Under the head of Antiquities, Sir H. Englefield chiefly includes castles, churches, and manor-houses; some of which are described, we believe, for the first time, but not with a degree of interest or minuteness that needs for a moment to detain us.

Mr. Webster's letters next demand our attention. The first delineates the geological features of the coast, from Brading, by Culver, to Sandown, including the junction of the vertical with the horizontal strata of the island.

'I now followed,' he says, 'these vertical cliffs northwards on the beach, until I came to the horizontal strata. This calcareous bed, which I had already seen at Bembridge ledge, is at that place nearly horizontal; but when it approaches within a hundred yards of the vertical clay cliffs, it rises towards them; and when very near, turns upwards, forming a curve, which continues until as high as the top of the clay, and is then suddenly broken off.

At the exact point of union between the clay and the rock, the spot being much overgrown with bushes, it is not easy to trace the direction of the clay strata with certainty; neither can it be observed inland, since the ground is cultivated, and the upper part of the rock is much decomposed. If the clay, however, be not vertical under the curved part of the calcareous stratum, it is probably highly inclined, dipping to the north.'

The entire letter furnishes a statement of the physiognomy and composition of the strata, as far as they can be ascertained: but the frequent references to the plates require that the details should be perused in the original. The rugged and disjointed scenery of the Undercliff is particularly described in the third letter. The whole has probably been the result of the subsidence, or rather of the sliding, of some of the strata; and one of these local revolutions appears to have taken place very recently. The falling of some of the cliffs obviously proceeds from the action of land-springs on the stratum of the blue marl on which they rest, till it becomes of a muddy consistency, flows out, and leaves the sand-stone without support.

The members of the green sand-stone-formation, as they have been observed in the Isle of Wight, are very distinctly

ears.

tenant on board the next ship, that as she went down, this mass of people gave a cry so lamentable, that it was still ringing in his It was supposed that at the time of the accident, above a thousand persons, men and women, were on board: not four hundred were saved. The eddy made by the sinking ship was so great that a large victualling barge which lay along side was drawn in, and lost with her.'

defined.

defined. Near the top of a cliff, in the vicinity of Compton Chine, numerous trunks of trees, a foot or two in diameter, and ten or twelve feet in length, are found buried eight or ten feet under the sand and gravel; and round them are scattered considerable quantities of nuts, apparently similar to those of the hazel, and termed Noah's nuts by the people of the country. • None of the wood nor fruits were at all mineralized, but resembled the state of such substances when they have lain long in bogs or marshes. Among them was some phosphat of iron. No hazel whatever now grows upon the island; nor has the subversion of these trees been an event of recent occurrence. Their situation, under such deep beds of earth and gravel, points out its remote antiquity. Yet pieces are sometimes found so fresh, as to bear being worked into furniture; and a farmer in the neighbourhood shewed me a table which he had made of this wood."

At Brook-point, are observed numerous specimens of vegetable stems, or trunks, in a charred or coaly state, imbedded in clay of various colours, and often compressed by the incumbent weight. On inspection, almost all the rocks on the beach were perceived to be composed of petrified trees, parts of which are converted into iron-stone, and other parts consist of a great variety of substances; the whole exhibiting • a beautiful example of the astonishing processes of nature in converting vegetables into coal, and in filling their substance with solid rock.'

The bottom of Alum Bay is remarkable for many vertical alternations of layers of pure clay and pure sand with ferruginous sand and shale, varying in thickness from less than an eighth of an inch to several feet.

The number and variety of these vertical layers is [are] quite endless, and I can compare them to nothing better than the stripes on the leaves of a tulip. On cutting down pieces of the cliffs, it is astonishing to see the extreme brightness of the colours, and the delicacy and thinness of the several layers of white and red sand, shale and white sand, yellow clay and white or red sand, and indeed almost every imaginable combination of these materials. These cliffs, although so highly coloured that they could scarcely come within the limits of picturesque beauty, were not, however, without their share of harmony. The tints suited each other admirably; and their whole appearance, though almost beyond the reach of art to imitate, was extremely pleasing to the eye. Their forms, divested of colour, when viewed near, and from the beach, were often of the most sublime class; resembling the weather-worn peaks of Alpine heights. This circumstance they derive from the same source as those primitive mountains; for the strata being vertical, the rains and snow-water enter between them, and wear deep channels, leaving the more solid parts sharp and pointed.'

This neighbourhood is likewise deserving of particular investigation because it reveals the union of the vertical and horizontal strata, and invites to an examination of those huge detached masses of chalk, termed the Needles. The impressive and majestic scene was, at the time of Mr. Webster's visit, considerably animated by the bustle excited by the wreck of the Pomone frigate. The singular aspect of the vertical strata and of the Needles is well depicted in the plates. Vertical and waved strata occur, also, on the opposite coast of Dorset→shire; where the chalk-formation is analogous to, or perhaps identical with, that of the Isle of Wight. Its structure and various appearances are unfolded in the course of two letters, and strikingly illustrated by the engravings.-Among the hills about Worth, are numerous scattered fragments of the Purbeck lime-stone, some of which consist of pieces of the chert that abounds in these strata and includes the same fossil-shells as the lime-stone.

