Farming of Lincolnshire, 



281 



tarded the motion of the water, thus causln;^ a deposition of sedi- 

 ment which raised the beds of the rivers, and precipitated them 

 over the leveL This clay, in the vicinity of Lynn, rests upon 

 " till," or boulder clay ; and with an incumbent bed of peat 

 underlies a great part of Marshland in Norfolk, and where the 

 marsh alluvium ceases widens out for many miles, forming the peat 

 fens and clay subsoil of the Bedford Level. It has occasionally 

 two strata of peat, 2 or 3 feet apart (as in Sutton St. Edmund's 

 parish in South Holland^ in the vicinity of Lynn, and in some of 

 the Huntingdonshire fens). It is found beneath the subterra- 

 nean peat of South Llolland, and under most of the clay fens in 

 the same district where the peat (not being continuous) is want- 

 ing. It is known all over the fens as " blue buttery clay," and 

 is the enriching substance brought to the surface in the opera- 

 tion of " claying," — giving the light black land the requisite con- 

 sistence and firmness of texture, and (not being pure alumina) 

 supplies the silica which is necessary for the growth of corn. 

 The soil of West Fen is generally a stiff clay, with this buttery 

 clay as a subsoil, touched by the plough; the exception to this 

 is between New Bolingbroke and Coningsby, where about 1000 

 acres of the fen have a subsoil of white sand, doubtless a bed of 

 the drift. The clay is found under the peat of East Fen, and 

 with the peat passes under the marsh-land of Firsby, &c., under- 

 lying nearly all the long line of marshes to the Humber, and 

 appearing on various parts of the coast at low water. It varies 

 much in thickness: in many parts of the Great Level it is only 



2 feet, more frequently 7 or 8 feet ; the depth in Deeping Fen 

 is about 10 feet, in the Witham fens about 12 feet, in West Fen 

 from 1 to 12 or more feet, and in East Fen from 6 to 19 feet, 

 (resting upon white marl and sand.) The strong heavy clay 

 surface-soil of the eastern Witham fens appears to belong to this 

 stratum. 



The next bed (in an ascending order) is the peat which 

 occupies a large portion of the fen surface. This was formed 

 by the destruction and partial decay of a forest — oak, fir, alder, 

 and other trees being found prostrate within it, with their 

 roots fixed in the clay below in the attitude of growth; and 

 is of varying thickness from a few inches to 10 feet, at a 

 level of from 15 to 20 feet below high-water mark in the 

 Wash.'^ The peat, from 1 to 2 or 3 feet thick, is found 



* How the level was converted from a drowned marsh into a huge tract of woods, 

 and how these were destroyed and changed to peat {a.s the universally embedded re- 

 mains testify), is an enigma. If the fens were to be bared to the soapy blue clay, i.e. 

 if all the uppermost beds were removed, the sea would deluge the whole plain with 



3 or 5 fathoms (18 or 30 feet) of water; yet the forest grew upon this identical sur- 

 face high above the flow of the tides. The dryness of the land was not owing to the 

 embanking and draining of the marsh by the Romans, for many feet of alluvial deposit 



