﻿Yol. 66, ,] DENUDATION OP THE WESTERN END OF THE WEALD. 66 *] 



two last run from west to east, and if the gravels themselves 

 came from that direction, we ought to find an occasional chert 

 pebble among the numerous flints which cover the fields a little 

 farther west ; yet so far I have utterly failed to do so. Again, the 

 three beds, although lying on different formations, are all at very 

 nearly the same level, as if the whole surface had been in some 

 way planed off ; but it is very difficult, on this hypothesis, to 

 find any sufficient cause of planation : I am not, therefore, at 

 all prepared to accept this view. But, even if I did so, it would 

 be necessary to grant that the original drift was laid down by 

 a consequent river running in this region after the Hythe Beds 

 of Hindhead were exposed ; and that admission would be suffi 

 cient for the purposes of the argument which I shall presently 

 develop. 



(iii) All these gravels (C, D, & E) are compactly grouped about 

 a line drawn nearly due north and south through the Crondall Pass, 

 and rest upon several strata of varying hardness which have all 

 been planed off to approximately the same level. The great size, 

 too, of some of the fragments of chert seems to indicate a more 

 direct connection with the Hythe Beds than was possessed by most 

 of the gravels of the Alice Holt Plateau. These features, together 

 with the entire absence of similar gravels elsewhere, are far better 

 explained by postulating a consequent river than in any other way. 

 I am aware that this view has difficulties : I was myself for a long 

 time averse to it, on the grounds that there was no similar drift to 

 the north nearer than Hartford Bridge ; that the Blackwater (in 

 its early stages) was, on this hypothesis, deprived of several streams 

 which I formerly connected with it; and that two such consequent 

 streams, both carrying large quantities of chert, were unlikely to 

 survive long in such close proximity. But none of these objections 

 are really fatal, and the greater difficulties in the way of any other 

 explanation have led me to disregard them (see 28, pp. 82 & 91). 



To the west of Dippenhall scarcely any trace of high-level chert 

 is to be found. On the summit of the Downs, north of Bentley, 

 I obtained a few specimens not far from Glade Farm, and a single 

 pebble, associated with some rolled fragments of sarsen, a short 

 distance north-west of Penley Copse. In neither case, however, 

 could I determine whether they originated with early consequent 

 streams or with marine drift. On the marine theory, although 

 consequent streams must have existed, it is uncertain whether in 

 the meridian of Bentley they would find any chert in their courses 

 before they were beheaded ; farther west than Bentley they certainly 

 would not be likely to do so (see fig. 5, p. 666). * 



The existence of even one consequent river (Crondall River) 

 crossing the Chalk to the west of the Blackwater necessitates some 



1 Mr. Osborne White (28, p. 91) is quite right in rejecting my former sug- 

 gestion of a possible river-connection between the Hythe Beds of Hindhead 

 and the listed Valley (Alton). 



Q. J. G. S. No. 264. 2z 



