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VII. Obfervat'ions enfome remarkable Strata of Flint in a Chalk-fit in the 

 IJle of Wight, in a Letter from Sir Henry Charles Englefield^ Bart. 

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



Read April i, 1800. 



DEAR SIR, 



JLXS you confidered the fpecimens of flint which I fhowed you 

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

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

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

 very extraordinary condition, and will at lead ferve as a guide to 

 thofe who may wiih at a future time to infpeft 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 I know of, been defcribed, as it highly deferves, 

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

 of obfervation were wanting, and the phaenomenon 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 infpedl more than one pit be- 

 fides that in which I firft obferved it. 



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

 with refpecSt to its four angles, almoft 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 direiSlion is due eaft and wefl:. 

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

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