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of the eastern ends of tlie valleys of the Gault and Weald clays, 

 but at right angles to what is now the highest ground, they 

 charge at the highest parts of the escarpment of the North and 

 South Downs and have breached them through from their sum- 

 mits to their base. It is a natural deduction from these premises 

 that when the rivers began to flow, the whole of the Weald of 

 Sussex and Kent was an elevated plain. It seems to me that in 

 addition to the north-westerly direction of the great vallej's, a 

 set of flexures took place at right angles, with fissured crests, 

 that gave the rivers their initial course, for if tliis was not the 

 case I do not know how we can account for the opposite position 

 of the rivers on each side of the anticlinal, and their gorges oc- 

 curring not in the lowest but sometimes in the highest crests of 

 the hills. In a former paper on the physical geography of the 

 district I pointed out how unsatisfactory tlie marine theory of denu- 

 dation was as applied to the Weald, as there is no direct or indirect 

 evidence of the presence or action of the sea. On the other 

 hand we see patches of gravel, and ironstone beds capping the 

 tops of hills in this neighbourhood, and occup3-ing the 

 most elevated positions, where they have protected the softer 

 beds below them from being washed away by the rain ; and 

 where they do not occur we find deep valleys of excavalion. 

 "When standing under the lofty escarpments of the chalk or green- 

 sand, we do not realise how insignificant is the vertical height of 

 the hills when compared with the liorizontal scale, hut if we view 

 a coirect model of the country, this becomes very apparent and we 

 may perceive that the frosts, the rain, and running water have been 

 nature's chief tool in sculptuiing the scenery of the Weald. We 

 have seen that this northern portion of the world during the middle 

 Tertiary period enjoyed a waim climate, and the glaciated surfaces, 

 boulder clay, and drift of the rest of Eritaiu tell us a geological 

 summer time of long ages was succeeded by a winter of pcihaps 

 equal duration. It is taken as evidence that this part of England, 

 to the south of the Thames and Severn, was not during this ice 

 period beneath the sea, because none of these glacial deposits are 

 found within it. The snows of countless winters falling upon its 

 exposed surfaces must have congealed into an ice cap, the ice of 

 which obeying similar laws to those which govern the movements 

 of running water, would flow to the nortli and south of the 

 anticlinal axis, carrying before it all the loose flints, pebbles, and 

 debris of the rock, spreading the flints of the chalk in sheets over 

 the London clay, the Woolwich bids, and Ihanet-sands. When as 

 Dr. Dawson calls it " the spring time of tlie world " returned, the 

 meeting of the snows would cause roost of the sand and ligliter 

 particles to he washed away, leaving the sheets and irregular 

 patches of gravel that once perhaps filhd hollows in the surface or 

 the bays of old coast lines. Some writers have called this the 



