In transcribing the following passage from Smith’s text, I have begun with the rough OCR material provided by the Internet Archive and then collated it with the Internet Archive’s page images. If you spot any errors, please notify the webmaster. — George P. Landow
It is this thick stratum which forms the most considerable ranges of hills in all the eastern and southern parts of England. Its well-defined boundary makes an extensive chain of hills, stretching, like the courses of other strata, principally from south-west to north-east; but, through the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wolds; more in a northerly direction. The course of this stratum is marked by these and other dry plains, of the greatest extent, which have nothing like them in any other part of the island; and hence it will be readily perceived, that the ridges of down-land, spreading, in an easterly direction, through Surry, Kent, and Sussex, are branches of the same stratum.
A narrow branch ridge of this stratum extends extends from the downs in Dorsetshire, easterly, through the Isle of Purbecky which seems to recommence in the Isle of Wight, at the point called the Needles, and thence takes an easterly course, through the high downs of that island, to its eastern shore.
Portsdown is a singular ridge of chalk, rising througb the strat* which generally overlay it.
The chalk, on many of the parts called Downs, lies so near the surface as to render the thin soil unfit for cultivation. These extensive plains, in the western and northern parts of the country before described, are of the same kind of short turf and dry surface as the Soutb Downs, Epsom, Banstead, and Barham Downs. At the foot of the chalk hills, the soil turned, up by the plough is white. The whole course of this stratum is destitute of timber. [42]
Related material
- A County-by-County Geological Description of England’s Counties
- Smith’s Explanation of His Map of Geological Strata in England and Wales
- The History of the Idea of Geological Strata before William Smith’s Formulation and Map
Bibliography
Smith, William. A Memoir to the Map and Delineation of Strata of England and Wales. London: John Cary, 1815.
Created 11 September 2018