194 Mr. P. J. Martin on^he Anticlinal Line of 



Chiltington to Wood's Hill. In the Bonghton quarries, near 

 Maidstone, there is a flexure of this kind ; and the springs which 

 run on the south side of these quarries, and come down from 

 Langley, are most probably thi*own out by this flexure. And to 

 all appearance (although I have not been able to find a section to 

 enable me to speak positively) the course of the Medway after it 

 enters the greensand country is for some miles determined east 

 and west (by Wateringbury) by a flexure or minor contortion. 

 This flexure also assists in prolonging the extent of the lower 

 greensand country in the Maidstone district*. In short, the 

 contortions and flexures, and smaller anticlinals superadded to 

 the larger ones, over all the Weald denudation, are almost innu- 

 merable. I will undertake in the drives of two mornings to 

 show any person, competent to judge of these things, beside the 

 great line of Greenhurst, at least six well-marked smaller ones, 

 and as many flexures and faults giving shape more or less to the 

 neighbouring lands. 



We have hitherto confined ourselves to the consideration of 

 the longitudinal anticlinal folds and contortions. But before we 

 take a general view of the manner in which these folds on coming 

 to the surface yielded to the tensive power, and opened to form 

 fissures, and give admission to the denuding floods, and so 

 eventually became the valleys and water-courses we now see; 

 we must advert to another modification of the disruptive action, 

 not so potent for the production of surface-changes, because not 

 so extensive, but still of much influence, and inseparable from 

 the consideration of the one grand and total act of upheaval. I 

 mean the frequent occurrence of transverse anticlinals, opening 

 up transverse valleys distinct from those which appear to be th6 

 result of the cross fracture of the longitudinal ones, at their points 

 of greatest tension. I can best convey the idea of these trans- 

 verse flexures by reference to a case or two in point, and eminent 

 examples, on both sides of the denudation. On looking at the 



* Of the manner in which anticlinals, or flexures of any kind, prolong 

 the extent of ex})osure of a particular stratum, we may cite the following. 

 The transverse fissure of the Mole changes the dip in the line of the Leith 

 Hill country, and the escarpment of the lower greensand falls back north- 

 ward to Brockham, Betchworth and Ileigate ; and between the latter place 

 and Crawley there is a very broad exi)anse of Weald clay. One flexui-e, at 

 least, was wanted to account for this broad expanse ; and one was pointed 

 out to rae by an intelligent observer, who caught sight of it in a road cut- 

 ting at Norwood Place, between Leigh and Horley. It is there a small valley 

 of elevation, and conveys an affluent of the Mole, and is probably a con- 

 tinuation of Mr. Hopkins's Bidborough line. I am told also by Dr. Fitton 

 that there is another notable flexure in the Maidstone district, which brings 

 lip the Weald clay through the greensand south of Pennenden Heath, 

 a circumstance which might be predicated of the broad expanse of the 

 greensand country east of the Medway. 



