THE RAILWAY SECTIONS. 85 



shot sands still prevail, their sterile surface being- 

 covered with heather and broom, except in a few 

 places, where interspersions of clay produce ver- 

 dant spots, which appear like oases in the desert. 

 Greenish clays and marls, alternating with sand, 

 are next seen, and extensive plains clothed with 

 heather, and dotted with clumps of pines and firs. 

 Between Woking and Farnborough many sections 

 of the Bagshot sands are passed, and at the Wing- 

 field station the country presents the same geo- 

 logical character. Although from the rapidity of 

 our progress but transient glimpses can be ob- 

 tained of the adjacent district, yet the character 

 of the vegetation, and the appearance of the un- 

 enclosed tracts, destitute of all traces of habitation, 

 save a few solitary turf cabins, convey some idea 

 of the nature of the untractable soil produced by 

 these siliceous deposits. Such, indeed, is the 

 general aspect of sterility in the worst parts of 

 the Bagshot-heaths, that when the adjacent fertile 

 region is hidden from view, a stranger might sup- 

 pose himself transported to a desolate mountain 

 moor in the border countries.* 



About three miles before we reach the station 

 at Basingstoke,-]- the Chalk emerges, and is seen 



* Mr. Warburton on the Bagshot Sands, Geol. Trans, vol. i. p. 49. 

 t The picturesque ruins of the Chapel of the Holy Ghost, said to have been 

 erected temp. Edward IV., on the right of the station at Basingstoke, are 



