76 THE PEINCIPLES OF 



Resuming the consideration of these two formations, we 

 may first notice them in Yorkshire, forming the valley of 

 Pickering, and the district of clayey land west of Scarborough. 

 In the next place we shall notice it in Lincolnshire, giving 

 the clay district already mentioned. Passing a little farther 

 south, past Peterborough, it forms a district of strong land in 

 Huntingdonshire, around Kimbolton and Huntingdon, and 

 passing right under the fens, giving the basis for the peaty 

 growth of the fen country. This is the clay which is dug 

 up and spread over the surface of the fens. It gives the 

 clay district round St. Neot's, Olney, and Bedford, the clay 

 districts of Buckinghamshire, the clay district of Oxfordshire, 

 from which it takes its name ; then it passes into Wiltshire, 

 yielding a well-defined clay district round Swindon and 

 Cricklade, all of which forms a flat vale easily seen from the 

 neighbouring chalk hills looking from them in a north and 

 westerly direction. Next it passes into Somersetshire, and 

 there becomes broken or masked by alluvial deposit from the 

 river Severn. We have now traced the upper and middle 

 oolite chiefly as illustrated by the Kimmeridge and Oxford 

 clays. The Kimmeridge clay is agriculturally superior to the 

 Oxford clay, which is of poor character. The Oxford clay 

 gives a very poor soil; the pastures even being poor. In 

 the county of Gloucester it is almost uncultivated. In that 

 county it forms Braydon Forest, a large and extensive district, 

 but hopeless for the purposes of cultivation, although it forms 

 a happy hunting-ground for sportsmen. 



We have in the next place to very briefly examine the 

 soils of the lower oolite, and it is necessary to divide them 

 approximately, at least, as they are very various in character. 

 The lower oolite is composed in the -first place of the 

 rocks known as corn brash, which in turn rests on the 

 forest marble. Then we have the great oolite, the Stone- 

 field slate, the Fuller's earth clay, and the inferior oolite 



