Td8 Sir H, C, Englefield's Ohfervatiom 



nor the flints to be difpofed fo much in beds as at Carifbrook. The}- 

 were however extremely broken and thattered, and apparently the 

 moft fo where they lay moft in ftrata. The flrata had alfo a greal: 

 inclination or dip to the north. 



Although it would be rafli to attempt to account for this very 

 ilngular iiate of deftrudion of the flints in the CariflDrook pit, yet 

 it is impoffible not to ofter fome conjedlures on the fabjcd:. There 

 can be very little doubt that the flrata, though now fo inclined, 

 were originally formed in a horizontal pofition. When the tre- 

 mendous convulfion took place which funk them to the fituation in 

 which they now appear (at which time the channel which lepa- 

 rates the lile of Wight from the main land was perhaps formed', 

 the flrata of chalk, in the a6l of fubfidence, had a tendency to 

 Aide on each other, and this would be exerted moft fenfibly where 

 from the admixture of the flints the cohcfion of the parts of the 

 chalk was the weakefl:. This motion, or rather ftrain, of fo enor- 

 mous a weight, might in an infl:ant fliiver the flints, though their 

 refiftanceftopped the incipient motion; for the flints, though crufhed 

 to powder, are not difplaced, which muft have been the cafe had the 

 beds Aid fenflbly. This conjecture is perhaps ilrengthened by what 

 I obferved in a few detached nodules of flint in the chalk fl:rata 

 which did not appear to have fuflfered as thofc in the beds of flint 

 have done. I may here add that it feemed as if in fome places the 

 fine powder of the flints had run down, and invefl:ed the nearer parts 

 of the fiflure with a thin coating of the agglutinated dufl; but this 

 may poffibly have taken place fmce the face of the fiflfure has been 

 expofed to the weather. 



Perhaps it may not be totally foreign from the prefent fubje^l, to 



mention that in a very great chalk pit at the village of Preflon, a mile 



north of Brighthelmn:onc, in v/hich the flints lie in very regular 



:nd nearly horizontal ftrata, .but which has alfo vaft perpendicular 



Zr fiiTure.^- 



