INTRODUCTION. XI. 



gradually gets deeper. The Weald, anciently an immense 

 forest, part of the Anderida of the Romans, and still well 

 wooded, is an extensive vale occupying the centre of the 

 south-eastern part of the county. Its breadth is from five to 

 ten miles and its length from thirty to forty miles. It is 

 composed of clay, sand, and limestone, and is comparatively 

 of low elevation. The Forest Eidge } which contains St. 

 Leonard's Forest and Ashdown Forest, is that portion of the 

 county which, uniting with the Weald, forms the north- 

 easterly division, stretching from Fairlight Down by Crow- 

 borough to St. Leonard's Forest, and terminating gradually 

 in the western part of the county, in the angle formed by 

 the sand hills of Petworth on the one side, and by Black 

 Down, and Leith Hill in Surrey, on the other. It is 

 composed of the more elevated portions of the sands and 

 sandstones. Its ridges are for the most part crested with 

 forests or overgrown with underwood. The soil consists of a 

 sandy loam or iron sandstone, or of a poor black vegetable 

 sand upon a soft clay marl; it is for the most part exceed- 

 ingly barren. Marsh and Bog Land. The Marsh land 

 extends across the county eastward from Eastbourne into 

 Kent. Portions also exist on the borders of the rivers Ems, 

 Lavant, Arun, Adur, Ouse, and Cuckmere. Of Pevensey 

 Levels, which lie upon a heavy black silt, Mr. Roper 

 observes, that " they form an extensive flat, scarcely raised 

 above the sea level, intersected in all directions with dikes 

 and ditches, extending for nearly seven miles along the shore 

 of Pevensey Bay and running for about six miles inland. 

 Formerly a mere marshy swamp, they are now extensively 

 drained and afford excellent pasturage for cattle." 

 Drainage has also greatly reduced the marsh land adjacent 

 to the Sussex rivers. Of the boggy districts some of the 

 most notable are Chailey Common, Chiltington Common, and 

 Amberley Wild Brooks, the latter are an immense tract for 

 a county like Sussex. Vegetable mould there first appears 

 and then from four to five feet of peat on a dark blue silt or 

 clay. These quaking bogs often place the botanist in a 

 dilemma ; but it has been observed that where Comarum 

 palustre denotes unsafe ground, Carex flava shewes secure 

 footing. The Maritime District. The soil towards the 

 shore, especially in the Manhood, is for the most part of a 

 rich loam of remarkable fertility. From Brighton to 

 Pevensey Bay, and again from Bexhill to Bulverhythe, and 



