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ST. BONIFACE.

and which might perhaps have extended under St. Boniface’shill.

It is, however, also possible, that a subsidence might have takenplace by the failure of the inferior strata, posterior to the forma-tion of the chalk, which might have sunk in a perpendicularmanner without any lateral movement. That immense masses ofthe strata have fallen, or rather slid down, without having beenbroken to pieces, may be learned by viewing Ventnor cove, andstill better, by observing the cliffs at Western lines; but in allthose places, although the strata have not been much shattered,they have fallen into, and now remain in, a highly inclinedposition. In Binnel bay below Woolverton, (Pi. XXI.) there isa striking instance of this: here the sandstone, in inclined strata,forms the high cliffs at the sea; and in the side of the bay, thechalk marl may be seen above the sand-stone, still in its stratifiedstate.

. Whatever, therefore, was the circumstance that occasioned thishorizontal mass of chalk to come into this low situation, it must,I think, have been different from that which gives rise to therecent failures of the Undercliff', which, as I before observed, areowing to the destruction of the dark grey marl stratum under thesandstone. The present situation of the chalk, however, if itwas the effect of a subsidence, requires a source of failure seatedmuch lower. The inclined position of the enormous masses ofrock, which lie along the southern shore of the island below theUndercliff, and which dip rapidly towards the land, suggests theidea, that the subsidence must have taken place between themand the part of the stratum still remaining in situ ; and we mayperhaps consider this as an instance of that kind of disturbance