ENGLISH AGRICULTURE. 77 



With reference to the soils of the lower oolite, the corn 

 brash is restricted in area, but yields a fertile soil. Wherever 

 found it yields an excellent soil. It is always associated 

 with bands of clay, the result of the decay of the Bradford 

 clay and the forest marble. Next comes the great oolite, 

 which gives a light thin soil well adapted for sheep-farm- 

 ing, but of moderate or inferior fertility. Underneath it 

 is the Fuller's earth clay, which again yields a soil of reten- 

 tive character. Below this clay lies the inferior oolite, the 

 lowest member of the group giving free soils of cold inferior 

 character, rising up into rather precipitous heights, and where 

 cultivated giving sheep farms. Taking the lower oolite as 

 whole, from the corn brash to the inferior oolite inclusive, 

 it usually constitutes a high-lying district, or series of 

 listricts, rising up north and west of the clays of the upper 

 id middle series. Thus in Yorkshire it forms that picturesque 

 listrict known as the Cleveland Hills, a mountainous district 

 lying to the north and west of the Vale of Pickering, extend- 

 ing from Wbitby and overlooking the vale of Cleveland, 

 'he Cleveland Hills are in the majority of cases uncul- 

 tivated, but they have extraordinary mineral wealth, chiefly 

 the shape of jet and ironstone. The Cleveland Hills form 

 important feature in the North Riding of Yorkshire ; they 

 re traceable past Thirsk. The formation reappears on the 

 >uthern banks of the Humber, and traversing West Lincoln- 

 shire in a southerly direction, forms a wold-like hilly tract 

 mown as the Lincoln heath already mentioned. We have 

 10 longer the bold outline of the Cleveland Hills, but a 

 dtivated tract, on which there is a fairly good light soil well 

 lapted for sheep-farming, and known as the Lincoln heath, 

 "he lower oolite forms a considerable portion of the county 

 )f Northampton, but in that county it has not the distinctive 

 character which it exhibits either in Lincolnshire or York- 

 shire. After it passes through Northamptonshire, where it 





