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Brannon's Picture of The Isle of Wight - The Expeditious Traveller's Index to Its Prominent Beauties & Objects of Interest. Compiled Especially with Reference to Those Numerous Visitors Who Can Spare but Two or Three Days to Make the Tour of the Island. by George Brannon
page 17 of 162 (10%)
reciprocally accumulating on the other.

Good Stone of various qualities is found in most parts of the island:
and with that procured from the quarries of Binstead, the body of
Winchester Cathedral was built. All the houses along the Undercliff are
constructed with a beautiful kind of freestone procured on the spot.

Extensive pits are worked in the downs for the chalk, which is used
for manure, burning into lime, &c. A stratum of coals was formerly
believed to run through the central downs, and Sir Rt. Worsley
actually sunk a shaft for it near Bembridge; his labors however
were but poorly rewarded. Veins of coarse iron ore have also
appeared in some parts of the island.

The finest white sand in the kingdom is obtained from the sea-cliffs at
Freshwater, and is carried in great quantities to the glass and
porcelain manufactories. Excellent brick-earth abounds in almost every
part of the island: common native alum, copperas, specimens of
petrifactions, and many curious varieties of sea-weeds, are picked up on
the shores; in the cliffs and quarries are found numerous beautiful
fossil remains,--especially oysters and other bivalve shells, of a vast
size.

The central range of chalk hills divides the island into two nearly
distinct regions, the soil and strata being essentially different,--a
stiff clay predominating on the north side, which is extensively covered
with wood, while the south side is principally of a light sandy soil or
mellow loam, and being exceedingly fertile, the whole tract is almost
exclusively employed in tillage.

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