On the Weald. 73 
by the lowering of the Gault, in the way which I have 
described, there was a considerable stream down this valley. 
Now there is no stream to be seen init till you reach Croydon, 
the first seven miles of it from Merstham being, in ordinary 
seasons, quite dry. It seems possible that this stream may 
originally have come out of the Weald in two branches, one 
of which came down the main valley, and the other down a 
smaller valley which is a little to the west of it, and which 
joins the main valley near Chipstead Church. The highest 
point in this smaller valley is about 530 feet above the sea 
level. 
The tract of country which lies on the west side of the 
Merstham valley is drained through a large and deep 
valley, which runs into the Merstham valley at Smitham 
Bottom, opposite the Red Lion Inn. This valley has three 
great branches on its western side, one runs up to Banstead 
Church, another to Kingswood Church, and the third is about 
intermediate between the other two. These all originate in 
the high ground about Walton Heath, rather less than 600 
feet above the sea level, and they slope gradually down into the 
Merstham valley which, at the point where they join it, is only 
about 250 feet above the level of the sea. The distance from 
the head of the valley which runs from Kingswood Church to 
the Merstham valley is about six miles. The main valley into 
which these three branches run may also have been a river 
valley in times long gone by. This may have passed out of 
the Weald about the point where the road from Reigate to 
Upper Gatton crosses the chalk hills, at which point their 
height above the sea level is 687 feet, or it may have passed 
over further to the westward. All these valleys at the present 
time however are perfectly dry. 
The remainder of the district which is shewn on the tracing 
may be divided into two portions, viz., the high ground 
‘ which lies between the Merstham valley and the Caterham 
valley, and the Caterham valley with the valleys which run 
into it. The Caterham valley, which joins the main valley 
at Caterham Junction, runs from that point for about 34 
miles without receiving any branches of any size, it then 
divides into numerous branches, all of which run up into the 
chalk hills. Two of these valleys, viz., the main Caterham 
valley and the valley which runs through Marden Park, run 
out into the Weald, and the remainder of them end in shallow 
passes. The passes, which are on the top of the chalk hills, 
are only 6 or 63 miles distant from Caterham Junction. The 
hills in which these valleys originate are the highest along the 
whole chalk range, Bottley Hill, near Titsey, which is the 
highest of them all, is 881 feet above the sea. The height of 
