﻿Vol. 64.] SOLTJTION-V ALLEYS IN THE GLTME AEEA. 339 



of the longer valley, but stronger water- action must be looked for. 

 The valley was followed down to the Dorn with a certain amount of 

 anxious interest, and it was a pleasure to find an issuing permanent 

 stream emerging at the Dorn stream-level in the very mouth of 

 the dry entering valley. The issuing stream is called ^Puffit's 

 Well,' and is near Holly Bank, a short distance from Wootton. 

 Standing near this dry valley one looks up the Dorn, which is seen 

 meandering across a level floor like the level floor of the little 

 cirque-stream ; the contours of the Dorn Valley are seen to repro- 

 duce the contours of the dry valley wandering through the corn- 

 lields. The imagination travels to the Evenlode with characters 

 similar to those of the Dorn, but on a larger scale ; and the spectre 

 of mechanical erosion vanishes from the limestone-plateau. 



A great many valleys do not show the issuing stream, yet many 

 have marshy ground where they join the main river-valley, and 

 this marshy ground is very interesting. 



A landowner upon the Dorn bank desired to make a fish-pond, 

 and excavated a wide tank some 3 feet deep in the valley-floor 

 near the stalactite-covered waterwheel, but said that when filled 

 all the water leaked away through ' worm-holes.' It is irregular 

 behaviour for a worm to burrow over 3 feet deep, and, moreover, 

 the excavated earth was said to be full of small bones. On going 

 to see these ' small bones ' I found them to be long broken pipes 

 of carbonate of lime with hollow centres (hence the ' worm-holes '), 

 and concretionary rings around the hollows. These underground 

 stalactites had grown round roots which had afterwards decayed^ 

 and they formed a considerable amount of the soil to a depth of 

 4 feet at least, at the opening flat of an issuing valley. Here, 

 then, was a possible explanation of the gradual infilling of the 

 valley-floor, since it appeared that these stalactites formed an un- 

 derground scaffolding for fresh rainwash humus to lodge upon. I 

 have seen the valley-floor of the Glyme completely covered with 

 water that did not drain away for six months ; and in some of 

 the curves of the Glyme, which are really soakage-bowls, a good 

 deal of marsh-water occasionally lies in corners because it is 

 supplied from underground sources and can but slowly soak away 

 (PI. XXXIX, figs. 1 & 2). 



"When, after flooding, the water finally soaks away, the herbage 

 is thickly coated with white powder, quite destroying the pasture ; 

 and it was this fact which caused a farmer to carry the Grimm's- 

 Valley water underground for nearly half a mile along a fertile 

 bottom of pasture-land. 



The valleys, therefore, seem to be slowly filled with precipitates 

 which become mixed with mud and spread across the 'flood-plain,' 

 on a level expanse along which the stream slowly meanders from 

 side to side. Local evidence is thus not wanting to show that 

 a very considerable amount of carbonate of lime is removed in solu- 

 tion, even more than is accounted for by the analysis of water 

 from the issuing springs, since they deposit much before issuing. 



