86 



Once past the low shelf of shingle at Hurst, the mind can readily 

 picture a broad winding vale bounded by the austere Island downs 

 on the south and the gentler shelving forest slopes that face them 

 on the north. Fill that vale with forest or with low rank herbage, 

 as you will ; the mental picture still requires as a complement a 

 stately river winding with the windings of the land or meandering 

 in lesser curves. Doubtless there have been both these phases, 

 and the mind has only recalled a past actuality. 



The whole course of this river of the past — it may be said, of 

 many pasts — is not accurately known, and geologists are now invited 



Fig. i. Consequent Rivers flowing over a plain of soft strata and through 

 an escarpment of harder rocks. 



to call it by the name of its modern estuary, the Solent. But it 

 seems allowable, as implying some comprehension of its later history 

 at least, to speak of it as the Frome-Solent. 



If we follow the present river Frome back to its sources in the 

 hills of East Dorset, we must then consider, remembering that no 

 rivers rest unmoved in their boundaries, whether this one has been 

 growing or dwindling. At this point it is best to revert to pure 

 physics and interpose a diagram, fig. i. In its essentials it is much 

 the same as shown in many text books, but instead of a plan, I have 

 given a bird's eye view of a scene from which all elements of the 

 " picturesque" are carefully eliminated. The out-crop of the hard 

 rock, h, h, is shown as though cut out of wood — much in the shape 

 of an old fashioned writing desk. These rocks, h, h, overlie the 

 softer beds, s, s, and the whole are supposed to have a slight dip 

 towards the sea on the left. The dip of s, s, cannot be very well 

 shown. 



Two main rivers, A and E, are shown. They follow the dip 

 slope, which is the main or original tilt of the country, and they are 

 therefore called consequent rivers. During the wearing down of s, s, 

 they have had time to cut gorges through h, h (through which they 

 must perforce run out of sight, the principles of perspective being 

 stronger than the will of the draughtsman). Two lateral tributaries 

 of A, B and C, are shown in the vale of s, s. They have arisen 

 during the delving out of the water, and are called subsequents. Also 

 a small stream, D, is seen rising within the escarpment and flowing 

 into A. By reason of the position of its source, from which it should 

 by the formation of the country flow to the left instead of reversely, 

 it is an obsequent stream, probably of later date than B, or C. Now, 

 not far from the sources of B, we note the rise of a subsequent 



