■274 



Farming of Lincolnshire. 



The clay is generally red, but at Little Grimsby and Grainsby it 

 is blue;, very hard, of considerable depth, and containing many 

 small pebbles. At Fulstow the clay likewise possesses beds of 

 gravel. At North Ormsby the chalk dips under this district, 

 having a bed of flinty clay upon its slope, covered by the stiff 

 brown clay free from stones, which there commences in section 

 like a wedge — deepening towards the east. At Riby the chalk 

 disappears under gravel, which is excavated at the neighbouring 

 village of Aylesby, and this is covered by the sand and brown clay. 

 At Great Limber the chalk sinks beneath the clay, and here a 

 brick-yard exhibits a deep section. The clay over most of the 

 district usually burns to a brown-red brick ; here, however, it is 

 made into ornamental facings, " string-course bricks," &c., having 

 exactly the appearance of stone. The beds are thus disposed : — 











A 



1 , 





B 







C 



niiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiiiiiHliiilliiil 



(lliliiillililiniiillmiiiiHiiilniiiiliiiiiiiiiiiininii,(Tmii|||iiiiiHiiiiiiiniiniiiiiiiIlllllllli™ 



D 



E 



A. Stilf brown clay, at least 16 or 18 feet thick, with veins of sand or silt, and pebbly near tl:e top. 



It burns into a beautiful white pottery resembling sandstone. 



B. Two or three feet of bluish wet sand, very much like sea silt. 



C. Strong slate-coloured clay — the bottom portions laminated. 



D. A thin bed of indurated reddish clay or shale, named the " iron-pan." 



E. Very fine dry yellowish sand. 



From Limber to Melton-Ross the clay sometimes forms only a 

 thin coating upon the chalk, containing chalky fragments ; and 

 in the valley which runs east and west from the latter place the 

 chalk is seen rising up on each side from under the same clay, 

 which seems to run in a narrow band towards the Ancholme val- 

 ley. At Barton the same order of position is observable, — the 

 clay ascending for some distance up the Wold acclivities, gradually- 

 lessening in thickness as it rises, and extending in patches of 

 deeper soil upon the hills. A comparison of all these statements 

 will show the regularity of the series of beds which are not, there- 

 fore, members of the Northern Drift ; and the general constancy 

 of the descending order of — 



a. Sand, 



b. Clay, 



c. Gravel, flinty, with springs, 



seems to identify this formation as the plastic clay* The above 



* We are unable to say what is the evidence of fossil remains upon this point. 



