OF MARLBOROUGH. XV11 



the subsoil of the greater part of the West Woods, and 

 extends eastwards into Savernake Forest. 



In the valley to the south of Granham Hill, near 

 Granham Farm, there is a narrow strip of light-coloured 

 sandy clay overlying the Chalk. To the south of this the 

 Chalk is covered by a deposit of mottled red boulder-clay, 

 containing large masses of flint-nodules, broken flints, sand- 

 stone-boulders, and well-rounded flint-pebbles of various 

 sizes. These beds are often stained black by the soak- 

 ing of surface-water through cracks in them, and some- 

 times are interrupted by patches of a browner clay also 

 containing large flint-nodules. Above these beds, which 

 rest very unevenly on the Chalk, there is a red clay 3 or 

 4 feet thick, but becoming thicker towards the south-east, 

 which contains but few broken pieces of flint. Wherever 

 the Chalk is seen underneath the clay, as in pits, or in the 

 cuttings for the railway to Marlborough which is now 

 being made, it has a very jagged appearance, showing that 

 the surface of the Chalk was greatly eroded when the 

 boulder-clay was deposited. 



In the railway- cutting north of the Wansdyke there 

 are several chalk peaks, at various distances from one 

 another ; and the Chalk is overlaid by the flint-drift, con- 

 sisting of a red clay, sometimes stained black, with large 

 angular fragments of flint and some partially rounded and 

 broken sandstone -boulders. The chalk peaks are very 

 soft ; sometimes they are partially or entirely cut off from 

 the main body of the Chalk by thin layers of red clay, 

 running in horizontally from the bottom" or side of an 

 eroded hollow. Some of the irregular layers of clay contain 

 flint-pebbles, and occasionally a patch of sand or sandy clay 

 without flints. The general direction of denudation seems 

 to be from north-west to south-east ; but it is difficult to 

 make it out, as the peaks and hollows on opposite sides of 

 ""he cutting are not nearly of the same height and do not 



