Chapter XIII.. The Scenery of the Island--Conclusion.

THE SCENERY OF THE ISLAND--Conclusion.

After studying the various geological formations that enter into the composition of the Isle of Wight, and learning how the Island was made, it will be interesting to take a general view of the scenery, and see how its varied character is due to the nature of its geology. It would hardly be possible to find anywhere an area so small as this little Island with such a variety of geological formations. The result is a remarkable variety in the scenery.

The main feature of the Island is the range of chalk downs running east and west, and terminating in the bold cliffs of white chalk at Freshwater and the Culvers. Here we have vertical cliffs of great height, their white softened to grey by weathering and the soft haze through which they are often seen. In striking contrast of colour are the Red Cliff of Lower Greensand adjoining the Culvers, and the many-coloured sands of Alum Bay joining on to the chalk of Freshwater. The summits of the chalk downs have a characteristic softly rounded form, and the chalk is covered with close short herbage suited to the sheep which frequently dot the green surface. Where sheets of flint gravel cap the downs, as on St. Boniface, they are covered by furze and heather, producing a charming variation from the smooth turf where the surface is chalk. The Lower Greensand forms most of the undulating country between the two ranges of downs; while the Upper Greensand, though occupying a smaller area, produces one of the most conspicuous features of the scenery--the walls of escarpment that form the inland cliffs between Shanklin and Wroxall, Gat Cliff above Appuldurcombe, the fine wall of Gore Cliff above Rocken End, and the line of cliffs above the Undercliff. To the Gault Clay is due the formation of the Undercliff--the terrace of tumbled strata running for miles well above the sea, but sheltered by an upper cliff on the north, and in parts overgrown with picturesque woods. The impervious Gault clay throws out springs around the downs, which form the headwaters of the various Island streams. The upper division of the Lower Greensand, the Sandrock, forms picturesque undulating foothills, often wooded, as at Apsecastle, and at Appuldurcombe and Godshill Park. On a spur of the Sandrock stands Godshill Church, a landmark visible for miles around. At Atherfield we have a fine line of cliffs of Lower Greensand, while the Wealden Strata on to Brook form lower and softer cliffs.

To the north of the central downs the Tertiary sands and clays, often covered by Plateau gravel, form an extended slope towards the Solent shore, much of it well wooded, and presenting a charming landscape seen from the tops of the downs. This slope of Tertiary strata is deeply cut into by streams, which form ravines and picturesque creeks, as Wootton Creek, 200 feet below the level of the surrounding country. While much of the Island coast is a line of vertical cliff, the northern shores are of gentler aspect, wooded slopes reaching to the water's edge, or meadow land sloping gradually to the sea level. Opposite the mouths of streams are banks of shingle and sand dunes, forming the spits locally known as "dovers." Some of these, in particular, St. Helen's Spit, afford interesting hunting grounds for the botanist.

The great variety of soil and situation renders the Isle of Wight a place of interest to the botanist. We have the plants of chalk downs, of the sea cliff and shore, of the woods and meadows, of lane and hedgerow, and of the marshes. The old villages of the Island, often occupying very picturesque situations--as Godshill on a spur of the southern downs, Newchurch on a bluff overlooking the Yar valley, Shorwell nestling among trees in a south-looking hollow of the downs, Brighstone with its old church cottages and farmhouses among trees and meadows between down and sea--the old and interesting churches, the thatched cottages, the old manor houses of Elizabethan or Jacobean date, now mostly farm houses, for which the Island is famous, add to the varied natural beauty.

One of the most characteristic features of the southern coasts of the Island, should be mentioned, the Chines,--narrow ravines which cut inland from the coast through the sandstone and clays of the Greensand and Wealden strata, and along the beds of which small streams flow to the sea. Narrow and steep-sided,--the name by which they are called is akin to chink--they are in striking contrast to the more open valleys of the streams which flow into the Solent on the north shore of the Island. The most beautiful is Shanklin Chine. The cliff at the mouth of the chine, just inside which stands a picturesque fisherman's cottage with thatched roof, is 100 ft. high; and the chasm runs inland for 350 yds., to where a very reduced cascade (for the water thrown out of the Upper Greensand by the Gault clay is tapped at its source for the town supply) falls vertically over a ledge produced by hard ferruginous beds of the Greensand. Above the cascade the ravine runs on, but much shallower, for some 900 yards. The lower ravine has much beauty, tall trees rising up the sides, and overshadowing the chasm, the banks thickly clothed with large ferns and other verdure. Much wilder are the chines on the south-west of the Island. The cascade at Blackgang falls over hard ferruginous beds (to which the beds over which Shanklin cascade falls--though on a smaller scale--probably correspond). The chine above these beds, being hollowed out in the soft clays and sands of the Sandrock series, is much more open. Whale Chine is a long winding ravine between steep walls, the stream at the bottom making its way through blocks of fallen strata.

