Hi Mr. ¥;4imKMtkonlhe AnticHnOl Line of 



of Tipbeaved strata, wliich characterizes the entrance of a saddle, 

 or the extremity of an ('scar{)]nent of any notable elevation, where 

 the materials are not of the most finable nature. This dispo- 

 sition, with the gradual decline of force in the line itself, give a 

 strike to the beds that throws all the water, except a little sur- 

 face drainage from the chalk marl country, westward towards 

 Alresford and the Candover Valley. By this test, rather than 

 by any sections or surface arrangement, we are able to judge of 

 the prevailing dip. 



The highest ])oints of elevation on the central line are in a 

 nameless ridge a little north-east of Var Down, and the high 

 grounds about East Fisted and Bentworth, overlooking the syn- 

 clinal line south of Alton. The importance of this line of elevation 

 is maintained even beyond the valley of transverse drainage in 

 which the three Candover villages are situate (the synclinal, 

 most probably, of the Alton range), and a long succession of 

 waving hills and high plains (of which the engravings of the 

 Ordnance Map give no adequate conception) cany it on between 

 the longitudinal valleys of the Itchin on the south, and the 

 Mitcheldever River on the north towards the Test, where its 

 presence is marked by the prominent features of the Stockbridge 

 Common Down and Longstock Hills. In the middle of this 

 course, about midway between Mitcheldever and Worthy Down, 

 it is cut through by the second tunnel of the Southampton Rail- 

 way at an elevation of 350 feet. 



Westward of the Test, the progress and full effect of this line 

 of elevation becomes very obscure. The central hills which, 

 bound the remarkable transverse valley* that strikes across, and 

 forms with the Valley of the Wiltshire Avon the natural limits j 

 of Salisbury l^lains, lie in its course. Beacon Hill near Ames- 

 bury is the culminating point of these high grounds ; and in all 

 probability the strong central line of the Weald denudation is 

 continued onwards to assist in the support of the high platfonn 

 of Sahsbury Plains. 



The arrangement of the Wiltshire country west of the natural 

 boundary of the Avon is much more simple than that which has 

 formed the principal subject of the foregoing paper. By the joint 

 operation of the Pewsey and Warminster lines, assisted by the faded 

 influence of those projected from the Weald, this country seems 

 to be maintained almost in horizontal equilibrium ; the superior 

 energy of the first mentioned giving to the whole a southerly 

 bearing, as indicated by the drainage. 



The northern limb of the AVardour elevation tilting the south 



* See in the Ordnance Map the valley in which the names of Colling- 

 boume, Kingston, North and South Tidworth, Newton Toney, and Winter- 

 boume-gunner occur. 



