115 



east. It must now (if this interpretation is correct) be supposed 

 to have covered the Wealdcn area, or at least some part of it, and 

 extended over parts of Franco and French Flanders. In this view 

 of the case Mr. Dowker pointed out that tlie main upheaval and 

 denudation of the chalk and Wealden beds dated back only from 

 the Pleistocene age. It was remarked of these ironstone casts of 

 shells that Mr. Clement Rcid, the great authority on the Pliocene 

 beds, had enumerated no less than thirty species collected from one 

 of the pipes in the Lenham pit, by the members of the Geologists' 

 Association, when they visited it the preceding year. Generally, 

 the fossils represent a mixture of Miocene and Pliocene species, 

 correlated with the Diestian sands. In structure these ironsands 

 very much resemble those at Uoughton, which are referred to 

 the eocene series. 



Ascending from this chalk pit to the summit of the chalk 

 downs, here about 600 ft. above the level of the sea, they first 

 viewed the panorama before them from the vantage ground gained, 

 and then noted how level the fields were, and that they were 

 covered with a red sand and loam mixed with large unworn chalk 

 flints. Mr. Whitaker has called the beds of like nature found on 

 the higher chalk downs " Clay with Flints." * From near the 

 summit the escarpment is deeply furrowed by valleys formed by 

 pluvial action ; all tend in a north-eastern direction, and terminate 

 at the former sea level. 



At or near the West Street the party descended the hill into the 

 Lenham pits, the peculiarly red sand with flints being conspicuously 

 present over tlie chalk where the pit had scarped it. On entering 

 the pit a large pipe was noticed ; on one side it was composed of 

 red sand and clay, but with few l)locks of ironsand, whilst the 

 other side was mainly occupied by large flints in clay. Upon 

 breaking up the ironsaud blocks a few casts of fossils were met 

 with, of which one was .similar to a mactra, one probably modiola 

 costulata, and one a terebratula. 



The excursion was mainly geological, but many plants of 

 iuterest were noticed, notably : Linum catharfcicum ; Malva 

 moschata, by the roadside, on the top, near West Street ; Fragaria 

 tvesca, with ripe fruit; Galium cruciatum, above Harrictshum 

 Church ; Ophrys muscifcra ; Accras autliropophoia, in the Pilgrims' 

 way ; and Tamus communis. 



* As to its origin see Mr. Dowker's Lecture, " Thoughts in a Gravel Pit," 

 ante p. 72. 