The cause of these chines seems to be the same in all cases. It may be noticed that Shanklin and Luccombe chines are cut in the floors of open combes,--wide valleys with gently sloping floors; and at each side of these chines is to be seen the gravel spread over the floor of the old valley. It can scarcely be doubted that these combes are the heads of the valleys of the old streams, which flowed down a gradual slope till they joined the old branch (or, rather the old main river) of the Yar, flowing over land extending far over what is now Sandown Bay. When the sea encroached, and cut into the course of this old river, and on till it made a section of what had been the left slope of the valley, the old tributaries of the Yar now fell over a line of cliff into the sea. They thus gained new erosive power, and cut back at a much greater rate new and deeper channels; with the result that narrow trenches were cut in the floors of the old gently sloping valleys. The chines on the S.W. coast are to be explained in a similar way. They have been cut back with vertical sides, because the encroachment of the sea caused the streams to flow over cliffs, and so gave then power to cut back ravines at so fast a rate that the weathering down of the sides could not keep pace with it. The remarkable wind-erosion of these bare south-westerly cliffs by a sort of sand-blast driven before the gales to which that stretch of coast is exposed has already been referred to.

A few words in conclusion to the reader. I have tried to show you something of the interest and wonder of the story written in the rocks. We have seen something of the world's making, and of the many and varied forms of life which have succeeded each other on its surface. We have had a glimpse of great and deep problems suggested, which are gradually receiving an answer. Geology has the advantage that it can be studied by all who take walks in the country, and especially by those who visit any part of the sea coast, without the need of elaborate and costly scientific instruments and apparatus. Any country walk will suggest problems for solution. I have tried to lead you to observe nature accurately, to think for yourselves, to draw your own conclusions. I have shown you how to try to solve the questions of geology by looking around you at what is taking place to-day, and by applying this knowledge to explain the records which have reached us of what has happened in the past. You are not asked to accept the facts of the geological story on the word of the writer, or on the authority of others, but to think for yourselves, to learn to weigh evidence, to seek only to find out the truth, whether it be geology you are studying or any other subject, and to follow the truth whithersoever it leads.

TABLE OF STRATA

Recent. Peat and River Alluvium.

Pleistocene. Plateau Gravels: Valley Gravels and Brick-Earth.

{ Pliocene} Absent from the Isle of Wight. { Miocene }

{ { { Marine, Corbula Beds { { Hamstead { Freshwater & Estuarine. { { { { { Bembridge Marls { { Bembridge { { { Beds { Bembridge Limestone { { { Oligocene { Osborne and St. Helen's Beds. { { Tertiary { { { Upper. Freshwater and Brackish { { Headon { Middle. Marine { { Beds { Lower. Freshwater and Brackish { { { Barton} Barton Sand. { { Beds} Barton Clay. { { { Eocene { Bracklesham Beds. { { Bagshot Sands { { London Clay { { Plastic Clay (Reading Beds)

{ { White { Upper Chalk (Chalk with flints) { { Chalk { Middle Chalk (Chalk { { { without flints) { { { { { A. plenus Marls { Upper { Lower { Grey Chalk { Cretaceous { Chalk { Chalk Marl { { { Chloritic Marl { { { { { Upper { Chert Beds { { Selbornian { Greensand { Sandstone and { { { Rag Beds Mesozoic { { Gault or { Secondary{ { Carstone { { Lower { Sandrock and Clays { { Greensand { Ferruginious Sands { { { Atherfield Clay { Lower { { Perna Bed { Cretaceous { { { { Shales { { Wealden { Variegated Marls

FOR FURTHER STUDY.

Memoirs of the Geological Survey. General Memoir of the Isle of Wight, date 1889. New edition, entitled "A short account of the Geology of the Isle of Wight," by H. J. Osborne White, F.G.S., 1921, price 10s. The Memoirs are the great authority for the Geology of the Island: technical; books for Geologists. The New Edition is more condensed than the original, but contains much later research. Mantell's "Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight," 1847. By one of the great early geologists. Long out of print, but worth getting, if it can be picked up second-hand.

Norman's "Guide to the Geology of the Isle of Wight," 1887, still to be obtained of Booksellers in the Island. Gives details of strata, and lists of fossils, with pencil drawings of fossils.

Other books bearing on the subject have been mentioned in the text and foot-notes.

An excellent geological map of the Island, printed in colour, scale 1 in. to the mile, full of geological information, is published by the Survey at 3s.

