302 
EOCENE PERIOD. 
[Ch. XXI. 
and west, and of which there are many in the Weald district 
parallel to the central axis of the Forest ridge. 
In whatever manner the transverse gorges originated, they 
must evidently have formed ready channels of communication 
between the submarine longitudinal valleys and those deep 
parts of the sea wherein we imagine the tertiary strata to have 
been accumulated. If the strips of land which first rose had 
been unbroken, and there had been no free passage through 
the cross fractures, the currents would not so easily have drifted 
away the materials detached from the wasting cliffs, and it 
would have been more difficult to understand how the wreck 
of the denuded strata could have been so entirely swept away 
from the base of the escarpments. 
In the next chapter we shall resume the consideration of 
these subjects, especially the proofs of the former continuity of 
the chalk of the North and South Downs, and the probable 
connexion of the denudation of the Weald valley with the 
origin of the Eocene strata. 
