THE CHANNEL SLOrE. 125 



is in reality a chalky table- land, rising now and tlien into gently swelling 

 hills, and intersected by narrow and picturesque valleys. In its general features 

 this tract of country presents an appearance of uniformity and repose, and 

 we might almost fancy that for ages it had undergone no chano-e. But 

 geologists have here discovered the remnants of enormous strata, which have 

 been gradually dissolved by water, and transported seaward. Extensive tracts 

 of chalk are covered with a layer of pebbles more than a yard in depth, and these 

 pebbles are all that remains of thick strata of calcareous rocks, the soluble portions 

 of which have been washed away.* Elsewhere the ground is covered with 

 scattered rocks, fragments of eocene hills destroyed through long-continued erosive 

 action. These rocks, on account of their colour and appearance when seen from 

 afar, are usually known as ** grey wethers," but sometimes they are improperly 

 described as "Druids' stones," because they furnished the material emploved 

 in the construction of Stonehenge. Towards the middle of the century these 

 scattered rocks and the monuments raised by the aboriginal inhabitants were the 

 only objects which, away from the towns and villages, contrasted with the uniform 

 verdure of the pastures. Eecently, however, this " plain," which was formerly 

 roamed over only by sheep, has been invaded on all sides by the plough, and a 

 considerable portion of it is now under tillage. 



The zone of cretaceous rocks, of which the plain of Salisbury forms a part, 

 bounds in the north a basin occupied by eocene formations, which stretches for 60 

 miles along the English Channel. Anciently this basin extended far beyond the 

 actual line of coast. The whole of the northern portion of the Isle of Wight was 

 included in it. The Celtic name of that island, Giiitk, is supposed to mean 

 " severed," and an examination of its coast-line shows very clearly that it originally 

 formed part of the mainland. The coasts of the island run nearly parallel to 

 those of the mainland from which it has been cut off. The strait of the Solent 

 on the west, and that of Spithead on the east, are bounded by coasts having 

 the same inflections, and the Isle of Wight almost looks as if it were a fragment 

 detached from England, and bodily shifted to the south. But though the eocene 

 rocks to the north of the island have disappeared, and their place has been 

 invaded by the sea, the cretaceous rocks which form its spine, and anciently 

 extended to the cliffs of Purbeck, have offered a stouter resistance to erosive 

 action. In the interior of the island they have been dissolved in many places 

 by running water, and wide gaps resembling breaches in a rampart open between 

 the hills, but the extremities of the rhomboid terminate abruptly in cliffs. 

 The western promontory rises almost vertically to a height of 450 feet, and off 

 it there stand above the glaucous waters of the sea, not unlike a flotilla of 

 vessels under sail, a few masses of detached chalk, known as the " Needles." 

 These rocks are exposed to the full fury of the gales, and from time to time they 

 yield to the pressure and are broken into fragments. A remarkable case of this 

 kind occurred during a violent storm in 1764, when a rock known as " Lot's 

 Wife" disappeared beneath the foaming waves. In geological structure these 

 * Ramsay, "Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain." 



