AXD OF THE NEIGHBOITRHOOD OF WATFOED. 107 



It will be observed, from the few brief observations I Have made, 

 that the formations in Hertfordshire are of different kinds, and 

 belong to different periods. If the beds remained as originally- 

 formed, and horizontal, the same stratum probably would only have 

 been exposed over the area ; but you must remember this fact as 

 taught by geology — that the physical features of the district are 

 due to two primary causes : firstly, to the disturbance which the 

 strata of the neighbourhood have undergone, by which undulations 

 of the surface were occasioned, and hence brought up this or that 

 rock to the surface ; and secondly, to the great planing agency, 

 acting differently on the hard and soft materials, partly due to the 

 effects of the great Glacial Period, but probably more largely to 

 the action of rain and rivers, ice and snow, modifying those 

 undulations produced by primary disturbance, and thus pre- 

 senting us with the varied physical features which contribute so 

 much not only to the picturesque beauty of this neighbourhood, 

 but to that of all districts where glacial effects and other meteoric 

 actions have operated. 



Although the geology of the vicinity of "Watford shows only the 

 remnants of strata which in other districts are much thicker and 

 occupy far larger areas, still it affords evidence of considerable 

 change of land and sea, of the life of the period, and of climatal 

 conditions ; and the more we study the JS'atural History of these 

 formations, and of the others which constitute the crust of the globe, 

 the more we shall find indubitable evidence of the harmony and 

 unity of design in a Creative intelligence, which, as at the present, 

 so in all past time, has adapted the animal and vegetable life to the 

 existing inorganic conditions. 



Whilst the broader characters of a district (geologically speaking) 

 are known, it should not be forgotten that local and working 

 Natural History Societies have their duties and utility. If pre- 

 vious workers have sketched out the larger natural features, still 

 there remain many minute points for iuvestigation by the local 

 naturalist ; and therefore it will be well for us to remember, that 

 by detailed work in the field — by carefully examining the pebbles, 

 rocks, and fossils, which apparently seem to teach us little unless 

 we read them rightly — we may all perhaps add something additional 

 to the facts which previous geologists have taught us, as well as to 

 our knowledge of the great physical changes the earth has under- 

 gone. 



Railway, between Hertfordshire and Lancashire, I have been led to believe that 

 the sands and overlj-ing Boulder-clays are of the same age in the one County as 

 in the other ; but whether this be so or not, it is certain that these deposits re- 

 present the close of the Glacial submergence, and that this submergence of the 

 land lessened in extent southwards, so that the whole of the country south of 

 the Thames was a long island, as suggested by Mr. Godwin-Austen." — C. E. De 

 Ranee, On the Relative Age of some Valleys in the Xorth and South of 

 England, ' Proc. Geol. Assoc.,' vol. iv. p. 242. 



