126 



EECEEATIYE SCIENCE. 



A GEOLOGICAL SCENE IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



ALUM BAY AND THE NEEDLES. 



EVEETBODY wllO lias 1)6611 to the Isle of 

 Wigkt exclaims in enraptured terms of the 

 beautiful scenery of Alum Bay, and in curi- 

 ous wonderment of those natural curiosities 

 the "Needles." The former derives its 

 charms from the marvellously diversified and 

 brilliant tints of its beds of tertiary sand, 

 rivalling tlie bright hues of the tulip, or the 



Fio. 1. — Arch of Chalk and worn-down " Needle," in 

 Durdle Bay. 



radiant colours of striped silk ; the latter are 

 tall pinnacles of white chalk, projecting from 

 the sea like monumental pillars, as, indeed, 

 they are, of the waste and long-continued 

 ravages of the sea and air. 



Notorious as is the scenery throughout 

 the island for romantic beauty. Alum Bay is 



admittedly superior to any other portion, for 

 where the coloured sands end the chalk 

 cliffs rise towering with unbroken face, 

 their pearly hue contrasted now and then 

 with tenderest stains of ochreous yellow and 

 greenish vegetation, to four hundred feet in 

 height, and terminating by a thin projection 

 of bold and broken outline in the far-famed 

 wedge-shape "Needles," standing out in un- 

 sullied whiteness from the blue waves. 



The magical repose of one side of the bay 

 contrasts forcibly with the rugged outline 

 and vivid colouring of the cliffs on the other, 

 and when, after summer rain, the sun lights 

 up the stripes of "purplish-red and dusky 

 blue, bright ochreous yellow, gray nearly 

 approaching to white, and positive black," it 

 gives an almost unearthly resplendence to 

 the scene, which no one who has seen it ever 

 forgets. 



Such are the attractions which Alum Bay 

 presents to the mere sight-seer ; to the eye 

 of the geologist it presents still something 

 more. He sees all the beauty of its 

 aspects, all the wonderful contrasts and assi- 

 milations of its variegated colours ; but he 

 sees also that which to the untutored gazer 

 is unthought of, or a mystery; he reads in 

 those vertical strata the ancient history of 

 those brilliant sands, the ancient conditions of 

 those tall white cliffs ; he knows the story of 

 those pointed pinnacles, and lie revels in the 

 rock-voiced legendary lore of the uncounted 

 ages of the past. He, in his mental vision, 

 sees those old chalk lands silently and so- 

 lemnly rising from a former sea, bearing on 

 their giant shoulders the thick masses of 

 sands and muddy sediments that gather on 

 •their shores ; he digs into those sands and 

 clays which the other merely gazes at, and 



