Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk, 125 



beneath low-water markj about midway between Folkstone and Sandgate : 

 and the projection of the land to the souths immediately on the west of Folk- 

 stone^ and thence to Sandgate, appears to have been produced by the firm- 

 ness of the barrier which this solid base of the cliff opposes to the sea. It 

 becomes visible again above high-water mark, about a furlong west of Sand- 

 gate, is seen in detached places along the shore under that village, and 

 rising above the beach at Shorn Cliff, beneath which place the Weald clay 

 makes its appearance, can be traced readily in the heights to the westward, 

 being opened in several places for stone. 



(30.) From Hythe this group of strata forms the escarpment of the cliff, 

 as far as Aldington Corner, where it turns inland, towards the north-west; 

 and thence, along the valley of the Weald clay, a similar barrier of stone 

 forms the boundary of the green-sand formation. The line of coast, from 

 Copt Point to near Aldington, not being exactly parallel either to the strike*, 

 or to the dip, but oblique, the inclination of the stone beds appears in the 

 coast section to be less than the truth ; and where, as at Lympne, between 

 Hythe and Aldington, the escarpment becomes parallel to the strike, the 

 strata appear to be horizontal. 



In the progress of this lower ridge to the north-west, from near Aldington 

 Corner to a hill above Singleton Green on the south of Great Chart, there is 

 a remarkable interruption of the escarpment, where the line of heights 

 retreats towards the north ; so that the streams which take the opposite 

 directions, — westward to supply the Medway, and northward to join the 

 branches of the Stour which pass through Ashford, are there nearly united f. 

 An obvious explanation of this effect might be, that the concretions of stone 

 were wanting in this portion of the strata, so that the sands thus unsupported 

 were more easily carried away. 



(31.) The relations of this lowest bed to the remaining groups are very 

 well displayed in the ground between Seabrook and Saltwood, especially in 

 the road leading from Dibgate to Sine Farm, and thence to Hythe. On the 



* I adopt this term, suggested by Professor Sedgwick, to express the course of the intersection 

 of strata with the plane of the horizon, in preference to direction, commonly employed ; — the 

 latter term being ambiguous in its application. 



t In Packe's " Map of East Kent" above referred to, this is called " a Grand Inosculation," and 

 is thus described ; " From this quarry of rag, east of Chart Magna, to the other quarry of the 

 " same, west of Aldington, the Weald of Kent and the Ashford Vale meet, and are upon very 

 " gentle ascents towards each other, inosculated by the extremities of the valleys insensibly into 

 " one another, the stone hills receding to Ashford, Wilsborough, Sevington and Mersham, the soil 

 " of both being the same deep clay ; and these stone hills are the true philosophical boundaries of 

 " both these regions." 



