The Trent. 517 



to the Thames is equally applicable to the Ouse, the 

 Nen, the Welland, the Grlen, and the Witham, rivers 

 flowing into the Wash, all of which rise either on or 

 close to the escarpment of the Oolites, between the 

 country near Buckingham and that east of Grantham, 

 which rocks were once covered by the Chalk. 



With minor differences, the same general theory 

 equally applies to all the rivers that run into the Humber. 

 I believe the early course of the Trent was established 

 at a time when, to say the least, the Lias and Oolites 

 overspread all the undulating plains of New Eed Marl 

 and Sandstone of the centre of England, spreading west 

 to what is now the sea, beyond the estuaries of the 

 Mersey and the Dee. A high-lying anticlinal line 

 threw off these strata, with low dips, to the east and 

 west ; and, after much denudation, the large outlier of 

 Lias between Market Drayton and Whitchurch in 

 Shropshire, is one of the western results. Down the 

 eastern slopes the Trent began to run across an inclined 

 plain of Oolitic strata. Through long ages of waste 

 and decay the Lias and Oolites have been washed away 

 from these midland districts, and the long escarpments 

 formed of these strata lie well to the east, overlooking 

 the broad valley of New Red Marl through which the 

 Trent flows. 



The most important affluent of the Trent is the 

 Derwent, a tributary of which is the Wye of Derbyshire. 

 The geological history of the Wye is very instructive. 

 It runs right across part of the central watershed of 

 England, formed by the great boss of the Carboniferous 

 Limestone of Derbyshire. This course, at first sight 

 seems so unnatural, that the late Mr. Hopkins of 

 Cambridge stated that it was caused by two fractures 

 in the strata, running parallel to the winding course of 



