12

SURVEY OF THE COAST.

almost unbroken line of perpendicular loamy cliffs, which atLuccombe are at least two hundred feet high, and graduallydecrease in elevation till, at Sandown fort, they totally disappear,and the shore is scarcely elevated above highwater mark. Thisdepression does not, however, last half a mile ; and the northernside of Sandown hay is formed, first, by the red cliffs of Yaver-land, which soon rise to near two hundred feet, and then by thesouthern face of the chalk range, known by the name of theCulver cliffs, which are exactly similar in appearance to, thoughless in height than, their western termination at the Needles.Their northern face forms a small bay, called White cliff. Thechalk is succeeded by a singular series of perpendicular clay andsand cliffs, of nearly the same nature as those of All tun bay ;separated down to the sea by deep narrow ravines. These arenot above an hundred feet high. The coast then is composedof faces of stone and loam, gradually decreasing in elevation,and the northern termination of the peninsula of Bembridgeis by low and easily sloping land. At St. Helen’s the coast ispretty high and steep, but covered with luxuriant and beau-tiful wood, as far as Nettlestone, where low points of flat landproject from the higher coast into the sea. These are mostlyrock, and have an elevation of forty or fifty feet from the waternearly perpendicular. At Puckpool point the coast is againhigh, steep, and covered with beautiful woods, which almostuninterruptedly clothe the shore of Ryde, Binstead, Quarr, andWotlon ; hanging in many parts quite into the water. FromKing’s Key to East Cowes, the shore is more undermined bylandsprings and the sea: wood, however, springs in every spotpossible, but towards East Cowes is mostly of a low growth, the