[ ft3* ] 



mould, tending to a Tandy nature, is that on which 

 I have ever found it lead liable to the accident of 

 which you complain. I cannot tell if you have any 

 of the foil of the kind I here defcribe, never having 

 been in Gloucefterfhire ; and I am yet more doubt- 

 ful if the terms I make ufe of, will be intelligible to 

 you j — but I have no other means of communica- 

 ting my ideas on this fu eject. 



The procefs by which broad clover is thus de- 

 ftroyed, is very eafily obferyable on fpungy moory 

 foils, in which water is retained in a (late more 

 nearly approaching to fluidity than in others. In 

 rich clayey loams, where the fame procefs takes 

 place in an inferior degree, the progrefs is far lefs 

 perceptible. In fuch fpungy foils I have often re- 

 marked the following phenomena : — 



After a night of bare froft, in thofe places where 

 the earth is not covered with a clofe fward of grafs, 

 the furface feems to be divided into a great number 

 of broad kind of points, divided from each other 

 by a great variety of fifllires, fomething like what 

 takes place in a clayey pool, when the water has 

 been fuddenly evaporated, and the mud haflily in- 

 durated. On taking up one of thefe detached 

 pieces, and examining it, we difcover that itconfifts 

 ulmoft entirely of frozen water, with a thin cruft of 

 Qj earth 



