270 



Farming of Lincohisfdre. 



it having been drifted apparently from higher ground. The por- 

 tions not cultivated are under plantations or gorse. Between this 

 low sand and the chalk rises a bold range of hills in precipitous 

 slopes and successive projecting ledges, consisting of a foundation 

 of the variegated soft sandstone surmounted by the red clay with 

 its concealed beds of buff-coloured limestone. Doubtless this 

 cliff-like contour was occasioned by the upper stratum ("like a 

 stone coping on a mud wall") having defended the lower from the 

 attrition of water. The line of hill extends from Nettleton south- 

 ward to Claxby, and the red land is also found northward at Grasby 

 and Bigby as a deep and rich reddish-brown strong loam under 

 grass, and southward from Claxby through Normanby, Walesby, 

 Teaiby, and Brough-on-Bain. The surface presents an aspect 

 of dark green in contrast with the chalk hills, the pastures being 

 rich and plentiful. This land, however, is only a narrow strip, 

 skirting the western escarpment of the Wolds, through Scam- 

 blesby, &c., as a low vale of red sandy clay ; and it is in this valley 

 that efforts have beenm.ade to obtain some of the far-famed copro- 

 lites, hitherto without success. The sandstone rising into hills 

 widens out as it passes in a south-eastern direction; Belchford, 

 Salmonby, Hagworthingham, Harrington, Raithby, &c., are on its 

 course. The soil is both siliceous and calcareous, friable, rich, 

 and productive of every kind of crop, especially turnips, wheat, 

 and barley. The clay is found only as a narrow band at intervals 

 between Salmonby and Spilsby, principally west of the latter 

 town. A few feet from the surface of this clay is found the rag- 

 stone, not as a solid rock, but divided into small irregular stones. 

 The clay itself is stiff and sticky, of a yellowish or red coloor, with 

 veins of blue clay. Red metallic concretions, termed "iron- 

 mould," abound in it. Particles of the green sandstone are inti- 

 mately diffused throughout the mass, and it is probably this which 

 causes the soil to be a rich free-working loam instead of a hard 

 unmanageable clay. It contains much iron, and is of far more 

 value and fertility than the sand-land adjacent to it. The hills that 

 look over the fens from below Halton-Holegate to Toynton, East 

 and West Keal, and Bolingbroke, are composed of green and fer- 

 ruginous sand and sandstone ; the soil being generally a good 

 sandy loam, sometimes a thick brown loam with flints, but fre- 

 quently only a thin covering of earth upon a coarse quartzose sand 

 and greenish red sandrock. This land has been furnished by 

 nature with a ready means for increasing its productiveness : in 

 the deep valleys which penetrate it in all directions blue marl or 

 clay is found, and is of great value in giving strength and consist- 

 ency to the soil. Masses of white marl, or drift, are also found upon 

 its surface. The dark-blue ^' buttery " clay contains large and 

 small slabs of shale which abound with ammonites and various 



