1 70 On the Anticlinal Line of the London and Hampshire Basins. 



scription, such as would till lately have been called mere *' allu- 

 vium." Carbonized trunks of trees are to be found in all the 

 bogs and swamps, especially in the alluvium of the river- courses, 

 as noticed in my early memoir on Western Sussex, On the 

 banks of the ]\Iole and the Wey, and of their affluents, I doubt 

 not such prostrate and uprooted trees may be detected ; — they 

 are post- diluvial. 



It remains that I should say something more of the well- 

 known raised beach at Brighton, and of the parallel case at 

 Sangatte, described by Mr. Prestwich. I have treated these, 

 and I still consider them as belonging to the eocene sera, brought 

 into view at these places by sea-section. I cannot but entertain 

 the same opinion till similar appearances are pointed out at the 

 same level beloiv the chalk, and within the areas of denudation on 

 either side of the channel. At the same time I am not prepared 

 to insist that there were not intermissions in the operation of 

 denuding forces ; and that during some such lull these beaches 

 may have been formed. I have not said, as Sir Roderick seems 

 to think, that the denudation of the Weald was the work of one 

 transient great act of elevation and flood ; but of this I am quite 

 assured, that the first great upburst gave the character of these 

 forces, as evinced by the arrangements of anticliuals, the fissures 

 which determined the disposition of valleys, the watershed and 

 drainage. I believe also there is evidence to prove a long-con- 

 tinued season of oscillation, and perhaps of unremitting violent 

 aqueous erosion contemporaneous therewith. This was succeeded 

 by a sudden, and not a gradual retirement of these angry waters, 

 and the season of tranquillity which has continued up to this 

 time. I hope to be pardoned for insisting thus strongly on the 

 unity of action, and the grandeur of proportions of these great 

 changes, when it is considered that Buckland and some other of 

 our best authorities have held similar sentiments; and that in 

 working out the details of these and contemporaneous operations 

 in their entirety, we bring forward the best tests of the bold 

 generalizations of Elie de Beaumont. 



The season seems to be at hand when we shall find less diffi- 

 culty in readmitting the agency of catastrophic action into the 

 elements of change. The able expositor of the geological phse- 

 nomena of Patagonia has said, that any sudden operation which 

 would account for the spread of the di'ift materials of that part 

 of South America would disturb the relations of half a hemi- 

 sphere. And why not ? Are we not on the eve of believing that 

 at no very remote period wc were without any Gulf-stream, and 

 that its establishment (and how could it be otherwise than sud- 

 denly established?) put an end to the " glacial period," and gave 

 a temperate climate to western Europe ? Are the oser beds of 



