WIGHT, ISLE OF, on the south coast of England, is separated from the mainland of Hampshire by a channel called the Soleut Sea.
The average breadth of this channel is less than four miles. It is narrowest to the west of Yarmouth, where it is contracted to about a mile by a narrow tongue of gravelly beach which runs out nearly two miles from the Hampshire coast, and on the extremity of which is situated Hurst Castle. This narrow part of the channel is extremely deep. From Yarmouth to near West Cowes the width is from two to three miles ; it is here contracted to a mile and a half, but opens out opposite to Southampton Water to about five miles ; it then grows narrower as it approaches Spithead, where the entrance to the channel from the east is from two to three miles. The current through the channel, both with the rising and ebbing tide, is extremely strong.
The form of the island is that of an irregular rhomboid or lozenge. The Needles Cliff, at the western extremity of the island, is in 50' 40' N. lat., 1° 34' W. long.; the Foreland, at the eastern extremity, is iu 50° 41' N. lat., 1° 5' W. long. West Cowes Castle, north, is in 50° 46' N. lat., 1° 17' W. long.; St. Catherine's Point, south, is in 50° 35' N. lat., 1° 18' W. long. The longer diameter, from the Foreland to the Needles Cliff, is not quite 23 miles ; the shorter diameter, from West Cowes on the north to St. Catherine's Point ou the south is ecarely 14 miles; the circumference is about 56 miles, and the area is 99,256 acres, or about 155 square miles. The population in 1851 was 42,277.
Coast and coast of the Isle of Wight consists for the most part of precipitous cliffs or steep slopes. The north coast is lower than the south.
The surface of the Isle of Wight is for the most part at a great elevation above the sea. A range of high chalk downs extends, with some interruptions and irregularities, from the Culver Cliff east to the Needles west. In this chalk range there are three principal depres sions: between Yaverland and Brading, three-quarters of a mile wide, through which the eastern Yar flows; between St. George's Down and
Cariabrooke, half a mile wide, through which the Mediva flows ; and at Freshwater Gate, hardly 100 yards wide, through which the Western Yar flows. Besides these principal depressions, several others, from 100 to 200 feet deep, divide the range into a series of long eminences. The highest point of the chalk range is Mottiston Down, 693 feet above the sea. The south side of the island consists of a high range of downs, the upper part of which, on the west, is part of the chalk ridge ; on the south, is chalk in horizontal strata; on the east, is green sandstone and irousand. A broad valley separates the lofty range of south downs from the central chalk ridge. The north side of the island, which is in general less elevated than the south side, consists of a great variety of wooded hills and valleys.
The most extensive of the valleys is that of the Eastern Yar alluded to above, which comprises a large portion of the most fertile land in the island. The basin of the Medina, which is in general very narrow, forms a central valley. The south-western valley is bounded on the east by St. Catherine's Hill, on the west by the sea, on the north by the chalk ridge. On the north-east are a number of small valleys which open separately into the sea; that of the Wootton River is the most extensive. Another series of separate valleys, but more flat and marshy than the north-eastern, forms a north-western valley which is bounded on the west by the high land of Colwell Bay and Totwcll Bay. Last and least is the singular valley of Freshwater, in which the Western Yar rises within a few yards of the south coast, and running into the sea at Yarmouth on the north coast, almost makes a distinct peninsula of the western end of the island.
The highest part of the island is St. Catherine's Hill, the summit of which is 830 feet above the sea; the height of Dunnose is 792 feet.