562 Alfred J. Broione — The Valley of the Tar. 



1. At Fi-esh water Gate there are extensive gravel-beds, filling the 

 gap in the Chalk Downs, which is the only one between the Needles 

 and Shalcomb Down, a distance of seven miles ; in these beds the 

 teeth of Elephas primigenius have been found, and their formation 

 requires the water-power of a large river to bring down so much 

 material from the land. 



2. A lateral series of marshes near Freshwater, through which a 

 small stream runs after continuous rain, was evidently a tributary of 

 the old river, and its debouchure points upwards and not down 

 towards Yarmouth, as do the tributary streams lower down, which 

 are possibly of more recent production. 



3. In writings of the time of Charles I. the western extremity of 

 the island is spoken of as Freshwater Isle — " He went westwards 

 towards Worsley's Tower, in Freshioater Isle, a little beyond Yar- 

 mouth Harbour." (Herbert's Memoirs.) 



The deduction from the foregoing facts seems to be that the river 

 was of large size, and flowed down from the direction of Hampshire. 

 Now, if reference be made to a map of that county, it will be seen 

 that exactly opposite to the Yar is the mouth of the river Lymington, 

 also that the Medina corresponds to Southampton water, and possibly 

 Brading Harbour to Portsmouth Harbour ; thus strongly suggesting 

 the idea that these rivers in the Isle of Wight were once continua- 

 tions of the Hampshire ones ; and this is rendered more probable by 

 a consideration of the depth to which the valleys of the rivers are 

 cut through the Chalk Downs ; these form the natural watershed of 

 the island, and any river flowing northwards would seem incapable 

 of cutting so deep a trough as at Newport and Freshwater Gate. I 

 would, therefore, conclude that there has been a gradual elevation 

 along the old anticlinal axis of the Cretaceous strata, causing the 

 rivers to find an easier exit over the low country of the Fluvio- 

 marine strata, which must once have existed where the Solent and 

 Spithead now are. If these surmises be correct, the Solent must 

 have been excavated very soon after the deposition of the Post- 

 pliocene gravel at Freshwater Gate ; and its considerable width, 

 notwithstanding the lateness of the date, would not appear sur- 

 prising to any one who knows the destructible nature of the coast. 

 The latest alteration of level seems to have been one of depression, 

 in accordance with a well-known similar and general movement all 

 along the British Channel ; for at Brading there is an old well now 

 covered by high tide ; and in the Yar valley there existed about forty 

 years ago a large pool above Freshwater open to the influence of the 

 tide, and the stream from which at low water is said to have turned 

 a mill ; this has since been abandoned, and the pool drained, though 

 both still appear on the Ordnance Map ; and I may here take the 

 opportunity of noticing the antiquity of this production — it was 

 published in 1810, and has only been furbished up for modern use 

 by the insertion of the railways and a few other prominent objects, 

 but much is omitted, and much should be erased from the map as 

 obsolete. 



