4 NATURAL HISTORY 



a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so 

 falling into the British Channel : the other to the north, 

 the Selborne stream, makes one branch of the Wey ; 

 and, meeting the Black Down stream at Hedleigh, 

 and the Alton and Farnham stream at Tilford Bridge, 

 swells into a considerable river, navigable at God ai- 

 ming; from whence it passes to Guildford, and so into 

 the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into 

 the German Ocean. 



Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three 

 feet, and when sunk to that depth seldom fail; but 

 produce a fine limpid water soft to the taste, and much 

 commended by those who drink the pure element, but 

 which does not lather well with soap 4 . 



To the north-west, north, and east of the village, is 

 a range of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called 

 white malm, a sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, 

 when turned up to the frost and rain, moulders to 

 pieces, and becomes manure to itself 5 . 



Still on to the north-east, and a step lower, is a kind 

 of white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for 

 pasture nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which 

 root deep into the freestone, and have their poles and 

 wood for charcoal growing just at hand. This white 

 soil produces the brightest hops. 



As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer 

 Forest, at the juncture of the clays and sand, the soil 

 becomes a wet sandy loam, remarkable for timber, and 



* Though Mr. White says this water is soft to the taste, it is undoubt- 

 edly what would be usually called hard, the test of which is its not 

 producing a lather with soap, or with soap dissolved in spirit of wine, 

 because it contains sulphate of lime, the sulphuric acid in which, uniting 

 with the soda in the soap, sets free the tallow, composed of the margaric 

 and oleic acids ; and these acids, uniting with the lime thus set free, form 

 a soap that will not dissolve in water. From having attended rather 

 minutely to the qualities usually termed hard and soft in water, as con- 

 nected with the chemistry of bleaching, I can readily distinguish by the 

 taste alone whether water contains lime, iron, or argillaceous substances. 

 RENME. 



5 This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



