212 PETRIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



and to prove that the Wealden extends beneath the Chalk, 

 both on the north and south, as shown in Lign. 47; and 

 it is therefore certain that the Cretaceous strata were 

 deposited upon the Wealden, and that they originally ex- 

 tended over the entire district between the North and South 

 Downs, and were connected on the west with those of Hamp- 

 shire and Wiltshire, and also occupied the area now covered 

 by the British Channel ; the chalk of the Isle of Wight being 

 then continuous with the corresponding strata of the opposite 

 coast of the Continent. 



A careful examination of the phenomena under review, 

 demonstrates that the removal of the chalk was not effected 

 simply by denudation, but by a force acting from beneath, 

 which broke up and elevated masses of the Tertiary, Cre- 

 taceous, and Wealden formations, in a line bearing a general 

 direction from east to west ; by this movement an anti- 

 clinal l position was given to the strata on each side the axis 

 of greatest elevation. This axis is shown in the physical 

 geography of the district by the chain of hills called the 

 Forest-Range, that extends from the sea-coast at Hastings 

 through the interior of the country by Crowborough Hill 

 an elevation of nearly 600 feet to Loxwood, west of Horsham, 

 where- the Wealden disappears beneath the overlying green- 

 sand strata. 



SECTION FROM LONDON TO THE SOUTH-COAST. In all trans- 

 verse sections of the district, i. e. from north to south, the 

 strata on the north of the central line dip to the north-east, 

 and those on the south to the south-west. There are, of 

 course, many local variations in the inclination of the rocks, 

 arid numerous lesser anticlinal axes, or saddles, as they are 

 provincially termed, and also longitudinal ridges and corre- 

 sponding valleys, running parallel with the principal line of 

 the disturbing force. 



In consequence of this displacement of the strata, a sec- 

 tion drawn from London through the North Downs, across 

 the Wealden district, and through the South Downs, and 

 carried on to the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, would 

 present the arrangement shown in Lign. 46; in which are 



1 Anticlinal a geological term, signifying inclined towards each 

 other, like the ridge-tiles of the roof of a house. 



