18 CHRONICLES OF A CLAY FARM. 



I shall not tell when it was, nor where it was, 

 nor why it was, that I first "broke ground:"' the 

 first would be too cruel, the second too particular, 

 and the third too personal. But I shall describe 

 my Farm geologically, and myself categorically, 

 wjiich must answer every proper inquiry of the 

 : curious, and tf/ill, leave a little untold besides, which 

 '.sdrvflS; the better, to keep alive the interest of the 

 narrative. 



Somewhere or other in England there is a flat, 

 bleak, high-lying district, which a shallow or very 

 terse geologist might haply describe as part of the 

 New Red-sandstone formation; but where, if lie would 

 take the trouble to plow an acre, he would hear 

 now and then a suspicious kind of sound from the 

 share and colter, which I may describe by the word 

 "soapy;" and where, whenever the nose of the plow 

 chanced to dive an inch deeper than usual, he would 

 see certain blue-looking indications turned up, that 

 would rather startle his complacency, if a lover of 

 light soils, by a suggestion of the proximity of that 

 terrible antagonist the blue Lias.* Should this 



* "Lias," is the geological term for various strata of 

 marl, shale, and other deposits below the surface. These 

 strata often contain a conglomerate, or mixture of shells, 

 lime, alumina, silox, and iron. The Blue Lias, as in the 



