of Hampshire and Dorsetshire. 26T 



Otterborne, on the southern slope of that same ridge, we lose the 

 chalk, because, the country lowering, we enter into an alluvial basin 

 in which lies Southampton, and which probably extends as far as to 

 Carisbrook a little beyond Newport, in the Isle of Wight. There 

 we meet with the belt of chalk hills before mentioned, and again on 

 the southern slope we enter at Shorwell, a sandy basin, till we come 

 to the southern coast of the isle which is chiefly composed of calca- 

 reous sandstone, chert, and coarse shelly limestone 



We shall find that the same arrangement prevails about Corfe 

 Castle, and there indeed we may fairly say that the shallow inner 

 harbour of Poole lies in the bottom of the trough of sand which 

 rests on the acclivities of Corfe Castle chalk-hills. Were the sea to 

 force itself a passage somewhere between Lulworth and Wareham, 

 (situated at the head of Poole harbour) would not then the Isle of 

 Purbeck improperly called so now, become a true island ? and would 

 not then its formation be owing to a cause exactly like that which 

 I have ventured to suppose, has formed the present Isle of Wight ? 



I shall close these observations by saying, that if we take a com- 

 prehensive view of the southern counties of England, from the east 

 of Kent to the Land's End, we may safely assert, that there are very- 

 few countries which, within such limits, can boast of so varied and 

 regular a succession of rocks, from those which are reckoned by 

 most geologists to be of the latest formation, to those which belong 

 to the oldest. 



2 L 2 



