On the Anticlinal Line of the London and Hampshire Basins, 367 



as the flints have been swept from the outcrop of the malm, but 

 lie on the gault, so they seem not to have taken any hold on the 

 rocky beds of the lower greensand, but are sparingly scattered 

 along the verge of the Weald clay country. I have found a thin 

 coat of broken flints and ironstone in Hartingcombe*, and have 

 traced this into the iron conglomerate of the Weald surface, up to 

 thebanks of theArun. Again, after passing over the high grounds 

 that range from Wolmar Forest t to Warminghurst {, which are 

 destitute of flints, we find a thin sprinkling, sometimes associated 

 with the hard " clinker ^^ ironstones or ^^ carr-stone '' (which 

 are plentifully distributed in the ferruginous shanklin sands), 

 along the Weald clay valley below. On the south side of the 

 Wealden area I find these drifts intruding to the very verge of 

 the Hastings sand country near Shipley § and West Grinstead 

 Churches; and into the valley of the Adur, from thence toward 

 Ashurst. And drift of this sort has been found by Dr. Mantell 

 at Barcombe in the same line of country ||. On the north side 

 of the Weald, again, the Godalming Hills, Ewhurst Hills and 

 Leith Hills 1^, show no flint drift, but it is found in the loose sands 

 of Betch worth and Reigate ; and in that line of country obtru- 

 ding, as it does at Shipley, into the Weald clay at Flanchford, 

 and along the course of the Mole, where it is crossed by the 

 Brighton road. The plateaux of the Sevenoaks and Maidstone 

 districts very rarely exhibit angular flint gravel ; but the country 

 of the upper beds between these high grounds and the outcrop 

 of the gault abounds, as usual, in the debris of all the surrounding 

 strata. 



Leaving the subcretaceous line of drift, a few observations will 

 sufiice for the consideration of the — 



4th, or Wealden Zone. — There is nothing in the history of 

 that part of the anticlinal line of the " chalk basins " called the 

 ^^ Weald Denudation'^ more conclusive as to the agency of 

 strong water currents and the flux and reflux of waves of im- 

 measurable force (immeasurable, I believe, but by our ideas of the 

 removal and transport which we suppose they have efiected) than 

 the bare state of the central parts of the Weald. 



The country of the Hastings sands rises geographically higher 

 than the sandstone hills and chalk downs that surround it; and 

 it is filled and fortified by strong and tough stone-courses, which 

 gave it that prominence and stability, whilst the Weald clay was 

 yielding to erosion. But that the Weald generally is destitute 

 of diluvium is an opinion which has been too hastily embraced. 

 Both members of the "Wealden^' have their appropriate drift; 

 and it is just of that kind which might be expected to be left 



* W. Sussex. t Hants. % Sussex. § Sussex. 



][ Geol. of S.E. of England, loc. eit.. IT Surrey. 



2C2 



