68 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



Leith Hill, in Surrey, is nearly 1,000 feet above 

 the level of the sea.* 



Wealden formation. — The Wealden deposits 

 fill up the whole of the area between the North 

 and South Downs, and are bounded on the west 

 by the cretaceous strata of Hampshire, and on the 

 east by the British Channel ; they form the sea- 

 coast from Pevensey in Sussex to Hythe in Kent. 



Looking down upon the Wealden, from any of 

 the heights that command a view across the district, 

 and of the distant boundary of chalk downs — as for 

 example from Leith Hill, or from the summit of the 

 escarpment of the North Downs, near Reigate j- — 

 the observer might suppose that these freshwater 

 sediments occupy a depression or basin on the 

 surface of the chalk, and that the strata of the 

 North and South Downs extend under the whole 

 of the deposits in the intervening area, as in the 

 following diagram : — 



* For details, vide a " Memoir on the Geological Structure of the Country 

 seen from Leith Hill," in the County History of Surrey, published by Mr. 

 Ede of Dorking. 



t See " Wonders of Geology," vol. i. p. 342. 



