7S 



But beside the loams deposited in broad sheets by 

 overflows, there is a thin coating of loam found in every 

 place suitable for catching it on any hill side or gentle 

 slope, it is called rainwash and is the result of the gentle 

 action of rain on the finest particles — rain so gentle as not to 

 carry them away altogether. Over this soft stuff, during a 

 heavier rainfall pebbles find their way occasionally, and 

 in it is no sign of stratification. I wish to lay some stress 

 on the fact that its accumulation is exceedingly slow. In 

 districts where agriculture or traffic disturbs the soil the 

 rainwash is coarse and stony, and this form of it may be 

 well studied in places where a hedge or wall has stopped 

 its descent ; in this case too it is usually of a darker 

 colour, not being fully oxidized and consisting of little 

 more than vegetable soil moved bodily. 



In PL i. fig. I, I have given a section across half a 

 valley, nearly loo feet above the Thames at Milton 

 Street, Swanscombe. Above the trail at " g " is a layer of 

 " surface gravel " formed by the abstraction of the finer 

 particles and decalcification of the trail, at the bottom, 

 over-lying the gravel is the early rainwash, [Mr. Fisher's 

 "warp "J passing insensibly up to modern vegetable soil. 

 The lines I have drawn in it are exaggerated, but denote 

 slight differences, mainly in the amount of dark vegetable 

 matter staining the wash. The intrusive pebbles are 

 comparatively scarce below, and extremely abundant at 

 the surface. It is a very good example of the change 

 from old rainwash to new. Where the old rainwash or 

 rain-warp is but a few inches thick, the two are mixed by 

 surface action and are indistinguishable, but whether seen 

 at one spot or not, old rain-warp always covered trail 

 once. 



As to the nomenclature of the conditions I am about to 

 discuss, a word is required in explanation. Mr. C. B. 

 Rose, seems to have been the first person to consider the 

 surface soils from ,the point of view of their formation. 

 Mr. J. Trimmer, next took the subject up, and a sentence 



