Holmesdale Natural History Club. 59- 



Holmesdale Valley, and is the only outlet for the waters of that part of the 

 country lying between Gatton Park on the west and '^Tiite Hill on the east. 

 The most southern limits of the Mole are in Sussex at a place called High 

 Beeches, a little to the north-west of Balcombe Station. Passing through the 

 Wealden clay, it carries with it a considerable portion of soil, and is for the 

 most part, and especially when flooded, turbid, at least it is so compared with 

 the Wandle. I may mention, as a matter of local interest, that one feeder 

 of the river comes from Wray Common, crosses the road near the Vicarage, 

 passes under Bell Street, and through Eeigate Park, towards the Reigate 

 waterworks. This stream at one time abounded in good trout ; a gentleman, 

 whom I know when a boy caught them up to half a pound weight. The Mole, 

 after haiing drained a triangular district, each of the sides of which extends 

 about twelve to fourteen miles, is converged into a single stream at Box 

 ECill, finding its way through the narrow valley at Box Hill to Leatherhead ; 

 but in this valley it undergoes a process of filtration, passing through & 

 bed of gravel in Xorbury Park, where in dry seasons it nearly disappears. 

 It was at one period believed to occupy an underground channel, but it in 

 fact only loses itself in a loose soil, re-appearing again near Leatherhead as 

 a clear bright stream. It then finds its way through a narrow valley into 

 the Thames at Moulsey. The length of the Mole is about thirty miles, and 

 it drains about eighty square miles of land. (5.) The next river is the Wey. 

 This river is also to some extent a river deri\ing its waters from the drain- 

 age of the country, but it is much more a river from springs than is the 

 Mole. Its chief sources from springs are from the lower greensand, and it 

 flows to a great extent through that formation. Its most abundant sources 

 from that geological formation are in the neighbourhood of Haslemere, 

 where the water may be seen issuing direct from the sides of the hills in 

 copious streams, some of great purity, others charged to some extent with 

 sand, which, however, is soon deposited. In former days within my memory 

 every small stream in the neighbourhood and every pond of a few yards in 

 diameter abounded with trout, but the fish are now confijied to the larger 

 streams and ponds. These streams from the greensand collect in a main 

 channel between Farnham and Godalming, and thence proceed to Guild- 

 ford, where the river finds its way through the chalk by a narrow valley, 

 A considerable feeder to the Wey arises, however, in the east, out of the 

 greensand at the back of Leith Hill, passing by Gomshall and Abinger, and 

 falling into the Wey at Shalford. This tributary has its rise chiefly in 

 springs, and is consequently a clear stream. The Mole, after it has passed 

 the valley through the chalk, receives very few affluents during the re- 

 mainder of its course, but the Wey receives a considerable tributary from 

 ihe Bagshot sand, chiefly from the west, and also tributaries from the 

 London clay and Bagshot sand on the east or right bank of its course. 

 The tributaries from the Bagshot sand do not add to its purity, for that 

 ■and is to some extent charged with peaty deposit, which discolours the 

 streams having their sources therein. The length of the Wey is about 

 thirty-five miles, it drains about two hundred square miles of country, and 



