Chalk Landscape

Abstract

THE communication of Lord Kennet of the Dene1 reminds me of a note I wrote recently in an account of the ice storm of the end of January and of the thaw that occurred a week later. On the evening of February 3 rain began and by the morning of February 4 there was a strong thaw. But the ice below the snow and the frozen ground did not let the water soak away, with the result that there was much flooding. In the Cotswolds water poured over the frozen slopes, and at Bagendon the valley became a raging torrent four to five feet deep. Even here, 700 ft. above the sea, there was much flooding and for a time some roads were impassable. It has occurred to me more than once when watching the run off of water in a thaw after the ground has been frozen that such scenes must have occurred in the south of England on a much larger scale every spring during the Ice Age, and I have wondered whether this may not have contributed, or may not have been the chief cause, in the formation of the dry valleys of the chalk country.