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[not in Darwin's hand:] 4.3

July 4th — /43/

Twelve days after mowing put barrel of liquid manure on field —  quite dry weather for 14 previous days — in line from near old cow-gate to thorn & then to left to big-beech.—  (no effect)

Chalk on field. November 1842 on field by Garden. (This only fact)

Augt 8th. 1843 — about 2 square yards of fine white sand on field just above the brow, beyond the ditch, half way between the two Mounds— In front of house. —  nearest to yew trees.

[not in Darwin's hand:] Account of Down   IX t.r

Jan. 29— 45

Mowers have barked every t. top Spindle trees look like white skeletons—

Sept 1843 Gentiana — Double

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1843

General Aspect

May 15. The first peculiarity which strikes a stranger unaccustomed to a hilly chalk country is the valleys with their steep rounded bottoms, not furrowed with smallest rivulet. On the road to Down from Keston a mound has been thrown across a considerable valley, but even against this mound, there is no appearance of even a small pool of water having collected after the heaviest rains. The water all percolates straight downwards, — ascertain average depth of wells, inclination of

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strata, & springs — does the water from this country crop out in springs in Holmsdale or in the valley of the Thames. Examine the fine springs in Holmsdale.

Commence with describing height & slope of Platform

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The valleys on this platform sloping northward but exceedingly even generally run north & south; their sides near the summits generally become suddenly more abrupt & are fringed with narrow strips, or as they are here called "shaws" of wood; sometimes merely by hedge rows run wild. — This sudden steepness may generally be perceived as just before ascending to Cudham wood, & at Green hill, where one of the lanes crosses these valleys.

These valleys are in all probability ancient sea-bays & I have sometimes speculated whether this sudden steepening of the sides does not mark the edges of vertical cliffs formed when these valleys were filled with sea-water, as would naturally happen in strata such as the chalk.

In most countries the roads & foot paths ascend along the bottoms of valleys, but here this scarcely ever the case. All the villages & most the ancient houses are on the platform or narrow strips of flat land between the parallel valleys. Is this owing to the summits having existed from the most

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ancient time as open down & the valleys having been filled up with brushwood? I have no evidence of this, but it is certain that most of the farm-houses on the flat land are very ancient. There is one peculiarity, which would help to determine the foot paths to run along the summits, instead of the bottoms of the valleys, in that these latter in the middle are generally covered, even far more thickly than the general surface with broken flints. This bed of flints which gradually thins away on each side, can be seen from a long distance in a newly ploughed or fallow field

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as a whitish band. Every stone which ever rolls after heavy rain or from the kick of an animal ever so little all tend to the bottom of the valley but whether this is sufficient to account for their number I have sometimes doubted, & have been inclined to apply to the case Lyell's theory of solution by rain water &c &c.

The flat summit land is covered with a bed of stiff red clay, from a few feet in thickness to as much, I believe, as 20 feet; this though lying immediately on the chalk  contains not a particle of lime  & abounding with great, irregularly shaped,

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unrolled flints, often with the colour & appearance of huge bones, which were originally embedded in the chalk, yet this bed contains not a particle of chalk  carbonate of lime. This bed of red clay lies on a very irregular surface, & often descends into deep round wells the origins of which have been explained by Lyell. — In these cavities patches of sand like sea sand, & like the sand which alternates with the great beds of small pebbles derived from the wear & tear of chalk flints, which form Keston, Hayes & Addington Commons. — Near Down, a rounded chalk

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flint is a rarity though some few do occur & I have not yet seen a stone of distant origin, which makes a difference, at least to geological eyes, in the very aspect of the country, compared with all the northern counties. — The chalk flints decay externally, which according to Berzelius is owing to the flints containing a small proportion of alkali; but besides this external decay the whole body is affected by exposure of a few years so that they will not break with clean faces for building.

This bed of red-clay, which renders the country very slippery in the winter months from October to April,

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does not cover the sides of the valleys; these when ploughed show the white chalk, which tint shades away lower in the valley, as insensibly as a colour laid on by a painter's brush.

