376 DENUDATION OF THE WEALD. [Ch. XTX. 



rately elaborated. Every* attempt, therefore, to circumscribe the time 

 in whicli any great amount of denudation, ancient or modern, has 

 been accomplished, draws with it the gratuitous rejection of the only 

 kind of machinery known to us which possesses the adequate power. 

 If, then, at every epoch, from the most ancient to the Pliocene in- 

 clusive, voluminous masses of matter, such as are missing in the 

 Weald, have been transferred from place to place, and always re- 

 moved gradually, it seems extravagant to imagine an exception in the 

 very region where we can prove the first and last acts of denudation 

 to have been separated by so vast an interval of time. Here, might 

 we say, if anywhere within the range of geological inquiry, we have 

 time enough, and without stint, at our command. 



