﻿Vol. 66.~] THE WESTEKN END OF THE WEALD. 675 



longer route to the sea, has been for the most part captured by an 

 obsequent tributary of the Wey, which is still encroaching upon it 

 at Seale. The entire absence of drift, or any rolled pebbles except 

 a few scattered flints along the foot of the Hog's Back, is, so far as 

 it goes, in favour of this hypothesis, since the Seale stream is never 

 supposed to have traversed chert-bearing beds, and the Chalk on 

 the south which it formerly drained had been planed off to below 

 the flint-bearing level. As regards the part played by the two 

 obsequent streams north of the Godalming Eiver, I think any 

 one who studies them will admit that, considering the softness 

 of the strata, their adjustment to the surrounding country is still 

 very immature, and thus a comparatively late origin (possibly after 

 the removal of all the Chalk and Selbornian strata from the syncline) 

 is rendered probable. 



There are two points in this river-system, which, in my opinion, 

 are more satisfactorily explained by the marine hypothesis : («) the 

 coincidence of the main transverse river with the point of greatest 

 development of the longitudinal fold ; and (b) the drifts on the 

 Downs to the east of Guildford. With regard to the first point, if 

 we assume fold and river to be contemporaneous, it is obvious that 

 the position occupied by the latter presents a minimum of advan- 

 tages. An antecedent river-system would be free from this objection, 

 but the coincidence of the two features would be purely a matter 

 of chance ; and, unless the formation of the fold be assigned to a 

 very early period, when consequent rivers were still extremely 

 numerous, such a chance connection would be unlikely to occur. But, 

 if the fold arose at such an early stage, it seems to me that the 

 syncline, which forms part of it, should also have had its effect 

 upon the drainage, and have been immediately occupied by a longi- 

 tudinal stream. Now, we have no positive evidence as to the date 

 of formation of the Godalming Eiver, but we do know that the 

 Tilford River, which occupies a continuation of the same syncline, 

 was of very late origin ; and this I regard as making it improbable 

 that the former river arose as a direct consequence of a very early 

 movement. So far as it goes, this is an objection to the subaerial 

 theory. The marine hypothesis, on the other hand, by assuming 

 that the summit of the anticline was planed off, thereby affording a 

 large area of Lower Cretaceous beds in which this particular con- 

 sequent river could develop, offers an ample reason for its success. 



Let us consider next the drifts east of Guildford. The central 

 region, round Horsham and St. Leonard's Forest, is composed of nearly 

 horizontal strata, and immediately south of Leith Hill there is even 

 a slight dip to the south ; consequently, if the Hythe Beds (in accord- 

 ance with the subaerial hypothesis) were first exposed in the centre, 

 there must have been at one time a very great interval, between 

 them and the Chalk, covered by Folkestone Beds and other soft 

 strata. The conditions, therefore, were favourable for the early 

 development of subsequent streams. If, however, we adopt the 

 widely accepted chronology, by which the Southern Drift is assigned 

 to the action of Pliocene rivers, it is evident that the time occupied 



