SHAFTESBURY MEETING. 



while at a point on the railway between Dinton and Wilton 

 these beds, so elevated here, were only just above the line there, 

 perhaps 200 feet above sea-level. That had an important 

 bearing upon the water supply of the district. Nearly all the 

 water came out towards the south and the east. Consequently 

 they had a wretched little stream, the Sem, formed by the 

 escarpment water, whereas a very fine river, the Nadder or 

 Don, came out at Donhead, becoming the principal stream of 

 the valley. The anticlinal structure of that valley ran parallel 

 with the anticlinal structure of the great Purbeck Hill, which 

 had a corresponding anticlinal fold, but of much greater power 

 and influence in the structure of the South of England than the 

 Vale of Wardour. And there was a third, the Vale of Pewsey, 

 in which Devizes was situated. Those three anticlinal axes 

 governed the stratigraphical features of that part of the South of 

 England. 



The speaker further remarked that it had been suggested there 

 was something peculiar in the stratigraphy of the district, but he 

 hoped to show, on the arrival of the party at Donhead, that there 

 was nothing out of the normal. As he had already remarked, 

 this was a land of springs, and Donhead was one of the points 

 at which the Gault threw out the water that percolated down 

 from the Greensand above it. The Gault there was a rather 

 exceptional bit of exposure. In the rectory garden the surface 

 of the Gault was 538 feet above Ordnance datum. A little 

 lower the Gault was only 370 feet above Ordnance datum; and 

 Canon Short thought this circumstance indicated something 

 peculiar in the stratigraphy of Donhead. But, when one 

 reflected upon the prevailing dip of the Greensand and Gault 

 and all the Cretaceous Beds in the region to the south-east, one 

 found nothing abnormal. In 3,000 feet there was a fall of 

 168 feet — a fall of one in 18, equal to three degrees, and this 

 could not be regarded as an excessive dip, considering the 

 locality. Thus, the idea which seemed to have been entertained 

 of unusual disturbance of the ground in this locality could not 

 be regarded as having any foundation in fact. At 



