282 Correspondence —Colonel Greenwood. 



CODBIRIESIFOILsriDIEIN'CIE. 



DENUDATION OP THE WEALD. 



Sir, — Mr. Kinahan in his book " Valleys, and their Eelation to 

 Fissures, Fractures, and Faults," robs me of the doctrines of Eain 

 and Eivers, and gives them to Messrs. Foster and Topley. I write 

 to beg space to protest against this. Page 195, he says, " We will 

 specially refer to Messrs. Foster and Topley's paper on it (the 

 denudation of the Weald), as these observers have carefully examined 

 the geology of the country," and he quotes the title of their admirable 

 paper " On the Superficial Deposits of the Valley of the Medway 

 with Bemarks on the Denudation of the Weald (Quarterly Journal 

 of the Geological Society of London, November, 1865, p. 443)." 

 Page 460 of Messrs. Foster and Topley's paper commences thus : 

 " Part II. On the Denudation of the Weald. Having now described 

 the chief phenomena connected with the superficial beds of the 

 Medway valley, we will pass on to consider the light which they 

 throw upon the much-disputed question of the ' Denudation of the 

 Weald.' We think it will be conclusively shown that ' rain and 

 rivers ' have been the main agents in producing the present form of 

 the ground." In the ten remaining pages of Part II., my name on 

 " rain and rivers " is mentioned ten times. And the paper ends as 

 it began. " Conclusion. In conclusion we will revert to the main 

 points discussed in the paper. After describing the gravel of the 

 Medway valley, we have endeavoured to prove that an old river 

 gravel of the Medway occurs 300 feet above its present valley. We 

 have then shown that if this fact be admitted, it follows that so large 

 a denudation has been effected by ' rain and rivers,' that there can 

 be but little difficulty in supposing the present form of the ground 

 in the Weald to have been produced entirely by these agents." 



I shall be satisfied, Sir, if you will allow me space for this protest. 

 But I send the following in case it may be thought suitable to 

 your pages : — 



Page 200, Mr. Kinahan says, " If the Weald valley was solely due 

 to subserial (so spelt) denudation, there ought to be deposits of chalk 

 flints over the whole area, and not only on the newer beds." The 

 flints are gone where they ought to have gone, and where by the 

 laws of nature they must go — into the rivers. And they have been 

 carried by the rivers to the sea-shore, or towards the sea-shore. At 

 page 47, "Eain and Eivers," I have traced them northward, 

 southward, eastward, and westward. But since then, Mr. Mylne 

 has published his beautiful geological map of "London and its 

 Environs." Mr. Kinahan may see there terraces of flint from 10 to 

 100 feet above the present level of the Thames. Besides Kensington 

 and Hyde Park, the entire of ancient London, St. Paul's, the 

 Mansion House, and the Bank, stand on these vast accumulations of 

 river flint. But the bed and the sides of the valley at London 

 should be London- clay. The flints have been brought by the river. 

 And from whence ? Part from the Weald Hill, through the gorges 



