348 Denudation of 



<7, to the south, and the Eocene rocks e once spread 

 over the Cretaceous rocks in a curve, at a great height, 

 as shown in the dotted lines e e (fig. 74). Taking the 

 whole of the south-eastern part of England, from 

 Suffolk to Beachy Head, and westward to Salisbury and 

 Dorchester, the sections shown in figs. 74 and 75 

 merely form part of the two great anticlinal and syn- 

 clinal curves of which the Hampshire and London 

 basins form parts. Here then in our Secondary and 

 Tertiary rocks we get evidence, though in less degree, of 

 the same kind of disturbance and denudation of which 

 we have such striking proofs when we consider the 

 structure of the countries in the western and north- 

 western area, which are composed of Palaeozoic rocks. 

 In the central part of England the Secondary and 

 Tertiary strata, not having been so much disturbed, 

 have necessarily not been so much denuded in height, 

 but chiefly backwards from west to east. 



I have still a few words to add respecting the 

 denudation of the Eocene strata. Some. of these beds 

 in the Woolwich and Beading and in the Bagshot series 

 consist of sands, portions of which become exceedingly 

 hard, especially when exposed to the air. I have 

 already said that these formations, together with the 

 Chalk, once spread much further to the west than 

 they do now, because outlying patches of Eocene rocks 

 occur here and there almost at the very edge of the 

 great Chalk escarpment, as shown in fig. 61, p. 320. 

 Part of the original continuation of both in a west- 

 ward direction is shown in the dotted lines in the same 

 diagram. 



It so happened that when the wasting processes took 

 place that wore away both these formations from west to 

 east, the softer clays and part of the sands of the Eocene 





