DENUDATION OF THE VALLEY. 



437 



We thus perceive, that the interior of the valley of Woolhope has been entirely 

 denuded of the enormous mass of loose materials, which must have resulted from the 

 breaking up of strata with which it was once occupied ; an effect which appears inex- 

 plicable, if sudden and violent elevations be not admitted as causes, which may have 

 produced submarine tides or currents, adequate to sweep away such debris. Nor can 

 we look to the transverse chasms, from which large masses of rock have been torn, 

 without feeling certain, that in no former condition of things, could the streams which 

 now flow, have disembarrassed the gorges of so much detritus. 



The observations explaining the position of the remarkable outlier of Pen Cerrig 

 Calch, pp. 163 — 4; those on the denudation of a Silurian group near Usk, p. 441 ; 

 and the concluding chapters on drifted and alluvial matter, must also be consulted. 



I regret that the description of so picturesque a tract should not have been illustrated by a sketch, the more 

 so as I have been informed (though too late for my object) that some of the most beautiful scenes around Stoke 

 Edith Park have been delineated by Lady Emily Foley. The finest points of view are those from the tops of 

 Seager Hill and Backbury Camp ; the latter in particular commanding the whole valley of Woolhope, with May 

 Hill appearing in the distance. 



3 i 



