the London and Hampshire Basins, 451 



with the debris of the tertiaries still persistent on the chalky to 

 the back of the North Downs, where the same zone is resumed 

 with the same appearances, and extends from Guildford to Can- 

 terbury. There is an important break in the series between 

 Basingstoke and Guildford, owing to the peculiar upcast of the 

 chalk between Crondall and the last-mentioned place. With 

 this exception, the same general character is to be observed in 

 ^11 this spread of supracretaceous gravel. 1 have dwelt more on 

 these phsenomena, because they are, and especially in the Chi- 

 chester country, so strikingly opposed to every notion of gentle 

 attrition and gradual abrasion. 



Neither at Chichester, nor in any part of the great plain in 

 which it stands, are there any terraces or signs of modern sea-beds 

 properly so called. And with regard to the sudden rise of the 

 chalk downs out of this level and deceptive surface, it is to be 

 attributed to two causes. The first, the natural propainence of a 

 stoney stratum in a strongly denuded country. The second, the 

 vicinity of some subordinate anticlinals, or other causes of intu- 

 mescence running from Bowhill* by West Dean, Singleton, and 

 East Dean, some signs of which are to be seen in a chalk quarry 

 at the top of Duncton Hillf. East of this country, and on 

 towards the Adur, the hills are tilted, as I have elsewhere ex- 

 plained, by the long anticlinal of Greenhurst which rules the 

 escarpment of the Downs from Duncton to Wolfstanbury. It 

 is this sudden rise of the chalk out of the plain which Sir C. Lyell 

 has figured in his ' Manual ' as illustrative of a line of sea-cliffs 

 (p. 276, 5th edit.), — a position 1 conceive to be quite untenable, 

 The chalk was hard, the tertiaries soft and destructible ; a strong 

 denuding force brought the former forward with more than usual 

 prominence, the tilting of a proximate line of elevation assisting 

 in the work. With all but religious faith in the doctrines of the 

 author of what may be called the philosophy of modern geology, 

 I grieve to find that our theories of the Weald can be made tq 

 approximate in so few points. Almost all the illustrations Sir 

 C. Lyell has brought to bear on his own views, I consider, like 

 this, to be fallacious, and founded on an erroneous principle. 



The best approach to a true theory of the denudation has been 

 made by my friend Dr. Fitton, in his little book on Hastings. 

 But he has done his work too timidly. 



* See Ordnance Map. 



t Another curious illustration of this line of disturbance and excavation 

 exists in a miniature mole which runs along the valley. The infant Lavant 

 ia here a mere winter-bourne, and its channel fills only after long-continue4 

 rains. I am credibly informed that it makes its appearance at Singleton, 

 and runs strong there, and disappears in an adjoining meadow, breaking 

 out again about a mile off at West Dean, for a fortnight before it ^Us its 

 channel full the whole way. 



