302 EOCENE PERIOD. [Ch. XXL 



and west, and of which there are many in the Weald district, 

 parallel to the central axis of the Forest ridge. 



In whatever manner the transverse gorges originated, they 

 must evidently have formed ready channels of communication 

 between the submarine longitudinal valleys and those deep 

 parts of the sea wherein we imagine the tertiary strata to have 

 been accumulated. If the strips of land which first rose had 

 been unbroken, and there had been no free passage through 

 the cross fractures, the currents would not so easily have drifted 

 away the materials detached from the wasting cliffs, and it 

 would have been more difficult to understand how the wreck 

 of the denuded strata could have been so entirely swept away 

 from the base of the escarpments. 



In the next chapter we shall resume the consideration of 

 these subjects,, especially the proofs of the former continuity of 

 the chalk of the North and South Downs, and the probable 

 connexion of the denudation of the Weald valley with the 

 origin of the Eocene strata. 



