Farming of Lincolnshire. 



285 



deep ; at Saltfleet 39 feet deep. Between this place and the 

 ''clays" it possesses no sand beds, and at Grimsby is a stiff blue 

 clayey warp.* The soils, generally speaking, are very nearly 

 alike over the whole of the marsh lands, and therefore need not 

 be particularized. 



The more recent alluvial deposit, which is chiefly on the outer 

 side of the Roman bank, and newer than that bank, is generally 

 a brown loam upon brown clay and silt. In South Holland it 

 forms the " marsh " district, 4 or Smiles in breadth, having a 

 subsoil of brown clay upon a drab-coloured, dry, " sugary " silt. 

 The upper portion of the silt lies in plates just as it was left by 

 the tides ; lower down it becomes a wet blue sand, containing sea 

 shells. The clay is from 6 inches to 4 or 5 feet in thickness, and 

 upon it is a coating of dark brown loam, deep, friable, and fertile. 

 The clay, however, is frequently absent, and the soil more sandy, 

 particularly near a sea bank (of which many yet remain, the land 

 having been gained by successive enclosures), and on the ^'land" 

 side of it. This is in consequence of there having been too large 

 an amount of land taken in at one time, the outermost parts not 

 being warped up sufficiently high by the sea. The tidal currents 

 also occasioned a very unequal deposition ; in some places throwing 

 down a mass of raw sandy silt, in others bringing the finer clayey 

 particles into a bed of rich soil. The soil usually consists prin- 

 cipally of silica, with a much smaller proportion of alumina and 

 iron, and an inconsiderable quantity of lime and magnesia. It is 

 doubtless a composition of sand and sediment from the waves of 

 the Wash, vegetable matter which grew as marsh plants on the 

 rising mud only to be buried under fresh warp, and the animal 

 matter suspended in the water — the siliceous and calcareous 

 skeletons of marine and fluviatile infusoria. The marsh lands 

 outside the old Roman embankment, between Fosdike and Boston, 

 and Wainfleet, preserve the same character, and vary within 

 similar limits to the above. The silt, wherever it occurs, is very 

 porous, and contains a peculiar kind of springs, called " the Sock 

 or Soak." Upon digging down into the sharp silt the soak oozes 

 from the side of the hole. The dej^th of these springs is from 3 to 

 6 or more feet, depending upon the amount of rain, and the 

 quantity of water in the neighbouring creeks or drains, and being 

 also affected by the height of the tides. 



From what has been stated it will be understood that the Wash 

 is nothing more than a broad expanse of marsh-land in the course 

 of formation : indeed many thousands of acres have been and are 

 still being reclaimed from its dominion at the mouths of the large 



* Since this line of marshes was deposited the sea has reversed its action, and a con- 

 si<lerable reach of land along this coast has been eaten away. It is this encroachmect 

 that has laid bare the submarine forest. 



