172 



THE GEOLOtiiST. 



fact of there having been as yet no official survey of this island ; while 

 those portions of the geological series represented in the Manx rocks 

 having been typically established from other localities, it did not 

 seem to present geological features sufficiently novel or peculiar to 

 require any special investigation. Still, in the earlier years of the 

 science, several eminent geologists did describe, with greater or less 

 minuteness, some of its geological appearances : for example, Profes- 

 sor E. T'orbes, who wrote a short account of Manx geology for one of 

 the local guide-books ; and a much more elaborate account was 

 written by the Eev. J. G. Gumming, F.G.S., and published m 1848; 

 but the rapid progress of the science, while it does not deprive these 

 descriptions of all value, has in a great measure superseded them, 

 and opened here a wide and almost untrodden field for the modern 

 geologist. Having for several years resided on the island, and being 

 convinced that many of the phenomena presented by the Manx rocks, 

 if not altogether new to the geologist, are yet of remarkable interest, 

 and capable of taking a great part in the solution of many of the 

 problems which geologists are now endeavouring to solve, I have written 

 the following brief account, with the view of diffusing, through the 

 pages of the ' Geologist,' a more general knowledge of the geology of 

 the Isle of Man, and in the hope of attracting to the subject that at- 

 tention which it deserves. 



Approaching the shores of the Isle of Man from the south-east, the 

 whole of the island, v* ith the exception of a small part of the north- 

 west, too low to be distinguished at this distance, lies spread out be- 

 fore us ; £rst, like a long ridge of blue cloud resting upon the misty 

 horizon, which, as the vessel brings us nearer, shapes itself into the 

 mountains and valleys, the rocky coasts and the secluded bays, of 

 green Mona. Right before us opens out the beautiful bay of Dou- 

 glas, hemmed in by the lofty headlands of Douglas Head and Banks's 

 Howe, and relieved in the background by the highest peaks of the 

 central range. Along the margin of the crescent-shaped bay, and 

 capping the lofty ancient beach to the back of it, are numerous ele- 

 gant buildings, the suburbs of the town, which itself lies clustered on 

 a low triangular patch of alluvial land at the south extremity of the 

 bay. Far away to the south we can distinguish in the distance the 

 rocky islet of the Calf, with its numerous outliers, many of them 

 worn by the waves of older seas into huge arches and long winding 

 caverns, through which we may occasionally, even at this long way 

 off, catch a glimpse of the bright sunlight. Between us and the 

 Calf stretches a long line of rocky coast, with numerous tall promon- 

 tories—Spanish Head, Scarlet Head, Langness, St. Ann's Head, and 

 others— rising precipitously out of the green water, whose roar, as it 

 dashes against the rocky cliffs or rushes up the numerous caverns, 

 falls upon our ear like the hoarse voice of old Ocean himself welcom- 

 ing to the sea-girt gem before us. To the north, we look along a 

 similar line of tall clifis and sheltered bays, until the view is closed 

 in by the wild promontory of Maughold Head, beyond which nothing 

 is seen but the heaving restless sea, dotted here and there, it may be, 



