LIME 409 



of lime in the soil. " Traverse the Department of Aveyron, 

 where we find felspathic* lands deficient in lime, and 

 calcareous districts where it is superabundant. On the 

 felspathic lands the animals are diminutive ; the men them- 

 selves are small in stature and of angular forms ; their 

 very pronunciation — who would believe it ? — savours of a 

 defect of lime. On the calcareous lands, the stature of 

 the inhabitants is higher, their frame more powerful, and 

 their character more loyal " (Ville's The Perplexed Farmer). 

 Hugh Miller, the eminent geologist, when writing many 

 years ago about the Sutherland evictions, tells us that 

 '' everything was stunted but men." The soil of that 

 country is Pre-Cambrian, and consequently has but little 

 lime in it. 



In A Naturalisfs Voyage, Darwin tells us that the 

 lower country of the Falkland Islands, the climate of 

 which is cold, consists of clay-slate and sandstone, and the 

 hills are of quartz, in which geological formations, very 

 little lime is present. Therefore, it is not surprising that 

 he states, when referring to these islands, that " all the 

 horses bred here, both tame and wild, are rather small- 

 sized, though generally in good condition ; and they have 

 lost so much strength, that they are unfit to be used in 

 taking wild cattle with the lazo. Consequently, it is 

 necessary to go to the great expense of importing fresh 

 horses from the Plata." Mr. McConnell tells me that the 

 offspring of English horses which have been imported into 

 the Falkland Islands, become stunted in growth. 



Professor Cossar Ewart remarks to me " that the soil 

 of a large area may be rich in lime, though not overlying 

 limestone. Thousands of square miles of soil in some 

 districts have been brought from remote limestone areas, by 

 icebergs during the Glacial Period, and ' dumped down ' 

 at the point of stranding." For Glacial Period, see page 

 676. Streams can convey limestone, in a dissolved con- 

 dition, to places where that rock is not present. 



* Felspar is a combination of silica with oxides of aluminium and potassium (Bloxam) 



