[Frontispiece]

Photo by J. Milman Brown, Shanklin. Gore Cliff—Upper Greensand with Chert Beds

No better district could be chosen to begin the study of Geology than the Isle of Wight. The splendid coast sections all round its shores, the variety of strata within so small an area, the great interest of those strata, the white chalk cliffs and the coloured sands, the abundant and interesting fossils to be found in the rocks, awaken in numbers of those who live in the Island, or visit its shores, a desire to know something of the story written in the rocks. The Isle of Wight is classic ground of Geology. From the early days of the science it has been made famous by the work of great students of Nature, such as Mantell, Buckland, Fitton, Sedgwick, Owen, Edward Forbes, and others, who have carried on the study up to the present day. Many of the strata are known to geologists everywhere as typical; several bear the names of the Island localities, where they occur; some—and those not the least interesting—are not found beyond the limits of the Island. Though studied for so many years, there is no exhausting their interest: new discoveries are constantly made, and new questions arise for solution. To those who have become interested in the rocks of the Island, and the fossils they have found in them, and who wish to learn how to read the story they tell, and to know something of that story, this book is addressed. It is intended to be an introduction to the science of Geology, based on the Geology of the Isle of Wight, yet leading on to some glimpse of the history presented to us, when we take a wider outlook still, and try to trace the whole wondrous path of change from the world's beginning to the present day.

I wish to express my warmest thanks to Miss Maud Neal for the beautiful drawings of fossils which illustrate the book, and to Professor Grenville A. J. Cole, F.R.S., for his kindness in reading the manuscript, and for valuable suggestions received from him. I have also to acknowledge my indebtedness to Mr. H. J. Osborne White's new edition of the Memoir of the Geological Survey of the Isle of Wight, 1921; and to thank Mr. J. Milman Brown, of Shanklin, for the three photographs of Island scenery, showing features of marked geological interest, and Mr. C. E. Gilchrist, Librarian of the Sandown Free Library, for kindly reading the proofs of the book.

Mar., 1922.