﻿318 ' ME. H. BURY ON THE RIVER WET. [^^^J I908, 



17. Notes on the IIiyer "Wet. By He^^rt Btjrt. M.A., F.L.S., 

 F.G.S. (Read February 19th, 1908.) 



[Plates XXXYI & XXXVII— Maps.] 



COXTEXTS. 



Page 



I. Introduction 318 



II. The Eelation of the Wey to the Blactwater 319 



III. The Palasolithic G-ravels' of Farnham 323 



IV. The Alton District 327 



I. Introduction. 



That part of the Eiver Wey which lies within the Wealden area 

 may for couvenieiice be divided into six sections ; but it is almost 

 entirely with the last three that the present paper is concerned. 

 (See PI. XXXYI.) 



Section I is a consequent river, cutting through the Chalk at 

 Guildford, and is marked on PI. XXXYI as ' River Wey (Conse- 

 quent).' It is the only portion of the Wey that rises in the Weald 

 Clay, its upper waters being mainly derived from a subsequent river 

 running nearly parallel to the Lower Greensand escarpment. 



Section II is a subsequent stream flowing in from the east, 

 parallel with the Chalk escarpment, and joining Section I at 

 Shalford. It is described in Topley's ' Geology of the Weald ' as 

 the Tillingbourne. 



Section III is another subsequent river joining Section I from 

 the west at Broadford. Between Godalming and Broadford its 

 course is north-easterly, but from Tilford to Godalming its general 

 direction is easterly, parallel to the Hog's Back, which lies about 

 3 miles to the north. This branch, which may for convenience be 

 called the Godalming River, receives several tributaries from 

 the south, some from Hindhead, others from the Lower Greensand 

 ridge between Hindhead and Hascombe. The latter form notches 

 in that ridge, and seem to have been reduced in length by the 

 retreat of the Lower Greensand escarpment before branches of the 

 River Arun. Some unimportant obsequent streams drain the 

 Lower Greensand area to the north, between this river and the 

 Hog's Back (Chalk escarpment). 



Section lY, or the Tilford River, is now a continuation 

 westwards of Section III, although it will be shown to have had a 

 separate origin. It also is roughly parallel to the Chalk escarp- 

 ment, which here has a nearly due north-easterly course. About 

 5 miles south-west of Tilford the river forks : the smaller branch 

 continues the line of the main river westwards, rising as an 

 obsequent stream at the foot of the Chalk escarpment at Selbourne. 

 It receives two obsequent tributaries from the north, one of which, 

 opposite Bentley, I shall have occasion to refer to later as the 



