186 Mr. S. V. Wood on the Fo?*mation of the River- 



The presence of arcs of the Kentish circles, almost uncon- 

 torted, among the Isle of Wight arcs near to their centre in 

 Hampshire, and occupying their normal position, while the Isle 

 of Wight arcs in Essex and the rest of East Anglia, bearing the 

 same relative position to those of the Kentish series, are warped 

 into a double flexure, would appear inconsistent. I, however, 

 entertain no doubt that a third series of circles has emerged 

 from a centre in the North Sea, about 70 miles east of Flam- 

 borough Head, and that it is to them that the hills of North-cast 

 Lincolnshire are due, as well as those ranging from Lincoln past 

 Grantham to Stamford. The pressure from these circles opera- 

 ting almost, but not quite, opposite to those of the Isle of Wight 

 series has caused the double flexure possessed by the third or in- 

 vading group of inequalities. The conflict of this third series 

 with that of the Isle of Wight has also produced the confused 

 condition of the Norfolk valleys ; but the most remarkable result 

 of that conflict is the contorted and intermingled condition of 

 the cliffs of North-east Norfolk, which occurs most at the point 

 where the arcs are directly opposite to each other (i. e. between 

 Cromer and Sherringham), disappearing as the angle made by 

 the arcs crossing each other increases. The same cause has also 

 produced the forcing up of the chalk inliers of Sudbury and 

 Claydon in Suffolk. In the absence, however, of the same satis- 

 factory means of tracing from their centre this third series of 

 circles that exists in the case of the other two, I have for the 

 present left such of the arcs belonging to them as do not oppose 

 those of the Isle of Wight series, shaded in the Map as though 

 belonging to the Kentish series; and such as do oppose and 

 form a compound or double flexure, shaded as though belonging 

 wholly, instead of (as they really are) in part only, to the Isle of 

 Wight series*. 



The influence of these circles upon the Valley of the Weald 

 demands a special though brief notice. It will be seen that the 

 openings in both the North and South Downs, that were regarded 

 by Mr. Hopkins as the result of fissures caused by the doming 

 of the strata along the rectilinear elevation of the axis of the 

 Weald Valley, do not occupy the position that on such an hypo- 

 thesis they should do ; instead of being rectilinear, as fissures so 

 caused should be, they are curvilinear. They, it will be found, 

 form, as to some of them, regular and corresponding fragments of 



* It would be more'eorrect to describe these invading inequalities as the 

 result of the squeezing together of the strata by the North Sea circles op- 

 posing those of the Isle of Wight, than, as is done in the text, to describe 

 them as belonging to the latter series. The North-east Lincolnshire hills 

 are inaccurately represented in the annexed Map ; their direction should 

 be concave towards the sea, instead of the reverse. 



