go 



river movements and rivalries. An essential feature to be assured 

 of is the inclination of the strata relatively to the run of the river. 

 The consequent river, that which flows as might be expected down 

 the dip of the series, will probably be the original stream, which 

 may or may not, probably not, be now found at its full youthful 

 extension. A river like the existing Frome or the lower Thames 

 which is contained in a synclinal valley, the strata dipping towards 

 it on either hand, is more likely to be in assured possession of its 

 present territory. The rivers which gather upon the escarpments 

 and flow down upon the underlying valleys, in the opposite direction 

 to the Geological dip, will usually be the successful and increasing 

 ones. Special causes for any enhancement of a river's activity 

 should be sought for in the nature of the deposits over which it runs 

 or in any shortenings of its route to the sea. Finally the past of a 

 river must not be judged from the features of its present descendant. 

 Shreds and vestiges of its former bed may often be found crowning 

 the very heights which now enfold its valley. These generalities are 

 one and all liable to considerable variation in detail, but are essential 

 to bear in mind when approaching any investigation of this nature. 



It is not proposed to allude specially to the phenomena accom- 

 panying the final incursion of the sea upon the Solent valley. The 

 subject is one which has naturally been repeatedly dwelt upon in 

 this locality, and has lately been set forth by Mr. Clement Reid, 

 before the British Association. We have seen how the Hampshire 

 Avon thus acquired enhanced power, and the use it made of it. 



But there is a distinctly local feature which appears to be 

 referable, in part at least, to the same set of causes. I allude to the 

 curious series of remarkably steep little gullies — chines or bunnys 

 as they are locally called — with which every little stream finishes its 

 course into Bournemouth or Christchurch Bay. I have previously 

 dignified these little ravines, which certainly form one of the 

 picturesque elements of this coast, by the name of " gorges." But 

 it is precisely the feature which distinguishes them from gorges as 

 usually understood which forms their chief peculiarity, A true gorge 

 owes its origin to its stream being confined by the nature of its 

 rocky bed within a very narrow channel, and is moreover an episode 

 of any part of the stream's course where the resisting rock happens 

 to crop up. But our chines are one and all cut through the un- 

 refractory sands and yielding clays of the upper Bagshot and Barton 

 series. These same deposits certainly form a blufl sea cliff at first 

 appearance, but this would seem to be chiefly due to the ease with 

 which their fallen debris is washed away through the beach, thus 

 giving no time for a sloping underclifi to form. Why then do not the 

 various little rills — some are no more — enter the sea through valleys 

 of modest contour, as one might expect and as in their upper courses 

 they indeed possess ? The Bourne itself has formed a more natural 

 valley, but for the rest ? In this question the best informed local 

 opinion is not all at one. I propose therefore to adopt a com- 

 promise which has perhaps more of political convenience than logical 

 sanction about it, and to confine my remarks to the " bunnys " east- 



