the London and Hampshire Basins. 47 



tral line heaves in succession the higher beds of the lower green- 

 sand and the gait ; and tilting up the malm or upper greensand 

 beds, it gives them a prominence which they do not elsewhere 

 assume, and enters the chalk between the salient angles of 

 Hawksley andWorldham. The central rent is at Selborne, and 

 the highest point in the chalk hills of this part of the Alton 

 range is a little south and west of that village. 



South of the central anticlinal line another enters the Wolmar 

 Valley by Trotton and Rogate, and passing by Petersfield enters 

 the upper greensand and chalk about a mile north of East-meon *. 

 As this line runs the whole length of Sussex, and then traverses 

 the Hampshire chalk and crosses the Test, it will merit a more 

 particular description. 



The third anticlinal line which traverses the Wolmar Valley 

 runs north of the other two, and is more strongly marked in 

 this part of its course than the one last mentioned, though else- 

 where its features are by no means so prominent. As this line 

 is to carry us on towards Pewsey, and is otherwise so remarkable, 

 I shall give a detailed description of its course from the neigh- 

 bourhood of Guildford into the chalk hills west of Farnham. 

 But before we quit the Wolmar Valley I must be allowed to say 

 a few words more on the Haslemere and Hindhead platform, 

 particularly as its position is strongly illustrative of the range 

 and operation of these three principal anticlinal lines. Viewed 

 from any good central position in the western Weald, as say 

 Loxwood, Billingshurst or Five Oaks, the platform in question 

 looks like a high table-land ranging north and south. It swells 

 a little at each end to form the hills of Hindhead and Blackdown, 

 and thence declines very gently each way toward the Haslemere 

 gap in the centre. Its appearance when viewed in this position 

 is doubly interesting to the geological observer, when he under- 

 stands that it is sustained on the central line of elevation, with 

 its two extremities resting on the two lateral parallel linesf. 



Turning our attention now to the north side of the Wolmar 

 Valley, we are arrested by the appearance of a remarkable con- 



* I have since seen reason to correct this statement. The anticHnal hne 

 of Winchester, after passing up the Valley of Chilcomb, takes its progress 

 eastward in an intumescence of the chalk, forming a range of high grounds 

 terminating in the Vale of East and West Meon. The synchnal of this 

 elevation appears to be the Vale of Braradean, a remarkable longitudinal 

 valley, containing, as to be afterwards noticed, an immense accumulation 

 of angular flints. Its synclinal character is the more probable, as it gives 

 rise to an affluent of the Itchin. 



t The copious springs that burst out in the fissure West of Haslemere 

 can only be supplied by the rains that fall on this platform of green sand- 

 stone ; and the manner in which it is tapped and the water drawn oflP west- 

 ward, in the direction of the decline of the Weald clay toward the Hamp- 

 shire chalk, is as curious as it is instructive. 



