OF THE COUNTY OF SUSSEX. 
9 
ten or twelve inches thick, and the chalk rather 
broken, and mixed with loam in the interstices.” * 
Some ])arts of the South Downs are converted 
into arable, but in general tliey are reserved for 
pasturage, and sup])ort a breed of sheep, equal, if 
not superior, to any in the kingdom, t 
Lewes Levels, which have already been men- 
tioned as interveniim between the western and 
o 
central divisions of the South Downs, form a 
* Young’s Agricultural Survey of Sussex, 8vo. p. 5. 
"t Tlie sheep fed on the South Downs amount to nearly 200,000 ; 
and, as there are no natural springs on the chalk hills, the flocks are 
sup[)lied with water from liu-ge circular ponds, made on the summits of 
tlie Downs ; tlie bottoms of these excavations are covered with a layer 
of ochraccous clay, to prevent the water from percolating through the 
chalk, and they are seldom known to fail even in the hottest summers. 
Tlie late Mr. White considered this circumstance as very remarkable ; 
and has particularly noticed it, in his interesting volume on the Natural 
History of Selborne. “ To a thinking mind, few phenomena are 
more strange, than the state of little ponds on the summits of chalk 
hills, many of which are never dry in the most trying droughts of 
summer : on chalk hills, I say, because, in many rocky and gravelly 
soils, springs usually break out pretty high on the sides of elevated 
grounds and mountains ; but no person acquainted with chalky districts 
will allow that they ever saw springs in such a soil but in valleys and 
bottoms, since the waters of so pervious a stratum as chalk all lie on one 
dead level, as well-diggers have assured me again and again. 
“ Now, we have many such little round ponds in this district ; and 
one, in particular, on one sheep-down, three hundred feet above my 
house ; which, though never above three feet deep in the middle, and 
not more than thirty feet in diameter, and containing perhaps not more 
than two or three hundred hogsheads of water, yet never is known to 
fail, though it affords drink for 300 or 400 sheep, and for at least twenty 
head of large cattle beside.” — Jf VtUe’s Xat. Hist, of Selborne, p. 206. 
What, however, appears to me still more remarkable, is the fact, that, 
soon after a new pond has been made, and has received a partial supply 
of water from a few passing showers, it becomes inhabited by various 
kinds of freshwater plants and shell-fish, and even frogs and lizards ; 
although it may be remote from any other pond, and at an elevation of 
•100 or 500 hundred feet above the level of the surrounding country. 
