APPENDIX 177 



little more than 10 at the extreme west. The whole area 

 may be roughly estimated to contain about 8,000 square 

 miles, and it includes the whole or parts of the following 

 counties: Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset 

 shire, Somersetshire, Devonshire, and Cornwall. The 

 country in the eastern division rises rather rapidly to about 

 640 feet,^ but nowhere attains any considerable elevation. 

 It drains almost everywhere towards the south. The 

 western district rises in Dartmoor to nearly 1,800 feet. 

 Beyond Dorsetshire the promontory, including Cornwall 

 and Devonshire, no longer drains entirely to the south, 

 but has an irregular line of water-parting connecting a 

 succession of granitic bases and throwing off the water 

 chiefly to the south but partly to the north. The whole 

 district is without any large river. The waters that fall 

 on the surface run quickly into the sea by a number of 

 streams from about forty catchments, but the lines of 

 watershed that part them only rise in a few places much 

 above the general level. The climate of the whole tract 

 is greatly influenced by its position with regard to the 

 English Channel and the Atlantic Ocean. It is every- 

 where mild and inclined to be damp, but this is chiefly 

 recognised in the south-western part where the atmos- 

 phere is generally near the point of saturation. 



"2. Condition of the Surface and Geological Structure. 

 — The south downs, consisting of chalk hills, which 

 present a steep face to the sea for a long distance, termi- 

 nating at Beachy Head, form the characteristic feature of 

 the south-east of England. They are flat -topped, the 

 chalk is very near the surface, and being an absorbent 

 rock the rain that falls rapidly disappears. At intervals 

 the line is interrupted by depressions admitting of the 

 passage of rivers by which the surface is drained, and, as 

 is very generally the case in the chalk districts, the rivers 

 intersect the strike of the chalk about at right angles. 

 Eastwards from Beachy Head to Folkestone the country 

 is low and flat, and consists of rocks underlying the chalk, 



Combe Hill in the extreme N.W. of Hampshire is as high as 

 936 feet. Doles Woods, formerly the home of the author of 

 The South Country Trout Streams^ rise to 636 feet, whilst Colling- 

 bourne Woods, a few miles off, can show a height of 648 feet. All 

 are chalk hills. 



N 



