53 



A SKETCH 



OF THE 



HISTORY OF THE RIVERS AND DENUDATION 

 OF WEST KENT, &c., 



BY 



F. C. J. SPURRELL. 



27th JANUARY, 1886. 



I PROPOSE to give in this paper a Sketch of the Denu- 

 dation of the district familiar to the members of our 

 Society, so far as the river courses and surface deposits 

 have permitted me to examine it.* 



The moment at which I cannot begin earlier is that 

 when the flat dome of the Weald, having been slowly 

 rising from the sea, but so slowly as to have given 

 time for the sea and its breakers to cut off the top and 

 produce what has received the name of " a plane of 

 marine denudation," at last received an impetus which 

 lifted it faster than the sea could wear it down, and left 

 that district between the North and South Downs called 

 the Weald, to the action of the " subaerial forces." No- 

 where over the Wealden area is there to be ^^..nd any 

 deposit belonging to that old marine age, all has dis- 

 appeared, nor excepting where the English Channel flows 

 is there any evidence of the Sea's return. The existence 

 here and there within the Weald of occasional pebbles of 

 Quartz, Quartzite, Granite, Lydian Stone, Sandstones, and 

 other old rocks, points to no recent droppings from ice- 



* I regret that the latter part of the paper which deals with surface glaci- 

 ation is necessarily confined in its discussion of a limited area, by which 

 I am deprived of the opportunity of making some important comparisons, 

 the result of an extended survey, but with which it is in accordance. 