A good collection of fossils and specimens of rocks from the various strata of the Isle of Wight has recently been arranged at the Sandown Free Library, and should be visited by all interested in the Geology of the Island. It should prove a most valuable aid to all who take up the study, and a great assistance in identifying any specimens they may themselves find.

INDEX

Words in Italics refer to a page where the meaning of a term is given.

Agates, 22, 41, 50

Alum Bay, 56-62

Ammonites, 32, 34, 39, 44

Anticline, 12

Astronomical Theory of Ice Age, 83, 85

Atherfeld, 29

Avon River, 94

Barrows, 102, 104

Barton, 61

Belemnites, 33

Bembridge Limestone, 65 -- shingle at, 95

Benettites, 27

"Blue Slipper," 15

Bonchurch, 50, 103

Bos primigenius, 101, 102

Botany, 106

Bracklesham, 59, 60

Brading Harbour, 90, 91

Bronze age, 103

Brook, 29

Building Stone, 39, 65

Carstone, 26, 35

Chalcedony, 22, 41, 50

Chale, 33

Chalk, divisions of, 45, 51, 52 -- Marl, 45 -- Rock, 45

Chalybeate Springs, 25

Chert, 39

Chloritic Marl, 44

Climate.

Coal, 8, 61

Colwell Bay, 64

Compton Bay, 31, 39

Conglomerate, modern, 25

"Crackers," 32

Cretaceous.

Crioceras, 34

Current Bedding, 27

Cycads.

Denudation, 3, 12, 76, 80, 82

Dip, 11

Echinoderms, 48, 52

Eocene, 54

Erosion, marine, 4 " pre-Tertiary, 54

Escarpment, 14

Faults, 13

Fault at Brook, 30

Flint, origin of, 47 " implements, 97

Flora, Alum Bay, 59 " Eocene, 58, 62 " Wealden, 18, 27

Foraminifera, 42, 61

Gat Cliff, 38

Gault, 37

Glacial Period, 77-85

Glauconite, 24, 39, 44

Gore Cliff, 39, 44

Greensand, Lower, 23-36 " Upper, 37

Gravels, 50, 79, 89, 93-95

Hamstead, 65, 67

Headon Hill, 62-64

Hempstead, see Hamstead.

Hyopotamus, 69

Ice Age, 77-85

Iguanodon, 20

Insect Limestone, 67

Iron Ore, 22, 24

Iron pyrites, 22

Landslips, 25, 38

Limnaea, 63, 64, 66

Lobsters, Atherfield, 32

London Clay, 57

Luccombe, Landslip at, 25

Mammalian Remains, 66, 69

Mammoth, 77, 81

Marvel, 35

Medina, 93

Melbourn Rock, 45

Miocene, 69, 71, 76

Nautilus, 32, 45

Needles, 4

Neolithic Man, 100

Newtown River, 102

Nummulites, 61

Oligocene, 63

Palaeolithic Man, 97

Perna Bed, 23, 31

Pine Raft, 29

Planorbis, 63, 64, 66

Plastic Clay, 57

Priory Bay, 99

Purbeck Marble, 16

Quarr, 65

Rag, 38

Rock (place), 35

Roman Villas, 104

St. Boniface Down, 50, 100, 105

St. George's Down, 79, 100

Sandown Anticline, 11-13, 89

Sandrock, 25, 35

Scaphites, 34

Scenery, 105

Sea Urchins, 48, 52,

Shanklin Chine, 107

Solent, 94

Southampton Dock, 101 " Water, 94

Sponges in Flint, 47

Stone Age, 97

Strata, Table of, 110, 111

Strike, 11

Submerged Forest, 101

Swanage, 93

Syncline, 12

Table of Strata, 110, 111

Tertiary, 54

Totland Bay, 63, 95

Tufa, 45

Turtle, 58, 65, 68

Undercliff, formation of, 25, 38

Volcanic Action, 5

Wealden, 15

Whitcliff Bay, 56-67

Wood, Fossil, 8, 15, 18, 27, 29

Yar, Eastern, 89-91 " Western, 92

Zones of Chalk, 51, 52

Printed by The Crypt House Press, Bell Lane, Gloucester.

Transcriber's Notes

With the exception of the changes noted below, the text in this file is the same as that in the original printed version. These may include alternate spelling from what may be common today (for example, gneisse); punctuational and/or grammatical nuances. Additionally, several missing periods were inserted; but are not listed below. Lastly, the Index seems to be missing a few references to page numbers and were left as originally printed.

Emphasis Encoding

Text - Italicized Text $Text$ - Greek translation

Typographical Corrections

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Page 101: sourrounding => surrounding

Page 102: remains In the peat => ... in ...

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