bourhood may be rendered available for the supply of water to a growing population is in the hands of competent authorities. I leave this part of the question, promising on some future occasion to give the approximate acreage and daily average quantities of rain in the various valleys lying northward of the common watershed of those here enumerated”.
Brede and Bodiam Water. In a second communication to the News, Mr. Banks said he found by the Ordinance Map of Sussex that the Brede Valley contained 19,200 acres, and Bodiam Valley 50,500 acres, calculating westward from Bodiam Bridge. Persons who were curious in such matters (the writer continued) might form an opinion from the extracts given of the capabilities of both those valleys, and he would only suggest the advisability of gaging the respective streams and of analyzing the water, as it might happen that that which came from the Wealden contained more organic impurities than that which came from the Hastings Sands.
The Wealden and Hastings Sands. Mr. Banks’ further correspondence included the following: “The district to which my remarks will have reference is that lying between the North and South Downs; or, more properly speaking, enclosed by the Kent, Surrey and Sussex chalk hills, and which is generally known by the name of the Wealden formation. Passing from the South Downs over the Wealden to the North Downs, we have immediately underlying the chalk (which is the newest of the secondary strata) the gault and green sand, which crop out and form a narrow strip along the foot of the chalk hills. Next we pass over the weald clay, then the Hastings sands, which form as it were a backbone through the wealden. After crossing the Hastings sands, we again cross a portion of the weald clay, then the green sand and gault, and, arriving at the North Downs, find ourselves again on the chalk. This course may be roughly considered as we should find it, starting from the hills near Lewes by Cuckfield, through Tilgate Forest (the crest of the Hastings sands formation) by Crawley and Reigate on to the Surrey hills, forming the circumference of part of an irregular oval (the wealden) and terminating in abrupt of high cliffs at Dover and Beachey Head.
The Hastings sands contain no large rivers. The Wealden, a newer formation, and the oolite, an older formation may both be called water-bearing strata; containing numerous springs and the sources of many rivers; the former, in particular, the Rother, the Stour, the Medway etc. Manifestly, therefore, to supply Hastings with water, three courses only are open. 1. To collect and store the rainfall in its more immediate neighbourhood; 2. To convery overland by -
