Martin's Geological Memoir on Western Sussex. 47 



lets of its celebrated harbour. To these, and to the south, it pre- 

 sents an abrupt escarpment ; on the other side, it slopes rapidly 

 northward, and is quickly lost, under the plastic clay and sands of 

 the * Forest of Bere ;' of which there is about five or six miles, be- 

 tween it and the main body of the chalk of the South Downs, with 

 which it forms a trough or basin. In advance, and at more than 

 double the distance, are the chalk-hills of the Isle of Wight. It 

 therefore distinctly belongs to, and is an emanation from, the north 

 side of the Hampshire basin. 



" At the eastern extremity, the chalk rises out of the plastic clay 

 at Bedharapton, and, taking a direct course westerly, gradually at- 

 tains its greatest elevation between Cosham and Portchester; it 

 then gradually declines, and, after a course of about seven miles, 

 sinks again under the plastic clay, at Fareham. Here it ceases to 

 be an outlier, but the line of elevation can be traced further west- 

 ward, and the chalk is sometimes quarried through the overlying 

 strata, beyond Fareham, and comes to the surface again, at Titch- 

 field and Funtley ; beyond which, this research has not been car- 

 ried. 



" At the eastern extremity of the ridge, where it emerges, at Bed- 

 hampton, it dips gently northward, with a lateral bearing to the 

 east. In the centre the inclination is much greater. There is no 

 good section where it appears to be the greatest, but where the 

 hill is intersected by the Portsmouth road, it amounts to twenty- 

 five or thirty degrees, and at the highest, is perhaps nearly forty. 

 Westward from thence, it is again diminished, and in the chalk-pits 

 near Fareham, is found not only to have lost all its northward dip, 

 but also to have returned to the general southward declination of 

 the Hampshire Downs, dipping five degrees in that direction, with 

 a lateral bearing westward. In inclination, therefore, it traverses 

 an arc of forty -five degrees, in the space of about four miles. To 

 answer to this contortion, a course of fissures may be traced, and 

 these are particularly well displayed in the chalk-pit, close to Fare- 

 ham, where, as the outlier sinks under the plastic clay, they have 

 not been exposed to obliteration by denuding causes. Through a 

 gap begun by some of these fissures, or a larger disruption of the 

 whole mass, the rivulet passes, which takes its course transversely 

 to the chalk, into the Fareham inlet ; for west of it, the general 

 bearing of the ground, by Upland-House, and on towards Funtley, 

 is indicative of a resumption of the northerly dip. 



" A moment's consideration will show, that such an outlier as this 

 is very differently circumstanced from the more common one, or 

 that which is entirely detached from the main body ; separated by 

 the removal of the intervening parts, and therefore properly the 

 outlier of erosion. This, although it is an outlier in reference to the 

 surrounding parts upon the surface, is still connected with, or in- 

 cumbent upon, or in juxtaposition with, the kindred stratum below; 

 and may therefore be called an outlier by-protrusion. 



[Concluded on p. 50.] 



SYNOP- 