Nearly all the land is ploughed & is often left fallow, which gives the land a naked red look, not infrequently white, from a covering of chalk laid on by the Farmers — nobody seems at all aware on what principle fresh chalk laid on land abounding with lime, does it any good. — This, however is said to have been practice of the county, ever since the period of the Romans & at present the many white pits on the hill sides, which so frequently

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afford a picturesque contrast with the overhanging yew trees, are all quarried for this purpose.

The number of different kinds of bushes in the Hedge Rows, entwined by traveller's joy & the two Bryonies, is conspicuous, compared with the hedges of the northern counties.

March 25th. The first period of vegetation, & the banks are clothed with pale blue violets to an extent I have never seen equalled & with Primroses. A few days later some of the copses were beautifully enlivened by Ranunculus auricomus, wood Anemone & a white Stellaria. Again subsequently large areas were brilliantly blue

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with blue bells. The flowers are here very beautiful: & the number of flowers, together with the darkness of the blue of the common little Polygala, almost equalled it to an alpine Gentian.

There are large tracts of woodland, cut about once every ten years; some of these enclosures seem to be very ancient; On the s. side of Cudham wood a beech hedge has grown to Brobnabig size, with several of the huge branches crossing each other & firmly grafted together.

Larks abound here & their songs sound most agreeably on all sides; nightingales are common. — Judging from an odd cooing note,

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something like the purring of a cat, doves are very common in the woods.

June 25th. The sainfoin fields are now of the most beautiful pink, & from the number of Hive Bees frequenting them the humming noise is quite extraordinary. This humming is rather deeper than the humming over head which has been continuous and loud during all the last hot days, over almost every field. The labourers here say it is made of "air-bees" & one man seeing a wild bee in a flower, different from the Hive kind, remarked "that no doubt is a "air-bee." — This noise is considered as a sign of settled fair weather.

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It wd be well worth while to find out how much insoluble matter in chalk with cold acid — to find out specific gravity of chalk & of clay. & to calculate how much of the surface has been lowered. Probably more as carbonic acid wd remove some iron & some of the silicates of potash, said to exist in flints.

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Sept. 1843. Dug a sink in the yard — Clay 14 feet deep — after about 2 ft full of flints & with black patches of oxide of iron, hence thought by digger to be near chalk, wh. proved the case — Chalk was quite soft beneath and the crow bar — sunk right in it easily. — Flints hardly rounded, but many broken — some are broken in the chalk. — This clay full of minute rounded grains and I found one little pebble — the origin of this clay singular.

Plants of the gentian covered with abortive buds described Gardeners Chronicle Sept. 43.

I observe the Bramble in hedges do depend to earth, & the leading shoot is buried in grass — becomes white, & succulent, swells, leaflets not developed become covered with knobs, each knob, ultimately producing a root —

Found a nest supposed to be a golden—wren, beneath a branch — fasten to twigs of arm of lower arm of spruce-fir —

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October 1843 — Ladybirds numerous — they congregate in groups from 10 to 30 close together in angles of the cornices of our rooms. —remained whole of the month in same place. — I have never seen a swift here. — nut-hatches very numerous — Coming from Shropshire October 24th all the trees appear more autumnal than there — all over country south of London. —

Dec. 44 — In digging tank (Public) in village — only 8 ft deep — full half [illeg] flints; some rounded others angular — cd see the slope of a more yellow sandy clay with a pipe on one side; in this many pebbles, like the Keston Common Pebbles. Laslett says invariably when clay rests on solid chalk, it becomes black with ? iron ? — Chalk soft where first met with, stained in cracks by iron — I observed nearly all the large flints are broken; Laslett says this almost always the case.

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Parish of Down

Parish of Down

Males. 150

Females. 116

266. year 1811.

430 in 1841

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Dec.— 44.

In digging Tank (Public) in village — only . 8 ft deep — full half are flints flints; some rounded others angular — cd see the slope of a more yellow sandy clay with a pipe on one side; in this many pebbles, like the Keston Common Pebbles. Laslett says invariably when clay rests on solid chalk, it become black with? iron? — Chalk soft where first met with, stained yellow in cracks by iron — I observed nearly all the large flints are broken; Laslett says this almost always the case.

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