[1]

Aug 20 1874 — Southampton & Absence of C. of Lime in warm water.—

Gravel about Southampton of an odd mixture of sub-angular flints & well rounded pebbles from some tert. form., in irregular & indistinct curbed beds, sometimes with layers of sand & clayy sand. Covers whole rather level country, so that the little slope, considering size of fragments, most remarkable & extends some way down vallies, whether to bottom I know not. (a) But the beds have not specially been accumulated in the valleys.

Judging from Green Street Gravel is of glacial age.

(Now imagine a v. gently sloping country, with inland parts somewhat precipitous, after during the glacial period & after it had long endured. The whole country, by action of wind, wd be levelled by thick bed of frozen snow.

During the summer the snow wd be melted from the more precipitous parts, & the

[1v]

It is very remarkable that in a large number of gravel pits a considerable proportion of the elongated angular fragments & oval pebbles stand upright, which indicates that the mass has slow & unequally subsided— lime flint in red Clay over chalk at Down.—

This seems an important point to attend to in any theory of the formation of the gravel bed.—

(2

flowing water wd wash pebbles & sand &c on to the great platform of snow.

The cold water I suppose would excavate channels, but not very deep, as I infer from time it requires to cut through glacier blocking up valley. The gravel & stones deposited in such channel would I presume resist wear & tear much longer than snow-sides of channels which would be rather soon worn away, & the gravel bed then made broad & thin. Now during winter the channel wd soon be filled up with wind-blown snow, & ceteris paribus where bed of gravel was deposited the surface wd be rather more prominent than elsewhere; so that the channel next year with its deposited bed of gravel would probably be on one side. During successive years from varying action of wind the surface of the snow would slope rather differently & the beds of gravel wd be deposited in new places on the

[2v]

Aug 21' On the 6 inch ordinance I find that the Common is a distance of 5 1/2 inches risen 100 feet, & at Chilworth about 2 inches more distant the land is 280 ft high. & W. says no land much higher till you get to Worcester, so my theory goes smash, unless gravel can be carried over frozen snow with great facility.—

[in margin:] (The rise is 1 ft in every 48 ft say 1 in 50 ft.)

Aug 22d. Higher up (ie about 250 ft) platform very level & I see the gravel lies over sand & clay — It is curious at what little distance sometimes almost pure clay & fine sand. These beds corroded & filled by gravel. Sometimes alternate — carried furthest on snow. — northward country sinks & at 6- to 10 miles rises to, I guess, 500 ft. — I found a bed of gravel near to Mr Lucas Towers in which all the pebbles vertical! most conspicuous— but far off curved & abruptly truncated short bed of clayed sand, abruptly curved down & bent— great subsidence— Can gravel flow over very gentle slope of frozen snow

(3

Gravel, Southampton

platform of snow. Ultimately the whole platform wd tend to be covered with bed of gravel, interstratified with snow & resting on pure frozen snow deposited during the most severe part of the glacial period. —Like what has been described at Escholtz Bay. There wd be no fresh-water shells in such a deposit & of course no marine shells. — When a warm period returned, the snow would gradually melt, & the successive layers & patch of gravel would all unite & sink vertically down on the ground & during such slow sinking in the crushed mass, the elongated pebbles wd arrange themselves vertically, as in the red clay over chalk at Down. From— The valley wd being filled up the with snow there wd be no great excess of gravel deposit in them; though as these indicate the lines of chief water supply there wd be more gravel there than elsewhere, as at Green St. Green.

[3v]

[sketch] Level of Sea

A Land

B Frozen snow

Snow thin from exposure to wind & steepness of slopes.

N. B. The land formerly higher from before degradation.—

(The doubt is whether slope wd suffice from top of the highest land to coast.)

Narrow deep channel with much water wd. aid.—

[sketch] Level of sea

(4

As during height of glacial period, there wd be a great thickening of ice in the large valleys, over which no gravel had been deposited, so there wd be a break between the lower deposit in the valleys & the upper later ones.— the valleys moreover wd have been subsequently excavate excavated

N. B. During summer the surface of snow-platform wd be softened & the cliffs on sides of torrents wd be exposed to heat & wd melt & be quickly undermined.

It is very important to remember that at foot of steeper [illeg] gravel wd be deposited in the shallow channels & this wd soon prevent check wear & tear the fine sand & mud being carried away but immediately in foot of gravel, the snow wd be excavated deeper & this wd increase currents & so carry gravel much further than cd. possibly be effected by on existing surface of land. —