Ch. XXII.] PROOFS OF DENUDATION. 307 
1 mmediately appear, that a considerable mass of chalk must 
have been removed by denudation. 
If the anticlinal dip had been confined to the valley of 
Kingsclere, we might have supposed that the upheaving force 
had acted on a mere point, forcing upwards the superincumbent 
strata into a small dome-shaped eminence, the crown of which 
had been subsequently cut off. But Dr. Buckland traced the 
line of opposite dip far beyond the confluence of the chalk 
escarpments, and found that it was prolonged in a more north- 
west direction far beyond the point a, diagram No. 78. In 
following the line thus extended, the strata are seen in numerous 
chalk-pits to have an opposite dip on either side of a central 
axis, from which we may clearly infer the linear direction of the 
movement. Perhaps the intensity of the disturbing force was 
greatest where the denudation of the valley of Kingsclere took 
place ; but this cannot be confidently inferred, for the quantity 
of matter removed by aqueous agency must depend on the set 
of the tides and currents at the period of emergence, and 
not solely on the amount of elevation and derangement of 
the strata. 
Many of the valleys enumerated by Dr. Buckland as having 
a similar conformation to that of Kingsclere, run east and west, 
like the anticlinal ridge of the Weald valley. Several of these 
occur in Wiltshire and Dorsetshire, and they are all circum- 
scribed by an escarpment whose component strata dip outwards 
from an anticlinal line running along the central axis of the 
valley. One of these, distant about seven miles to the north-east 
of Weymouth, is nearly elliptical in shape, and in size does not 
much exceed that of the Coliseum at Rome. Their drainage 
is generally effected by an aperture in one of their lateral escarp- 
ments, and not, at either extremity of their longer axis, as 
would have happened had they been simply excavated by the 
sweeping force of rapid water *. 
f It will be seen,' continues Dr. Buckland, 'if we follow on 
Mr. Greenough's map the south-western escarpment of the 
* Dr. Bucklandj Geol. Trans,, 2nd Series, vol. ii. p 122. 
X 2 
