54 



finished work to tell us of the instruments that formed it. If 

 the sea produced these inland cliffs as Ave now see them, all 

 evidence of shingle Leaches and other remains have ceased to 

 exist. If it was once a tidal estuary, of a shape so peculiar 

 that there is no parallel, subangular gravel instead of shingle 

 may have been formed, but even then we should expect to 

 find beds of seasand and marine remains ; throughout the 

 Weald, however, nothing of this kind has been found. The 

 nature and dip of the rocks, in short, the geology of the district, 

 must be taken into consideration before we can rightlj' estimate 

 the causes that have brought about this remarkable configura- 

 tion of the country. After leaving the chalk escarpment in 

 travelling southward we encounter in succession the vallej-s of 

 the Gault and Weald clays, separated by the inner escarpment 

 of the Lower Greensand, or as it is sometimes locally called the 

 "rock range," the woods which cover its drier soil forming a 

 pleasant contrast with the naked valley of the Gault and the 

 bleak chalk downs, but beai-ing a similarity' to the latter in 

 sloping gradually to the north with a precipitous front presented 

 to the south. The valley of the AVeald clay extends like an 

 undulating plain between the Lower Greensand range and the 

 central Hastings sands, which are frequently argillaceous, 

 although their name would signify' that they ai-e arenaceous. 

 They have been distorted and faulted to a much more consider- 

 able extent than the more recent formations. Then turning 

 back again to the north we may take the rocks in ascending order 

 from the Purbeck Beds (the lowest member of the Wealden), the 

 Ashburnham beds, the Ashdown sands, Wadliurst clays, and 

 Tunbridge sands, to the Weald clay. The names of these beds 

 almost sufficiently explain their lithological character. The 

 Piu'beck beds are classed by some authors with the Oolite (see 

 Lyell's Elements, page 375). Their chief development occurs 

 in the Isle of Purbeck, hence their name ; the quarries of this 

 rock have furnished the well-known marbles for many of the 

 English cathedrals. Fine sections of the lowest beds of the 

 Hastings sands occur in the white " Sand-rock" of the Hastings 

 cliff. Although these beds are beyond the boundaries of the 

 county of Kent they are linked to it by belonging to the Wealden 

 formation. At Tunbridge Wells the sceiiery is in marked con- 

 trast to that of the Weald clay valle^^, and must strike the 

 traveller on the S. E. Eailway which runs along that valley from 

 Ashford to Tunbridge, where it passes by a short tunnel through 

 a northern promontorj' of the Hastings sands. Some of the 

 hardened beds have weatliered into very curious forms at Tun- 

 bridge Wells, as the 'load-rock and High-rocks. Small pebbles 

 of rock crystal found in them, after being cut and polished, are 

 sold for Tunbridge Wells diamonds. The most important 



