GEOLOGY OF SELBORNE. 375 



eastern side of the village stands upon the Malm rock, the 

 provincial name of the Upper Greensand. This formation is 

 cut into deeply by the Priory valley, so that the Gault is ex- 

 posed in the bottom of it some distance up towards the church. 

 The Gault everywhere underlies the Upper Greensand, and 

 separates it from the Lower. Gilbert White states that the 

 wells in Selborne average a depth of sixty-three feet. This 

 appears to represent the thickness of the Upper Greensand, 

 which having been pierced, the water retained by the Gault- 

 clay basin is reached. Descending towards the Priory, the 

 Malm rock rises on the left hand into the Lythe, Week Hill, 

 and Hartley " hanger," and the valley opens out on the Gault 

 flat towards Oakhanger. On the right it stretches away for 

 about a mile, gradually rising until it ends in an abrupt 

 " hanger," clothed with oak timber, upon the extremity of 

 which stands Temple farm. 



At an average distance of about half a mile the Gault is 

 succeeded by the Lower Greensand of Blackmoor, Woolmer 

 Forest, Oakhanger, and Short Heath in the parish of Sel- 

 borne, and of the adjoining parishes of Greatham and Kings- 

 ley. Over the comparatively level district which it here pre- 

 sents there are numerous ponds, such as Woolmer Pond 

 (about sixty acres in extent), and Oakhanger Pond in the 

 parish of Selborne, besides many others at a greater distance. 

 Bin's or Bean's Pond, described by Gilbert White in Letter 

 VIII. to Pennant, is, I believe, now quite dry. These sheets 

 of water appear to express a general water-level in the sandy 

 strata. 



In regard to the land-slips caused by the undermining of 

 the Upper Greensand and softening of the Gault by the 

 agency of the springs, Gilbert White has described the best 

 example of the kind, which occurred at Hawkley in the year 

 1774. Nothing like it appears to have happened in the parish 

 of Selborne ; but there are spots close to the emergence of 

 the Gault from beneath the Malm rock where the clay appears 

 to have been thrust forward by the superincumbent pressure. 

 A considerable slip of one of the Binsted hangers took place 

 about forty years ago. 



