Xll. 



surrounded by hedges, which were formerly higher than now. The 

 soils also vary from a stiff clay loam to fine sand, and may be classified 

 as : 

 " Heavy Lands. Stiff loam, yellow clay ; blue clayey loam. 



Mixed Lands. Common mixed soil, rich deep mould, fen lands,, 

 rich marshes. 



Light Lands. Eastern and north-western sand, and poor chalk of 

 West Suffolk." (White's Suffolk.) 



Along the banks of the rivers and in the different fens and marshes, 

 are rich strips of alluvial deposit. 



More than two-thirds of the County would come under the term 

 heavy lands, and the area occupied would be roughly bounded on the 

 North by the Waveney from Hopton (West) to Beccles, on the East by a 

 line passing from Beccles, Halesworth, Hoo, Grundisburgh, Needham 

 Market, Hadleigh to Melford ; on the South by the County boundary as 

 far East as Melford ; and on the West by a line running from Hopton, 

 (West) to Haughley via Ixworth, from which point it turns West to 

 the borders of Cambridgeshire. 



The mixed lands are found, one portion East of the heavy lands, 

 between the Orwell and the Stour, and again further North between 

 Halesworth, Beccles, Southwold, and Yarmouth ; the other tract lying 

 West of .the heavy lands and extending from Hopton (Westward) to 

 Euston and Newmarket. 



The sandy or light lands are in the extreme East and North-west 

 of the County. The Eastern portion extends from the Deben to South- 

 wold, bounded on the West by a line from Woodbridge to Saxmundham. 

 The North-west portion intervenes between the fens and the mixed 

 soils, and is known as the Breck district, being situated between Thet- 

 ford and Mildenhall. There are various heaths and barren tracts of 

 rough ground, principally used for sheep-walks and rabbit-warrens. 

 A more or less broken belt of heath and furze extends near the coast 

 from Lovvestoft to the Orwell, where Calluna, Erica, tetralix, and cinerea^ 

 grow in more or less abundance. Occasionally it is intersected by 

 arable or marshy land, or runs down to the coast. In many places, 

 however, it is separated from the coast by marshes protected from the 

 sea by embankments, locally called sea-walls, except where low sand- 

 hills form a natural protection, as at Minsmere Sluice to Sizewell. 



