HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



99 



OUR FIRST SrRIXG RAMBLE. 



ONE Friday afternoon my friend, Dr. Morton, 

 having freed himself from his professional 

 duties with a view to a botanical tour, we started at 

 two p.m. upon a long country drive, which proved to 

 both of us one of the most enjoyable excursions we 

 have made for a long time. The morning had been 

 heavy and threatening, but soon after twelve o'clock 

 the sky became perfectly clear, the sun shone out with 

 the splendour of summer, and a light and refreshing 

 breeze played over us, toning down the fierceness of 

 the solar rays. 



In about ten minutes' time we found ourselves 

 obliquely descending the steep face or escarpment of 

 the first parallel (to use a military phrase) of the great 

 chalk range which forms the beautiful chain of hills 

 known as the North Downs. These hills here dip 

 i^ently to the N.E., the chalk passing beneath the 

 Medway ; for some distance on each side of which it 

 is covered with alluvial sand, in many places rich in 

 coprolites. At the distance of about a mile and a half 

 S. W. of the Medway, the long incline of chalk, with an 

 immense tract of fine grass-land reserved by Govern- 

 ment for military purposes, known as the "Lines," 

 is abruptly terminated by the escarpment, AB of 

 fig. 82. These "Lines," lying as they do equally 

 between the three towns. New Brompton, Old Bromp- 

 ton, and Chatham, and being for the most part open 

 to the public, are simply invaluable as a hing to the 

 large population of these towns. 



The lines of "dip" and "strike" of these creta- 

 ceous deposits ai'e well shown by the beautiful sections 

 laid bare in the numerous chalk-quarries found along 

 the slope, the alternate layers of chalk and flint 

 revealing in an unmistakable manner the direction of 

 each. Many beautiful fossils are to be found in these 

 pits, and a visit to them well repays the geological 

 student for his trouble. The long slope of the next 

 ridge is furrowed by many transverse valleys opening 

 into the gi'eat longitudinal valley B (fig. 82), which 

 . runs for miles to the south-east, gradually shallowing 

 out so that the two ridges ultimately become more or 

 less merged into one. Some of the effects of aqueous 

 denudation during the upheaval of the great anticlinal 

 chalk ridge from the bosom of the deep, and the sub- 

 sequent denuding of the central part, afterwards occu- 

 pied by the estuary of a mighty river, are well shown 

 by these transverse furrows and by the scooping out 

 of the escarpment immediately opposite the termina- 

 tions of these hollows by the waters which rushed 

 through them. Standing on our ridge near the 

 Windmill, upon the spot where one of the forts for 

 the defence of Chatham is to be erected, and looking 

 over the country to the south-west, noting as one must 

 the termination of these valleys opposite the denuded 

 face of the chalk and the splendid bay-like inward 

 sweep of the ridge at these points, even the most 

 ungeological of men could scarcely fail to see in it the 



direct agency of water. In fact, I know of no place 

 better fitted for a "lay sermon" than this. Fig. 83 

 shows the termination of two of these transverse 

 valleys, and the modification thereby of the contour of 

 the ridge opposite. 



This cliff, facing as it does the south-west, is in 

 summer a perfect flower-garden, furnishing to the eye 

 botanical a feast that can be surpassed in few places. 

 A notion of its richness and beauty may be gathered 

 from a Ixare enumeration of a few only of the flowers 

 that adorn its banks. L. corniailatiis, A. viclncraria, 

 Hippocrcpis coniosa, O. sativa, L. pratcnsis, Hdian- 

 thcmum vulgare, numerous Composite, several species 

 of Bed-straw, D. carota and other Umbelliferce in 

 abundance ; common mallow, wild mignonette, ver- 

 bena, the sho\\-y Ec/tiiiiu vulgare, the ragworts, 

 Alysstiin funriivjiinji,iiumeYO\xs labiates, — among them 

 Origanum vulgare, thyme, three species of Chenopo- 

 dium, N. cetaria, N. glcchovia, &c. In the hedge we 

 find Euonymus, V. lantana, P. aria, with magnificent 

 silver-lined leaves, privet, black-thorn, white-thorn, 

 cum multis aliis. At the present, however, we have 

 but a small promise of these in the budding leaves, 

 the enlarging corymb of V. lantana, and in the 

 appearance of V. odorata, V. canina, S. holostca, and 

 the pretty blossoms of the black-thom. 



Passing along the valley we came, near Bradhurst, 

 to a small wood, a favourite hunting-ground of ours, 

 where we found the showy flowers oi Anemone ne mo- 

 ras a, R. Jit aria, Cardamine pratensis, and P.fragra- 

 riastrium gaily intermingled, forming a most pleasing 

 picture. Among these were scattered tufts of Z. 

 campestris, while mosses of various kinds clothed the 

 earth as with a carpet of many-tinted green. After a 

 few turns amid its thickets, feasting our eyes upon its 

 beauties and securing for the future some of its 

 treasures, Ave drove on through Lidsing to Boxley- 

 hill. 



Here again meets the eye of the wanderer a scene 

 that is rarely surpassed for beauty and variety. Im- 

 mediately before us lies the abrupt descent of the 

 chalk escarpment, a counterpart of the one already 

 alluded to, but on a grander scale, and, unlike that, 

 clad from base to summit with thousands of trees of 

 various species. Prominent among them are the giant 

 gloomy-headed yew, the beautiful beech, the graceful 

 elm, the pretty evergreen oak, its massive gnarled 

 brother, the English oak, and the elegant birch. 

 Among its humbler denizens we find V. opulus, V. 

 lantana, the hornbeam, the hazel, various willows, 

 buckthorn, Atropa belladonna, and the curious juniper. 

 Stretching away for miles before us, studded with 

 magnificent elms and other forest trees, and dotted 

 over with town and hamlet, rises the Weald of Kent, 

 forming a picture that surpasses description, and thus 

 justifies by its beauty and fertility the boast that 

 ' ' Kent is the garden of England, " 



Arrived here, we descended on foot the steep lane 



that leads to the lower land of Boxley village, making 



F 2 



