80 THE PRINCIPLES OF 



sometimes in describing the distribution of soils all over the 

 country compared it to one of those dissected maps which 

 is sometimes used as a toy for children. A dissected map 

 of England might easily be made in which the workings of 

 the fret-saw follow the sinuous outline of these formations, 

 and these might be pieced together much in the same manner 

 as a child's map of the country for the purposes of instruction, 

 so completely is the junction between the successive form- 

 ations followed out. With such a fret-saw map before us we 

 could place upon the northern and western boundary of the 

 lias clay our pieces in such a manner as to convey a correct 

 idea of the succession of the new red sandstone. The new 

 red sandstone generally rises into hills, and as the lias forms 

 valleys at the foot of the lower oolite, so the observer 

 generally looks across the valleys of the lias to the hills of 

 new red sandstone on the north and west. 



As the lias forms the valley which is overlooked from the 

 spurs of the lower oolite, and as the new red sandstone forms 

 hills on the far side, the view reveals a vale or valley of 

 lias resting between the oolite hills on the south and east, 

 and the new red sandstone upon the north and west. The 

 new red sandstone is generally characterized by soils of 

 fertile character. When the new red sandstone formation 

 has fair play, that is, when it really is the parent of the 

 surface soil, we have a red-tinted soil of high average 

 fertility. The first illustration of the. new red sandstone 

 occurs in North Yorkshire and South Durham, upon the 

 north and west boundaries of the lias clay. 



This is the portion of south-east Durham which has been 

 already mentioned as being covered over by a deposit of 

 drifted material which has completely disguised the character 

 of the new red sandstone, and given the soil an inferior 

 character on the north bank of the Tees ; but in Yorkshire 

 it gives highly fertile soils south of the Tees. It then passes 



