340 МВ. К. S. ADAMSON: AN ECOLOGICAL STUDY 
GAMLINGAY WOOD. 
Situation.—The woodland studied, Gamlingay Wood, is situated in the 
extreme west of Cambridgeshire, on the borders of that county and 
Huntingdonshire, in whieh county a small portion of the wood lies. 
The wood is in lat. 52° 10’ N. and long. 0? 11' W. It is about 15 miles 
almost due west of Cambridge in the parish of Gamlingay and about half 
a mile north of the village of that name. ` 
The wood is on the summit of a ridge rising to slightly more than 200 ft. 
above the Ordnance datum. 
The wood itself is on approximately level ground except for a slight slope 
downwards at the southern end. In shape it is roughly rectangular, being 
about # mile long by 3 mile in width, with the long axis running Х.Е, by 
S. W.—1. e., about one quarter of a square mile in extent, 
Gamlingay Wood is the property of Merton College, Oxford, and is rented 
by Col. Duncomb, of Waresley Park, Hunts, whom [ desire here to thank 
very cordially for his kindness in allowing me access to the wood at all times 
of the year. 
Geology.—The wood is mapped, on the Geological Survey map, as on 
Gault, and elose to the boundary-line between that formation and the Lower 
Greensand, which extends for a considerable distance to the west and south 
ofthe wood. But in the geological map in the * County Geography’? * Lower 
Greensand is marked as the underlying rock. The underlying rocks, 
however, in this spot are all overlaid by that extremely variable deposit 
known as Boulder Clay, which forms a eap to the ridge on which the wood 
stands. The details of the structure and composition of the Boulder Clay 
will be discussed later. 
There seems some evidence that part, at any rate, of the Boulder Clay 
in the wood is underlaid by Greensand, especially in the western part. 
Diggings here revealed the fact that the soil becomes bright yellow and 
much more sandy at a depth of 18 ins. to 2 ft, and locally lumps of 
undoubted Greensand were turned up. 
In one part solid Greensand was struck at a depth of 7-8 feet. In an 
adjoining field also, immediately west of the wood and on the same level, 
sand was recently turned up, during drainage operations, at a depth of 
2-3 feet. 
The clay in the wood seems to be on the average considerably more than 
4 ft. in depth. 
* Hughes, 1909, 
