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XXV. — Report on the Farm-Prize Competition of 1874. 

 Bj G. H. Sand AY, of Wensley House, Bedale. 



[With a Geological Map and Notes on the Geology of Bedfordshire, by 

 James Wyatt, F.G.S.] 



Geology of Bedfordshiee. 



The surface configuration of this county presents a series of 

 gentle undulations and an entire absence of abrupt escarpments 

 or sudden elevations, the whole of the strata being comprised 

 within the series of the Secondary formations. Crossing the county 

 from north to south there is a gentle inclination to the centre — 

 the Ouse Valley — and from this part to the extreme southern 

 limit there is an uniform gradient to the Chalk range of the 

 Chilterns ; but even at the highest point in the latter region the 

 elevation above the sea-level does not exceed 500 feet. At the 

 town of Bedford, which is nearly in the centre of the county, 

 the land-surface is only 100 feet above the mean level of the sea. 

 But although, geologically speaking, the stratification of this 

 county is confined to narrow limits, the surface displays a great 

 variety of soils, as well on account of the oolitic and cretaceous 

 systems here uniting, as of the physical changes brought about 

 by denudation, and the phenomena of the Post-tertiary drifts. 

 It will be seen by the Map annexed that westwards the Great 

 Oolite extends nearly to Bedford ; but northward and eastward 

 there is a large breadth of Oxford clay which extends across, 

 south-westward, into Buckinghamshire. A few miles south of 

 Bedford the range of the Lower Greensand, forming an elevated 

 plateau, runs across the county from east to west ; and in parallel 

 lines, further south, there follow other beds of the Cretaceous 

 series, viz., the Gault, Chalk-marl, Totternhoe Clunch, Lower 

 Chalk, and Upper Chalk with flints. 



A great portion of the Northern area is covered with the tena- 

 cious clay of the Glacial drift, usually known as Boulder-clay ; 

 and although much of this has been removed by subsequent 

 denudation, the " wreck " of it is largely represented by the 

 pebbles, boulders, and sub-angular fragments of various rocks — 

 mostly foreign to this district — left on the surface of the land. 

 In some localities to the north of Bedford this Boulder-clay has 

 a mean depth of 50 feet and upwards, thickly interspersed with 

 boulders scored and striated, showing evidence of their transporta- 

 tion by ice ; whilst in other parts only a thin layer remains ; and 

 in some places, by cultivation, it has become incorporated with 

 the subjacent Oxford clay, and its existence is known only by 

 the presence of scattered boulders. It was across this boulder- 

 clay region that the chief drainage of the district, at an early 



