46 Mr. P. J. Martin on the Anticlinal Line of 



culate with another which is projected westward from the " head 

 of the Weal den denudation." 



On inspecting Mr. GreenougVs map or Dr. Pitton's appended 

 to the above-mentioned memoir, it will be observed that a direct 

 point is made by the Vale of Wardour toward the south west 

 corner of the head of the Weald. And in like manner, an incli- 

 nation is shown by the Pewsey line of valleys at Kingsclere to 

 bend toward the north-west corner at Farnham. The axes of 

 elevation appear to run in these two directions, and the geogra- 

 phical features of the country are in accordance with them, as 

 indicated by the high grounds. Nevertheless, the anticlinal lines 

 which constitute these axes of elevation are distinct and separate, 

 whether they be contemporaneous or not. The Burghclere Hills 

 sink down and do not unite with the North Downs; and the 

 high grounds south of Salisbury, although continued eastward 

 to the Test, in the neighbourhood of Romsey, decline in a syn- 

 clinal hollow to rise again in the high hills about Winchester, 

 which are the proper continuation of the South Downs. 



To make out this in detail, I begin at the upper or western 

 end of the Weald denudation. This district, which Dr. Fitton 

 has called the *' head of the Weald denudation," is a valley 

 ranging almost directly north and south, about sixteen or seven- 

 teen miles in length and (east and west) five or six in breadth. 

 We may for the sake of brevity call it the Wolmar Valley, Wol- 

 mar Forest being one of its most prominent features. It is 

 bounded on the north by the Hogsback, on the south by the 

 bold eminences of Butser Hill and the South Down range, on 

 the west by the Alton Hills — these three sides all being of chalk — 

 and on the east by an elevated platform of the lower greensand, 

 comprising the Hindhead and Blackdown Hills, with the inter- 

 vening high grounds of Haslemere. This valley is wholly com- 

 posed of gait and lower greensand, except a narrow slip of Weald 

 clay in Hartingcombe, as described by Mr. Murchison*. Of 

 the cause of this intrusion of the Weald clay I shall have to speak 

 by and by. Three remarkable anticlinal lines traverse the 

 Wolmar Valley, entering eastward from the greater expansion of 

 the Weald. The middle and most important of them is the great 

 central line of the Weald, which enters the platform above men- 

 tioned by a well-marked " valley of elevation " and erosion, and 

 cuts through the lower beds of the lower greensand with much 

 appearance of disruptive violence at Haslemere. The valley 

 thus formed is based on Weald clay, and at an elevation of 

 five or six hundred feet above the level of the sea runs directly 

 west toward Liphook, and is lost as it opens into the greater 

 expanse of the Wolmar Valley. In its further progress this cen- 

 * Geol. Trans., vol. ii. 2nd series, p. 102. 



