ON THE WARREN. 50 



I ought to mention the effect of the landslip on the Long- 

 Pond. It is unquestionably wider than it was. The sloping 

 banks on each side have slid down forward, and while filling 

 up, no doubt the bottom have so advanced downwards that the 

 opposite sides of the water are farther apart than they were, 

 and while on one side the path that ran by the edge of the 

 pond is entirely submerged, on the other, bramble bushes, 

 which till lately grew high and dry on the bank, are now in a 

 most unwelcome depth of water. 



Such is a brief and imperfect description of the features of 

 this remarkable slip, and I hope that our committee will, as 

 soon as the weather can possibly be pronounced sufficiently 

 genial, organise a ramble to the Warren, that those of us 

 who have not seen the slip may do so, and that we may meet 

 on the spot and compare notes. I should have said that the 

 alteration in the banks of the Long Pond, will, I fear, render 

 it utterly unproductive in the matter of Natural History for 

 this year ; as the old bottom of the pond is no longer ap- 

 proachable, and water snails and other such beings, naturally 

 prefer living water plants to dead land ones. 



If you are not tired I will say a few words on the theory of 

 such slips as these, and on the causes which have led to the 

 present one. Doubtless, you know that, all along the Warren, 

 the Gault, a stiff greyish or blueish clay, underlies the chalk, 

 and is much more easily acted on by water than is the chalk. 

 Now chalk hills are invariably well supplied with springs, 

 and if you walk with your eyes open along Eastwear bay, and 

 note the many runnels of fresh water finding their way across 

 the beach to the sea, you will see that our chalk hills are no 

 exception to the rule. These chalk streams, and such as 

 these have caused this landslip. The surface of this portion 

 of the Warren at which it has occurred is chalk, and there- 

 fore underneath it is the gault. This being reduced by 

 degrees to a more or less liquid condition by the water, and 

 you must remember what unusually heavy rains we have had, • 

 and how the underground streams must, consequently, have 

 been swollen, has at length been unable any longer to support 

 the superincumbent chalk, and, the whole being in a state of 

 unstable equilibrium for some time past, as soon as any one 

 point began to sink the motion must have extended to all, 



