548 RECENT. 



haunts of the Bustard until the early part of the present century, are partly formed 

 by wind-drifted Glacial Sand. 



Much Blown Sand also occurs at Lowestoft, and it sometimes inundates the 

 gardens of tlie houses that face the sea to the south of the Harbour. 



Between Sandwich and Deal there are sand hills, also at Romney, on the 

 south of Hayling Island, and between Christchurch, Bournemouth, and Poole 

 Harbour, in Dorsetshire, where the dunes rise to a height of sixty feet. Low hills 

 of Blown Sand occur south of Weymouth, at Exmouth, and at Slapton, south of 

 Dartmouth. 



Soils. 



Soils present great diversity in character and composition, and 

 they form an irregular covering over the greater part of the country. 

 They are intimately connected with the last denudations of the 

 country, and with the present action of the sun, frost, rain, and 

 streams, combined too with the deposit from decaying vegetable 

 and animal matter, the voidings of worms, and the burrowings 

 of these and other animals such as moles. The roots of trees 

 exercise great influence in breaking up the strata near the surface. 

 The wind, too, exerts much influence on the soil, drifting sea- 

 sand often for some distance inland, and distributing finer particles 

 of dust over the whole of the land ; ^ also in stormy weather it 

 carries saline matter far inland from the sea. It has been remarked, 

 in poetic language, that the very dust we tread upon was once alive; 

 and in many respects this is true, at any rate of the dust of coal 

 and ashes, as well as of limestone and flint, which are so largely 

 used for mending roads. 



The diversity of soils, however, may be considered as primarily 

 due to the nature of the underlying geological formation or 

 ' sub-soil,' from which they have been most largely constructed — 

 hence the fact, expressed by Arthur Young, that soils vary mainly 

 according to contours, for over great part of our country the strata are 

 approximately horizontal. The sub-soil is the disintegrated portion 

 of the rock below, and this often forms a ' brash,' a term applied 

 to the rubble formed on the limestones, especially on the Oolitic 

 strata. Hence, among soils there are those of a brashy, marly, 

 clayey, loamy, sandy, and gravelly nature, and mould. The soils 

 of each geological formation have been alluded to, so far as 

 possible, in the text describing them, and where the soil is simply 

 or mainly due to a disintegration of the sub-strata, its nature will 

 be understood. 



The influence of soils on Agriculture is, of course, all-important, but their fertility 

 is greatly equalized by manuring and draining. Tiiousands of acres, according 

 to Mr. J. Bravender, are at this moment, to all outward appearances, fertile, 

 which are not permanently so, but which have been artificially made productive — 

 these if neglected would eventually return to a state of sterility. The heavy lands, 



1 Reid, Geol. Holderness, p. iiS; G. Mag. 1SS4, p. 165. 



