THE NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE, ~ 3 
streams into two different seas. The one to the south becomes 
a branch of the Arun, running to Arundel, and so falling into 
the British Channel; the other to the north. The Selborne 
stream makes one branch of the Wey; and, meeting the 
Blackdown stream at Hedleigh, and the Alton and Farnham 
stream at Tilford-bridge, swells into a considerable river, navi- 
gable at Godalming ; from whence it passes to Guildford, and 
so into the Thames at Weybridge ; and thus at the Nore into 
the German Ocean. 
Our wells, at an average, run to about sixty-three feet, and 
when sunk to that depth seldom fail; but produce a fine 
limpid water, soft to the taste, and much commended by those 
- who drink the pure element, but which does not lather well 
with soap. 
To the northwest, north and east of the village, is a range 
of fair enclosures, consisting of what is called a white malm, a 
sort of rotten or rubble stone, which, when turned up to the 
frost and rain, moulders to pieces, and becomes manure to itself. 
Still on to the northeast, and a step lower, is a kind of 
white land, neither chalk nor clay, neither fit for pasture 
nor for the plough, yet kindly for hops, which root deep 
into the freestone, and have their poles and wood for charcoal 
growing just at hand. The white soil produces the brightest 
hops. — 
As the parish still inclines down towards Wolmer Forest, at 
the junction of the clays and sand the soil becomes a wet, sandy 
loam, remarkable for timber, and infamous for roads. The 
oaks of Temple and Blackmoor stand high in the estimation 
of purveyors, and have furnished much naval timber; while 
_ the trees on the freestone grow large, but are what workmen 
call shaky, and so brittle as often to fall to pieces in sawing. 
Beyond the sandy loam the soil becomes a hungry lean sand, 
till it mingles with the forest ; and will produce little without 
the assistance of lime and turnips. 
