1870.] CODRINGION-—HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE-OF-WIGHT GRAVELS. 529 
inland to Wimborne, Downton, Bramshaw, Romsey, and Bishop- 
stoke ; it also includes the Isle of Wight. 
' Tertiary formations occupy the whole of the area, with the ex- 
ception of the southern part of the Isle of Wight; and the surface 
is very generally covered with superficial deposits, which are the im- 
mediate subject of this paper. 
The rivers Frome, and Trent or Piddle, enter Poole harbour on 
the west, and the Stour, Avon, Test, Itchen, Hamble, and Titch- 
field rivers flow through the district. All these rivers, as well as 
the Medina, Yar, and Brading rivers, in the Isle of Wight, rise in 
the chalk, or in beds not much below it, and after draining a con- 
siderable extent of chalk-country, pass through the Tertiary area to 
the sea. The Avon water, Boldre, and Exe or Beaulieu river, rise 
among the Tertiary beds of the New Forest, of which they drain the 
larger portion. 
Among those by whom the superficial deposits of the district 
have been noticed, are Sir C. Lyell, Messrs. Webster, Prestwich, 
Trimmer, E. Forbes, Godwin-Austen, Bristow, Evans, &c. Of late 
years, the discovery of numerous flint implements along the coast 
between Southampton Water and Gosport, near Bournemouth, and 
more recently near Southampton, and near Lymington, has given a 
fresh interest to the gravel from which they are derived; and the 
publication of the new Ordnance Maps with levels over a large 
part of the district, has facilitated the construction of many ac- 
curate sections of the surface. For the western part of the district, 
where the new Orduance Survey is unfinished, levels have been 
supplied me by permission of Sir H. James, from which, and from 
other sources, as well as from personal observation, the sections 
have been extended in that direction. 
The sections (figs. 1 to 10, Pl. XX XVII.) are selected from many 
others constructed; they are drawn to a scale of two miles to an 
inch horizontal, and 800 feet to an inch vertical. The heights in 
feet above the mean level of the sea are figured at numerous 
points, and the position of the lines of section are shown upon the 
map (Pl. XXXVI). 
Il. THe MAINLAND oF HAmpsuHire. 
(a) The physical features of the country, and its superficial 
deposits, are so closely connected that they must be considered 
together. The New Forest, and the neighbouring country between 
Poole and Southampton Water, is characterized by high level plains, 
very generally covered with gravel or brick-earth. On closer exa- 
mination, these plains are found to be portions of a tableland with 
a very gradual southern slope, through which the larger rivers flow 
in well-defined valleys, and which has been a good deal cut up and 
over large areas entirely removed by the action of the tributary 
streams flowing in what are locally called the “ bottoms.” 
Section No. 1, from Fordingbridge and Breamore to Bramshaw, 
and No, 2, from Poole to Southampton Water, which are nearly 
