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 lOlh, 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. 



