Dr. MantelVs Isle of Wight. 231 



wood-cuts. It is got up in the same elegant style of paper and 

 typography as the Medals, and is intended as a companion both 

 to the tourist and the geologist. The Isle of Wight, long a fa- 

 vorite resort of travellers and invalids, is now for a part of the 

 year, the residence of the royal family, and of course presents 

 new attractions to a loyal people. The work of Dr. Mantell is 

 therefore in harmony with the era, and as we understand, meets 

 a wide demand. 



Although the Isle of Wight is visited by the general traveller 

 with particular reference to its picturesque scenery, it possesses, 

 in the language of the author, still stronger claims to the atten- 

 tion of the natural philosopher, for, the strata of which it is com- 

 posed present phenomena of the highest interest, which elucidate 

 some of the most important pages in the earth's physical history. 

 Notwithstanding the publications of Sir H. Englefield, Mr. 

 lhomas Webster, and other able observers, and of the models 

 °i Captain Ibbetson, it is affirmed by the author that the major- 

 ity of the inhabitants, and that thousands of intelligent strangers 

 who annually traverse the island, pass unconsciously over a coun- 

 try "rich in the spoils of nature and teeming with objects of the 

 highest interest to the instructed observer." This deficiency of 

 Knowledge is supplied in the work before us, and its usefulness 

 is not confined to the travellers in this small island, since the 

 Phenomena here recorded and the fossils here observed and de- 

 scnbed, and the conclusions drawn, have an important bearing 

 upon the geology of similar regions found in other countries. It 

 is difficult to give an analysis of a work whose leading topics 

 are necessarily local. Some principal features may however be 

 presented with due prominence. The chalk formation is ably 

 illustrated : in this the author is peculiarly at home, as he was 

 "orn and lived most of his life among the chalk downs and cliji's, 

 an d is familiar both with the upper and the lower chalk, forming 

 together with the associated strata, masses of one thousand feet 

 m thickness in the deepest beds. 

 J^ the instructive summary of the author : — 

 The character of the cretaceous system is that of an ocean-bed, 

 jormed in a vast basin by successive accumulations of sedimen- 

 tary detritus, transported by currents, and thrown down in the 

 tranquil depth of the sea ; arenaceous and argillaceous deposits 

 Prevailed in the lower, and cretaceous in the upper division of 

 the series; periodical intrusions of heated fluids charged with 

 siiex having taken place at uncertain intervals. The fossils 

 Prove that the ocean swarmed with innumerable beings of the 

 «sual orders of vertebrate and invertebrate marine organisms, be- 

 tonging for the most part to species and genera now unknown ; 

 ^m the chalk are seen, for the last time, that numerous tribe 

 01 Cephalopoda, the ammonites, of which, so far as our knowl- 



