4 GEOLOGICAL STRUCTURE 



so constantly near the surface, and that its decomposi- 

 tion has had, and has, so great an influence on the soil. 



The youngest rock in the parish is the Upper Chalk, 

 or Chalk with Flints, which, inclining gently to the 

 south of Up Park and Lady Holt Park, is eventually 

 covered by the Tertiary clays and sands, which occupy 

 all the low maritime tract extending from Bognor to 

 Portsmouth. 



The Upper Chalk is named by many geologists the 

 " Chalk with Flints," as distinguished from the mass of 

 chalk beneath it in which a flint is very rarely dis- 

 cernible. The great and central mass, consisting of 

 white chalk becomes less purely calcareous and more 

 argillaceous, assuming a greyish colour in its lower 

 part, as is well seen in the sides of the steep road 

 descending from Up Park to South Harting. At the 

 base of the hill this grey chalk is underlaid by a thin 

 band of chalk marl, much used as a manure for certain 

 soils and crops. The Chalk formation, so constituted 

 from top to bottom, exhibits the same structure in its 

 range, whether we proceed to Butsor Hill* on the west, 

 or to the Brighton Downs on the east. 



As a whole, the Chalk formation is a great absorbent 

 of the rain-fall on the hills, the water of which pene- 

 trates downwards through chinks and fissures, until it 

 is held up by the tenacious chalk marl ; and hence, at 

 Harting, as at Buriton on the west and at numerous 

 places to the east, a series of ponds of crystal clear 

 water is formed. 



At the mansion of Up Park, long the residence of 

 Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, Bart, and now the pro- 

 perty of his relict, standing upon the Chalk with 



* NOTE. Butsor Hill is 990 feet above the sea, and is the 

 highest point of the adjacent South Downs. The tower at Up 

 Park is about 690 feet. Boundary of the Park at Two Beech 

 Gate, 646.6 feet. Spithead Bench, 672.5. Near north end of 

 Kill-devil Lane, 626.8. Beacon Hill, the eastern boundary of 

 Harting parish, over 790. The Leith nearly 1000. 



