NEEDLES, THE, a name given to five remarkable rocks lying immediately off the western extremity of the Isle of Wight, in N. Lat. 50. 39., and W. Long. 1. 34. Their origin is attributable to the sea beating on the sharp cliffs which form the W. point of the island, and the same influence is gradually wasting them away; the largest of them, which was 120 feet in height, having been submerged in 1764. They are white, but black at their bases, and curiously streaked throughout with black strata of flints. A lighthouse standing on this extremity of the island rises 715 feet above the sea.