278 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



trunks and branches of large trees completely 

 petrified, many of which are strewn along the 

 strand, and half buried in the sand and shingle. 

 The projecting masses at the foot of the cliff are 

 the broken edges of the strata, and the trunks of 

 fossil trees ; the upper and less coherent deposits 

 having been washed away. 



The cliff is between thirty and forty feet high, 

 and is capped by the bed of loam and gravel pre- 

 viously noticed at Compton Chine. Beneath this 

 alluvial covering are laminated clays and shales, 

 and sand and friable sandstone, abounding in 

 masses and layers of lignite; and minute particles 

 of the same substance are disseminated through- 

 out the strata. Pyrites occurs abundantly in 

 small nodules and spheroidal masses ; and this 

 mineral generally pervades the lignite and wood. 

 Towards the base of the cliff, are the beds of 

 sand and sandstone with hard concretionary grit, 

 containing the fossil trees ; and beneath these 

 are seen, at low water, compact variegated 

 sands, which are the lowermost deposits in the 

 Island. East of the Point is Brook Chine, a 

 deep fissure or chasm that has been worn in 

 the softer strata by the long continued erosion of 

 a stream, which gushes out from beneath the sand 

 beds inland, and (lowing through the alluvial 



