34 Wild Life in a Southern County. 
become more numerous of late years. Several are 
situate on the lower plateau, which is also dry enough. 
Toiling over the endless hills in the summer heats, I 
have often been driven by necessity of thirst to taste 
a little of the water contained in them, though well 
knowing the inevitable result. The water has a dead 
flavour: it is not stagnant in the sense of impurity, 
but dead, even when quite clear. In a few moments 
after tasting it, the mouth dries, with a harsh un- 
pleasant feeling as if some impalpable dusty particles 
had got into the substance of the tongue. This is 
caused probably by suspended chalk, of which it 
tastes ; for assuaging thirst, therefore, it is worse than 
useless in summer: very different is the exquisitely 
limpid cool liquid which bubbles out in the narrow 
coombes far below. 
The indirect bearing of the phenomena of these 
dew-ponds upon the water-supply of the ancient fort 
is found in the evidence they supply that under 
different conditions the deposit of moisture here 
might have been very much larger. The ice formed 
upon the branches of the beech trees in winter proves 
that water is often present in the atmosphere in large 
quantities ; all it requires is something to precipitate 
it. Therefore, if these hills were once clothed with 
forest, as previously suggested, it appears possible 
that the primitive inhabitants, after all, may havé 
carried on their agriculture with less difficulty, and. 
have been able to store up water in their camps with 
