406 A. J. JUKES-BROWNE ON THE HESSLE 
perienced great difficulty in disentangling the various clays and . 
gravels that are met with in this neighbourhood ; and I cannot, 
therefore, speak positively concerning the relation of the Hessle Clay 
to the other deposits. Below the gravels which occupy the surface 
about Hagnaby and East Kirkby the blue Kimmeridge Clay is 
generally found ; but occasionally there are intervening patches of a 
chalky Boulder-clay, different in character and contents from the 
clay of the Hessle series. The former clay is greyish or yellowish 
white, full of chalk pebbles, and is similar to that which caps the 
hills to the northward, although it here descends to the same level 
as that occupied by the Hessle beds. On this point more will be 
said in the sequel. 
Here, therefore, as before stated, we find the western boundary of 
the Hessle Clay; but instead of terminating altogether, its surface 
outcrop is prolonged southward, so as to, fcrm an irregular ridge or 
‘bank, varying in altitude, but always higher than the fenny lands 
on either side. This feature is shown in the section, fig. 3, p. 405, 
which starts from the road north of New Bolingbroke, and intersects 
the Hessle-Clay bank along a line which passes about one third 
of a mile south of Stickford church. ‘The extension of the Boulder- 
clay under Kast Fen is to some extent hypothetical ; but it is founded 
on the fact that it is seen to slope under the north and west edges of 
this fen, and that some depth of Boulder-clay was found below 8 
feet of peat and clay at Lade-Bank engine, 3 miles to the south- 
ward*. 
About Stickford the Hessle Clay seems to be in great force; and 
at the Red Lion Inn a well was dug 60 feet in it without reaching 
the bottom of the deposit, but finding a weak spring of water at a 
depth of 30 feet. 
Under the N.E. part of the village there is a bed of sand and 
gravel which yields a supply of water at depths of from 14 to 18 
feet. The same brown Boulder-clay may be seen at the 8.E. end 
of the village near the Catch-water drain, and at Bargreen Bridge on 
the road to Stickney. The ridge at the latter place is reduced to a very 
narrow neck; and advantage has been taken of this circumstance 
to cut a channel through it and thus bring the waters of Hagnaby 
beck into connexion with the Catch-water system of drainage. 
About Stickney the ridge widens out again, and strikes nearly 
due south in the direction of Sibsey. The soil at the surface is a 
sandy and stony loam; but underneath the same brown Boulder- 
clay is found. 
This district has been surveyed by Mr. 8S. B. J. Skertchly*; but he 
naturally regarded the clay composing the ridge as a local variety 
of that which underlies the fen-basin to the south and west; sub- 
sequent mapping has demonstrated its connexion with the Hessle 
Clay, and has invested this feature with more importance than it 
would otherwise have possessed. Mr. Skertchly’s mapping shows 
that the continuity of the ridge is interrupted south of Stickney; and 
* Geology of the Fenland (Geol. Surv. Mem.), p. 280. 
