318 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



appear to have arisen on the dome of Chalk. 1 Both the older hypotheses are 

 therefore represented ; but it does not seem easy in either case to substitute for 

 them the theory of submerged banks. And if such a postulate is considered 

 necessary in the case of Chalk, what of escarpments and transverse valleys in 

 other formations? In the north-west corner of the Weald the Lower Greensand 

 forms an escarpment the summit of which is higher than that of the Chalk, and 

 the river Wey cuts impartially through them both. In many other parts of the 

 world whole series of parallel escarpments are thus traversed, and although they 

 are perfectly intelligible on either of the older hypotheses, I find them very 

 difficult to harmonise with Major Marriott's. Is a submerged bank necessary for 

 one formation (the Chalk) and not for the others, or must we postulate a series of 

 banks, successive in time and place, for each of them in turn ? 



We have now examined each of the four "proofs" on which Major Marriott 

 rests his theory ; and it will be seen that he does not bring forward any new 

 observations in support of it, but relies entirely on its capacity to explain 

 phenomena with which we have long been familiar. In three out of the four cases 

 he hardly seems to realise that other explanations have been offered ; and in the 

 fourth he speaks vaguely of "difficulties" in the older interpretations, without 

 attempting to define their nature. It is submitted that in no single case does the 

 new theory meet the facts better than the old, and that in several respects it is 

 distinctly inferior. 



1 Geol. Survey Memoirs for " Hungerford and Newbury," p. 79 ; and 

 " Basingstoke," p. 80. 



