Extract

Although the chalk hills form the most striking feature of Dorsetshire, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight, they do not occupy the whole of the surface of those counties. Several other strata or mineral beds there occur, the general arrangement of which it is the purpose of this communication briefly to illustrate.

The chalk hills which appear on the south eastern-coast of the Isle of Wight traverse the interior of that district in a line nearly due west to the Needles; they are, interrupted by the sea, and by the alluvial deposits on the eastern side of Studland Bay; but reappear at Corfe Castle, and on the coast at Lulworth, from which last place they may be observed passing towards Weymouth, still preserving their original direction, having left to the south of them nearly the whole of the Isle of Purbeck.

The breadth of this range of chalk is not very considerable, for the entire coast from Christchurch Bay to Poole lies to the North of it.

The dip of the strata varies from N.E. to S.E. but the point of the compass, towards which they all tend, is the east.*

The outline of these hills, is characterized by gradual and successive swellings and depressions of the ground; they also offer natural scoops or semi-circular excavations on their acclivities. Though covered with a short grass, they may be called naked, being entirely destitute of timber.

They rise to a greater absolute elevation than the other beds by which they are