356 WOODRUFFE-PEACOCK : LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS. 
White’s Lincolnshire. Alluvium is brought down the rivers in times 
of flood, sand and coarser silt being deposited first ; when the 
accretion has risen to the height of neap tides, then argillaceous 
matter is deposited on it, but only when the water is com- 
paratively still. ‘The warp so formed speedily becomes covered with 
samphire and other marine vegetation, the surface gradually rising. 
very one interested in the Fenland should study Mr. Wheeler's 
last work, the second edition of the ‘ History of the Fens of South 
Lincolnshire.” Geologists are specially recommended to study his 
r on ‘Littoral Drift,’ which explains the formation of the Fenland 
on slightly new lines. 
Mr. F. M. Burton writes that the geology of the district traversed, 
so far as field-work is concerned, proved, as is so often the case in 
Lincolnshire, devoid of practical interest, the strata being entirely 
covered over with fen deposits ; but what we know of the underlying 
beds points to matter of considerable interest. In an attempt to 
find water at Boston some years ago by a boring which was carried 
to a depth of nearly 600 feet, after the fen beds and the boulder clay 
below them were passed through, the Kimmeridge and Oxford clays 
were reached. This shows that the whole of the chalk series forming 
the high wolds to the north-west, which once covered the district,- 
had been swept away ; for when the chalk was deposited in the deep. 
cretaceous sea, England lay beneath it. And further, as the boulder 
clay lies directly on the Kimmeridge and Oxford clays, we have here 
a certain proof that, in this part of Lincolnshire at all events, this 
enormous denudation must have preceded the glacial era, or at al 
events, such part of it as was still in existence when the boulder clay 
was deposited. 
Very little work appears to have been done with regard to the 
natural history of this marsh land, but a good beginning is being 
made now by several active workers ; Miss Lane-Claypon, Mr. J. 
Lane-Claypon, who is busy with the Lepidoptera, and Mr. Brogden, 
of Spalding, amongst the birds. 
Mr. John Cordeaux, M.B.O.U., F.R.G.S., writes that the number 
of birds seen was small; this was probably from members of the 
Union (through want of time) keeping the sea-bank and not 
separating to explore the coast and sea-edge of the fitties, near low 
water-mark, where wading birds mostly congregate. Yet it turned out 
a charming walk for the naturalists. In the distance large numbers 
of Gulls were beating to and fro over the foreshore—a solitary Heron 
was slowly flapping seaward. We found their footprints everywhere 
in the creeks. Some Lapwings were feeding on the fitties—4 
coun! a a . f , 
couple of Ducks were on the wing. The far-off ‘ chee-weet ph 
a 
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