NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 5 



At each end of the village, which runs from south-east to 

 north-west, arises a small rivulet : that at the north-west 

 end frequently fails ; but the other is a fine perennial 

 spring, little influenced by drought or wet seasons, called 

 Well-head.* This breaks out of some high grounds joining 

 to Nore Hill, a noble chalk promontory, remarkable 

 for sending forth two streams into two different seas. 

 The one to the south becomes a branch of the Arun, 

 running to Arundel, and so sailing 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 Godalming ; 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. 



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

 of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a 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. This soil produces good wheat and clover. 



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

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



* This spring produced, September 10th, 1871, after a severe hot 

 summer, and a preceding dry spring and winter, nine gallons of water 

 in a minute, which is 540 in an hour, and 12,960, or 216 hogsheads, in 

 twenty-four hours, or one natural day. At this time many of the 

 wells failed, and all the ponds in the vale were dry. 



