valley of the Stour; for it is by no means impossible that the present second and northward mouth of that stream may run along the valley of an old river, which originally flowed southward past Reculver, and joined the old representative of the Stour, somewhere to the south of where is now the village of Sarre.
The great tract of gravel which at some little distance inland fringes the East Essex coast, between Shoeburyness[1] and the Blackwater estuary, may also be connected with some old river; but as yet no well-defined implements or freshwater shells have been found in it, though Mr. Whitaker has discovered shells near Southend. The fluvio-marine deposits at a lower level at Clacton, just north of the Blackwater, like those at Chislet, in Kent, seem to belong to a somewhat later period, when the rivers had so far deepened their beds as to have become tidal.
Though no land or freshwater shells have as yet been found in the gravel beds near Canterbury, yet their position is quite in accordance with the theory of the excavation of the valley by river-action; and here as elsewhere the implements from the lower beds are often much water-worn.
The superficial deposits of the south of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, and in a lesser degree those of the neighbouring counties, have been fully discussed in an able paper by Mr. T. Codrington, F.G.S.,[2] though since it was published a large number of implements has been found near Bournemouth, Barton, and Hordwell. He has pointed out that the whole of the New Forest, between Poole and Southampton Water, appears at one time to have been an extensive plain, with a gradual slope to the south, very generally covered with gravel and brick-earth. This has since been in great part cut up, and over large areas entirely removed by the action of the streams and rivers, which latter flow in well-defined valleys.
The formation of this table-land and the overlying deposit of gravel which, in places far inland, is found at a height of more than 420 feet above the present sea-level, appears to be due to marine action, though as yet no marine remains have been discovered in it. Sea-shells have, however, been found by Sir Joseph Prestwich[3] in an old sea-beach at Waterbeach, near Goodwood, and similar beds, at Avisford Bridge, near Arundel, occur at a height of 80 or 100 feet above the sea. We seem, then, here to have evidence
- ↑ Geol. Mag., vol. iii. p. 348.
- ↑ Q. J. Geol. Soc., vol. xxvi. p. 528.
- ↑ Q. J. Geol. Soc., vol. xv. p. 219.
