PICTURESQUE ACCOUNT OF TIIE ISLAND.

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into the air in the most pearly clearness. Over the sea hung anhaze which chilled every object, and its horizon was faint andindistinct. It is a very remarkable fact, that although the landbehind Cherbourg is as high as Beachy head, and full ten milesnearer to St. Catherine’s hill, no person ever saw, or heard of itsbeing seen from thence; while, in clear weather, Beachy head isalmost constantly visible. It seems not easy to account for this,particularly as the line of vision to both these points passes directlyover the sea, without any land whatever intervening; so that anyvapour arising from the water, ought to operate equally in eachcase.

Before we quit the subject of the chalk scenery, it may not beimproper to mention, that from the road which ascends Aftondown immediately after quitting Freshwater gate, there is a mostnoble view of the whole line of cliffs from the Gate to the Needlepoint; which perhaps gives a better idea of their size and figure,than any other view of them.

The chines seem to form a species of scenery so much apartfrom any other in the island, and they are so scattered along thewhole exterior coast, that it appeared more convenient to con-sider them under one separate head, than to describe them as theyoccur in the parts of the island already depicted. They all owetheir origin to one common cause, the gradual action of thesmall streams of water which descend from the elevated level ofthe island into the sea, and falling over the edge of the perpen-dicular clay cliffs, have worn for themselves deep gullies, some ofwhich recede to a considerable distance within the shore, and arein fact continually increasing in tlieir dimensions, and frequentlychanging their form. The most eastern of these, as well as the