﻿330 ME. H. BUBT OIT THE RIVEE WEY. [May I908, 



the anticline which gives rise to the Kingsclere, Shalbourne, and 

 Pewsey inliers. It will be seen, therefore, that the area drained by 

 the Tisted Stream corresponds to that of the Meon Hiver, and that 

 the two together occupy an intermediate position between the rivers 

 of the Weald, rising in the Petersfield anticline, and the rivers of 

 the Hampshire Uplands, rising in the Kingsclere anticline ; and 

 there can be no question that, if the Tisted Stream flowed at 

 the present day past the Golden Pot, and into the Whitewater, 

 we should unhesitatingly ascribe to it a consequent origin.^ 



(2) Is there any evidence of a former connection with 

 the Whitewater ? — The alignment of the Tisted and Golden-Pot 

 Valleys with a tributary of the Whitewater is suggestive, but of 

 course not conclusive : it may be due to chance, or to something in 

 the folding of the Chalk at this point ; for, as we have seen, the 

 Golden-Pot Yalley marks a change in the line of hills. Given 

 the alignm-cnt, the notch in the hills would follow as a matter 

 of course, and as there is no gravel in this notch, or in the valleys 

 immediately north and south of it, it cannot be said that there is 

 any clear evidence of a former connection. We may even argue 

 against it, that it is unlikely that a river which had a fairly-straight 

 run to the Thames would be captured by one (the Blackwater) 

 which pursues a very devious route ; but this is not an insuperable 

 difficulty, for although we know nothing of the causes which have 

 led the Blackwater to assume its present course, it is hardly likely 

 that that course is primitive. Lower Greensand fragments are 

 found in the region drained by the Whitewater,^ and it is tempting 

 to suppose that they were brought here by the Tisted Stream ; but 

 so far I have found none in the Tisted Valley, nor any evidence 

 that it was connected with the Wealden Beds. 



(3) Did the Farnham River originate as a subsequent 

 river in the Wealden area? — It is well known that an anti- 

 cline runs past Parnham, as far west as Bentley ; and we have seen 

 evidence on pp. 323-26 that the river ran along and even south of 

 this line at no distant date, though it now lies slightly farther 

 north. We can easily understand how such a longitudinal anti- 

 cline might give rise to a subsequent river, and therefore, if the 

 eastern end of the Parnham River, which runs through Gault and 

 Lower Greensand, stood alone, we should be in no doubt as to its 

 origin ; but it is its western end which makes us pause. That 

 a Wealden river should eat its way back through a mile of Upper 

 Greensand (a highly resistant rock in this region) and 2 miles of 

 Chalk is not indeed impossible, though certainly improbable ; but 

 that it should accomplish this feat without leaving any traces of 



^ It might have been expected that the consequent rivers in the west of the 

 Weald would not run nortli and south, but would radiate from the end of 

 the Wealden dome. If, however, there is any trace of this radiation within the 

 Wealden area, there is none outside, and our Tisted Valley is parallel with 

 the Whitewater and Loddon on the north, and the Meon, Itchen, Test, and 

 Avon on the south. 



^ H. W. Monckton, ' On the Grravels south of the Thames from Guildford 

 to Newbury ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlviii (1892) p. 37. 



