( I03 ) 



VIL Ohfervations onfome remarkable Strata of Flint in a Chalk-pit in the 

 I/le of Wight, in a Letter from Sir Henry Charles Englejieldy Bart, 

 KR.S. to John Latham^ M. D. F, R,S. and L.S, 



Read Jpril i, iSoo. 



DEAR SIR, 



J\.S you confidered the fpecimens of flint which I fhowed you 

 worthy of the notice of the Linnean Society, I tranfmit them to 

 you, together with fuch an account of the fituarion in which I found 

 them, as may perhaps lead to a guefs of the caufes of their prefent 

 very extraordinary condition, and will at leaft lerve as a guide to 

 thofe who may willi at a future time to infpe6l the curious pit 

 where I found them. 



Before I enter on the particular defcription of that fpot I cannot 

 help faying a few words on the lithology of the ifland in general, 

 which has not, that 1 know of, been defcribed, as it highly deierves, 

 by any naturalift. Had I been equal to fuch a talk opportunities 

 of obfervation were wanting, and the phasnomenon which I am. 

 about to defcribe was difcovered by me fo fhort a time before I quit- 

 ted the ifland that I had not time to infpect more than one pit.be-- 

 fides that in which I firfb obfervcd it. 



The Ifle of Wight, which is nearly of a rhomboidal form, lies 

 with refpe6t to its four angles, almofl: abfolutely in the four points 

 of the compafs. It is divided into two very nearly equal parts by a 

 range of chalk hills, whofe general direction is due eaft and weft. 

 Thefe hills do not, however, lie in a ftraight line, nor are they at all 

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