weald, wald, walt, wold, weeld

[A. S. weald, wald =a wood, a forest; cogn. with O. H. Ger. walt; Ger. wald.] [WOLD.] A piece of open forest-land; a woody place or woody waste; a wold. As a name it applied a valley tract of English country lying between the north and south downs of Kent and Su ex. Weald-clay, 8 . Geol. The upper stratum or series of strata of the British Wealden formation. It is about 1,000 feet thick, and, with the exception of its upper por tion, which is fluvio-marine, is of fresh-water origin. It constituted the delta of a great river, which slowly subsided till at length the ocean was let in. The delta was inhabited by great Saurians, of the genera Iguanodon, Hyps i lop hod on, Pelorosaurus, Or nit hops is, and Hylæosaurus. These, becoming submerged as the delta sank, became imbedded, not in the Weald clay, but in the overlying Kentish Rag which succeeded the clay, and rests on it conform ably. Throughout the clay itself are casts of Cyprides, and there are occasional bands of Su ex marble composed almost entirely of a species of Paludina. The Weald clay constitutes a valley between the elevated ridges of the Hastings Sand and the chalk downs of Kent, Surrey, Hampshire, and Su ex, from Hythe by Tun bridge, Hart ing com be, and Hailsham to Pevensey. Weald-en, a. & s . [Eng. weald ; -en.] A. As adj .: Of or pertaining to a weald; specifically, pertaining to the weald of Kent and Su ex, England, or to the formation described under B. B. As substantive: Geol.: A formation or group of rocks consisting of clay, shale, sand, sandstones, grits, and limestones, constituting the lowest part of the Cretaceous system. In 1822 Mr. Gideon Algernon Mantell (afterward Dr. Mantell, F. R. S.) correctly showed that it was of fluviatile origin, though intercalated between marine Oõlite below, and Greensand, also marine, above. The name, Wealden Formation, was first introduced by Mantell, to whom it had been suggested by his friend J. P. Martin, Esq., of Pul borough. The Wealden has been generally divided into the Weald Clay, constituting the upper beds, the Hastings Sand in the middle, and Purbeck beds below; but the Purbeck beds are now considered to be Colite, or to be intermediate between the Oolite and the Wealden. The thickne of the true Wealden formation in Swanage Bay, where it is most highly developed, may be 2,000 feet. Its fauna consists of great reptiles, fishes of the genus Lepidotus, and freshwater mollusks, Physa, Limnæa, .; its flora of Conifers, Cycads, and Ferns, but no Dicotyledonous Angiosperms. The delta of the old Wealden river has been traced about two hundred miles from east to west, and a hundred miles from north to south. Much has been swept away by denudation. The Quorra or Niger in Africa covers 25,000 square miles; the Wealden river therefore probably approached, and may po ibly have exceeded it in magnitude. It drained a large part of a continent, the area and exact situation of which are unknown. The Wealden of Hanover and Westphalia constitutes the delta of a second river distinct from the first. [WEALD-CLAY, HASTINGS SAND, PURBECK-BEDS.] *weald-Ish, adj . [English weald ; -ish.] Of or belonging to a weald, and especially to the weald of Kent and Su ex, England. "The wealdish man." - Fuller: Worthies; Kent. *weal-fül, *weale-full, a . [Eng. weal (1), and full .] Happy. "To telle the jerkes with joy, that joy do bring, Is both a we ale full and a wofull thing." Davies: Holy Roode, p. 13.