This chert, having lain upon the hills for ages, exposed to the action of decomposing causes, has its surface considerably corroded; but the shells, being converted into chalcedony, are harder than the chert, and consequently have resisted the effects of these agents, and remain on the surface entire. These shells in general are minute; and several of them appeared to be fresh-water shells, among which, a species of Planorbis, and the Helix vivipara, LINN., or Cyclostoma, LAM., were distinguishable. Some of them even still preserve their original nacre.

It was long ago observed by Woodward, in his History of Fossils, that the shells in the Purbeck marble consisted chiefly of the Helix vivipara; and it is rather surprizing that this very ancient fresh-water formation should not have excited more attention. Beautiful impressions of fish are frequently met with by the quarrymen between the lamina of the lime-stone; and I saw abundance of fragments of bones, some of which belonged to the turtle. Complete fossil turtles have been found; and, lately, one extremely perfect.'*

At Lulworth-Cove, curious exhibitions occur of the strangely contorted state of the thin strata of the Purbeck shell-limestone; and, a little to the west of the spot called the Bat's Corner, the union of the vertical and the horizontal beds of chalk is effected by a series of curved strata. The cliff at this place is at least two hundred and fifty feet high; and on landing, I found that the chalk which had been extremely hard all along the coast, when vertical, was quite soft in the horizontal part. The flints were not shattered; and, in short, it did not differ

*This is now in the possession of Mr. Bullock, the proprietor of an interesting museum.'

in any way from chalk as it is usually found. The agreement, in this respect, between this place and Handfast-point, is not a little singular, and seems to point out some connection between the hardness of the chalk and its vertical position.'

We cannot afford room to enter into Mr. Webster's hypothetical reasonings, ingenious as they certainly are, with respect to the causes which may have produced the singular formation in question; nor is he himself inclined to lay much stress on them: but he entertains little doubt that the following successive geological epochs are ascertainable in the Isle of Wight:

· I. That in which its strata were formed, in a horizontal position.

2. That in which the horizontality of its strata was changed either by elevation or subsidence.

'

3. That during which (according to the suppositions I have ventured to advance) the basin thus formed was filled with a series of new depositions; the latest formed strata now in Britain.

4. That in which was carried away a great portion of the mass of all the strata indiscriminately; at the same time depositing some of the ruins, or fragments, on the new surface.

5. The retiring of the denudating cause, leaving the land as we now see it.'

The author then closes his eleventh letter, by hinting at the propriety of employing the chalk-marl as a suitable manure on those unproductive districts of the island in which ferruginous sand predominates; and hence he takes occasion to remark the intimate connection which now subsists between the study of geology and that of agriculture.

Letter XII. indicates the series of analogies which have been observed between the geology of the field explored by the writers of the present volume, and that of the Parisian basin described by Messrs. Cuvier and Brongniart; (see our Appendix to Vol. lxxxii. N. S.;) and, though some of the links in the chain of comparison are deficient, the general coincidence of structure is sufficiently obvious.

As a highly embellished register of curious and striking geological facts, this costly volume is intitled to more than ordinary consideration: but it may be proper to mention that the Picturesque Beauties and Antiquities, although they occupy a prominent station in the title-page, are much more briefly treated than the history of strata and formations, and might perhaps have been altogether omitted in a publication so essentially devoted to these latter objects.

ART.

pre

ART. VIII. Des Colonies, &c. ; i. e. On the Colonies, and the sent American Revolution. By M. de Pradt, formerly Archbishop of Malines. 2 Vols. 8vo. Paris. 1817. Translated into English. 8vo. pp. 501. 12s. Boards. Baldwin and Co. ART. IX. Des Trois derniers Mois, &c.; i. e. On the last three Months of South America and of Brazil; with an Answer to the Strictures of the Newspapers called La Quotidienne and the Journal des Débats. By M. de Pradt. 8vo. pp. 160. Paris. 1817.

ART. X. Observations sur M. de Pradt, &c.; i.e. Observations on M. de Pradt's Publications intitled Des Colonies and Des Trois derniers Mois de l'Amérique. By M. Fauchat. 8vo. pp. 89. Paris. 1817.

N°

o writer is more dexterous in taking advantage of the state of the public mind than the Abbé de Pradt; who, among his multifarious performances, was the author of one that was published nearly twenty years ago under the title of Les trois Ages des Colonies. This singular appellation had reference to the past, present, and future condition of America; and, late events appearing to verify some of his predictions, he has been induced to recast his former book, and to add to it a variety of ideas suggested by the existing struggle between the colonists and the mother-country. With the appearance of much subdivision, however, the present works are as deficient in arrangement as the other productions of the Abbé ; who, having once la plume à la main, seems to impose no check on the vivacity of his imagination or the exuberance of his inventive faculty. The essay on the Colonies may be divided into three parts; viz. 1. Account of the English, Spanish, and other American Colonies. 2. General reasoning on the colonial System. 3. Considerations suggested by late Events. Of these respective divisions, the first and second are in a great measure a reproduction of Les trois Ages, while the third is the offspring of the present contest between Spain and her Trans-Atlantic states: the last shall consequently have the chief share of our attention; and we shall begin with the author's observations on a topic which at present occupies much of the public attention.

Probable Issue of the War in Spanish America. In discussing this momentous question, the Abbé has no hesitation in giving a decided answer in favour of the insurgents; without any other qualification than that partial or temporary successes may be obtained by the regular troops sent out from old Spain. He reasons on this point at considerable length, and certainly with a balance of argument in his favour, pro¿ vided