Cornwall brought this metal to a certain island called Ictis, for the fake of its being more easily transported from thence to the Continent; into which island they carried it in carts, when the tide ebbed; for Itis, he says, was only an island at full fea*.

By Ictis, it is supposed, Diodorus meant the Isle of Wight; the ancient name of which was Vectis, a name nearly fimilar. This opinion however has been oppofed by fome; and particularly by Mr. Borlafe in his Antiquities of Cornwall, who rather supposes the Ictis of Diodorus to be fome ifland, though he does not well settle where, upon the coast of Cornwall. But Mr. Whitaker, in his History of Manchefter, has brought forward the old opinion again with new authority.

If then this fuppofition is at length well grounded, we may gather from it these points of information, that the Isle of Wight was once a vast promontory, running out into the fea, like the Ifle of Purbeck at this time; that

* Lib. iv. p. 301. ed. Hen.

it was then united folidly to the coaft of Hampshire at its western point, and in all other parts furrounded by the fea; but that about two thousand years ago, (which is somewhat before the time of Diodorus,) the sea had gained fo far upon it, that it became infular and peninfular, according to the flux and reflux of the tide, till at length the fea, gaining ftill farther poffeffion, formed it, as it is at present, into an abfolute island.

As we entered Lymington-river, we found a fresh proof of the probability of the ancient union between Vectis and the main. The tide was gone, and had left vast stretches of ooze along the deferted fhores. Here we faw lying on the right, a huge ftump of a tree, which our boatman informed us had been dragged out of the water. He affured us alfo, that roots of oaks, and other trees, were often found on these banks of mud, which feems ftill to strengthen the opinion that all this part of the coaft, now covered with the tide, had once been forest-land.