40 Lincolnshire Notes & Queries. 



of tons away from the surface," showing that resistance is not 

 always the best policy. 



A good illustration of this may be seen in the district I am 

 speaking of, for Hardwick Hill, which stands out as a landmark 

 at the far end of Scotton Common, is mainly composed of 

 gravel and sand, while the unyielding clays of the Lias are 

 worn away to their present depth below the Lincoln Cliff. 



For actions such as I have described unlimited time is, I 

 need not say, required j but, that given, from the planed down 

 surface of land emerging from the sea, we get the earth in its 

 present form, with its infinite variety of mountain and valley, 

 hill and dale. 



Of course there are volcanic and other forces that aid in 

 the construction of the earth's surface, but they lack the 

 universality and ceaseless operation of rain, and there is no 

 time to speak of them now. 



It is to the eroding action of rain that we owe, in the main, 

 the present features of " the great dragon land." 



ONE more phase in the life history of the area we are 

 considering I have still to record. 



After the chalk sea had disappeared, and the Tertiary age 

 which may be called the latter days of geology had set in, 

 the land underwent, for a great length of time, varying periods 

 of elevation, subsidence, and rest, during which the North 

 Sea appeared, and the principal physical features of our islands 

 were developed ; but in the later Pleistocene epoch a period 

 approaching our own days in a geological sense a great 

 change took place. The Glacial conditions, which now 

 prevail in the arctic regions, gradually invaded our land. The 

 whole country sank to a considerable depth below its present 

 level, and a great portion of Lincolnshire was covered with 

 floating ice, which scored the rocks, and poured on its surface 

 volumes of mud arid clay, mixed with stones and boulders, 

 which now pave the streets and market places of Gainsborough 

 and Lincoln. And when, at last, all this had passed away, and 

 the land had risen again to the surface, a period of subsidence 

 once more set in. The North Sea, which had come into 

 existence prior to the invasion of the ice, but had, during this 

 period, been filled up with its debris, again resumed its sway. 

 Our land, in course of time, became separated from the 

 Continent, and Great Britain, as it now is, appeared. 



I should like to have spoken of a great river system, which 

 cut through the Oolite and Lias on the south and west, and 



