The Geologist/Volume 5/Notes and Queries, Hampshire Basin

Hampshire Basin.—Sir, — Would you kindly solve the following questions for me, to which I have not been able to find any satisfactory answers in the text-books which are commonly available?

1. What was the extent of the Hampshire Basin; and when did the upheaval of the present range of chalk hills to the north and west take place; and did the sea, which covered the present New Forest district, ever wash against these latter?

2. When did the severance of the line of chalk between Ballard Head, in Dorsetshire, and St. Christopher's Cliff, in the Isle of Wight, take place?

3. Could the following animals be said to be coexistent at any period of the Middle Eocene formation (and what?),—Dichodon cuspidatus, Hyænodon, Paloplotherium annectens, and Spalacodon?

4. What was the climate of the country when the freshwater deposits took place at Hordell?—Your constant reader, W. B. H., Lymington.

1. The Hampshire basin was not an isolated area, but continuous with the London basin; the deposits in the two areas differing according to depth of sea, presence of rivers, etc. The uprise of the chalk hills took place probably during some portion of the Pliocene period. The New Forest district, as now existing, has been covered either by the sea or by a lake in the Pleistocene period. 2. In the Pleistocene period.

3. Yes; during the Middle Eocene period Paplotherium, Palæotherium, and others, existed with Hyænodon, in the western European area.

4. Probably much warmer than at present—subtropical.