43 



AN OUTLINE & INDEX TO THE GEOLOGY OF 

 EAST KENT, 



By Captain McDahin. 



I proiioso ill this paper to clescribo the facts I have observed, 

 and the information I have collected from various sources, bear- 

 ing on the gcolog-y of the district. Such an e}iitoniised account 

 may not only be of value to those who are entering upon tliis 

 science, but the geologist experienced in another part of the 

 country may find such local information a guide not to bo 

 despised, and more particularly as I intend to give the volume 

 and page of the standard works and Geological Magazines in our 

 own library containing information on the subject. Before 

 entering into the geology I will describe the physical geography 

 of the neighbourliood, taking Canterburj' as a centre, which 

 occupies a position marking the junction of two great geological 

 periods, the Secondary and Tertiary, the former containing the 

 fossil remains of reptilian life, the latter those of the true mam- 

 mal. On the south cast of the city the chalk of the North Downs 

 runs in a line, onlj- broken by minor valleys of denudation, to 

 Dover, where it terminates in clilfs from two to four hundred 

 feet in height. The general dip of the strata of the North Downs 

 being to the north east, the Lower Chalk constitutes the princi- 

 pal part of the southern escarpment, running westward in a lofty 

 range of hills through Kent, with their precipitous fronts to the 

 south, and sloping gently with many undulations to the north. 

 The rivers Stour, Medway, and Dareut, have cut their way in 

 the direction of the dip througli the North Downs, the general 

 direction of the course of the two former being north east, whilst 

 that of the latter is north, or nearly at right angles to the strike 

 of that iiortion of the escarpment. Two remarkably intermitting 

 streams occur in the Canterbury district known as Nailbournes. 

 one running through the village of Bridge, and the other through 

 Petham. There are also two streamlets crossing the London 

 road beyond Boughton, about five miles from Canterbury, that 

 to the west being a Nailbourne. Ireland's History- of Kent, vol. 

 II., page 5 J2. For full information of these curi(nis streams see 

 a paper by Mr. W. II. Ilammoud, published with the proceedings 



