File:The earth and its inhabitants (1881) (14781132461).jpg

Identifier: earthitsinhabita481recl (find matches)
Title: The earth and its inhabitants ..
Year: 1881 (1880s)
Authors: Reclus, Elisée, 1830-1905 Ravenstein, Ernest George, 1834-1913 Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry), 1833-1912
Subjects: Geography
Publisher: New York, D. Appleton and company
Contributing Library: MBLWHOI Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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abitants and laying waste their fields. But owing to thepoor nature of the gravel and sand of this tract, it is not likely that it was everworth tilling. Eight hundred years ago there may have been more clearingsand groups of houses, but we may well doubt whether so ungrateful a soil canever have been extensively cultivated. Î • Anglesey, 302 square miles ; Isle of Wight, 155 square miles. t Least widtli, 9,200 feet; depth at the mouth of the Solent, 72 feet. X Eams:ty, Physical Geology and Geography of Great Britain. 128 THE BRITISH ISLES, To the cast of the flat islands of Portsca and Hayling, and of the low peninsulaterminating in Solsoy Bill, tlie coast <:çraduall\^ approaches the range of cretaceoushills known cts the South Downs. Beyond Brighton cliffs once more bound theencroaching sea, until the downs terminate abruptly in the bold promontory ofBeachy Head. The short and savory herbage of the South Downs feeds a race of Fig. 70. —POUTSMOUTII.KioiTi an Admiralty Chart.
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sheep highly appreciated for their mutton. Now these downs only present us withscenes of rural peace, but, to judge from the fortifications which crown nearly everypoint of vantage, there must have been a time when the country was the scene ofalmost incessant wars. The most famous of these entrenchments is the Poor MansDyke, on a commanding height to the north of Brighton, which in a more super-stitious age was looked upon as a work of the devil. The South and Xorth Downs enclose between them the triangular Weald valley, THE CHANNEL SLOPE. 129 upon whose denuded surface are exposed rocks of mere ancient date tlian the chalkof the surrounding downs. When the Normans invaded England, the Forest, orWeald, of Andred, or Andredes, still covered the whole of this region, but the treeshave been cut down and converted into charcoal, and consumed in the smelting fur-naces erected near iron pits which have long since been abandoned as unprofitable.The clays, sands, and limestones of this distri

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