Fanning of Lincolnshire. 



2S9 



Acres. 



Great southern and eastern tract . . 455.000 



Ancholme Level 28.000 



Isle of Axholme, and lands east of the Trent 29,000 



512,000 



In the absence of any ofeoloeical map or section of this county, 

 considerable pains have been taken to construct such as may con- 

 vev a tolerably accurate knowledge of the different strata. The 

 accompanying sections require no explanation. 



2. Tlie Drainage of the County in a General Vieic, and the 

 Improvements icliich mag get he effected therein^ especially hy 



forming Xatural instead of Artificial Drainage. 



The peculiar difnculties attached to the drainage of this county 

 appear from the following facts : — The whole of the Alluvial lands, 

 together with the lovr sands, occ.^ in the Isle of Axholme. and on 

 the east side of the river Trent, a total extent of about 522,000 

 acres ^nearly equal in area to the whole of Cambridgeshire^, and 

 larger than several of the other English counties), are lower than 

 the sea ; the level varving from 4 to 16 feet below high-vrater 

 mark in :iie German Ocean; and over most of these fiats (all 

 the i>^:i:ii-easLern disirlct, and likewise the Isle of Axholme). the 

 most elevated s-rounds are those nearest to the shore, the surface 

 graciu-.llv declmins' to its lowest point near the uplands. Sdll 

 further, the lowest and most inland parts generally consist of a 

 spongvpeat, which has a natural tendency to hold water and con- 

 tinue in a swampy state. The great district extending betvv-een 

 Lincoln, Wainfleet, Deeping, and the Nene estuary, is of this 

 conformation. It has an area of about 362,000 acres, and is 

 24 miles in breadth at its broadest part ("from near Bourn, to the 

 sea-coast in Long Sutton Marsnj. and 12 miles across its narrow- 

 est part (from the high lands near Helpringham, 6cc., to Fosdike 

 Wash). The peat soil reaches for 50 miles under the slope of 

 the western hills (the s^eneral length of this broad district, north 

 and south, being 35 miles), and with the similar land in East Fen 

 covers upwards of 100,000 acres. But the lov.ness of the surface, 

 the absence of anv slope tovrards the sea, the actual fall away 

 from tne points of discharge, and the boo^afv nature of a o-reat 

 portion of the country, are not the only obstacles to be overcome. 

 The great bay or wash, which forms the sole receptacle for the 

 drainage waters, is so shallow, and daily receiving such accessions 

 of sand and mud, that it is impossible for the waters of this low 

 plain i'v/anLing an impulse to carry them forward) to scour an 

 open passage through the bars with which the river-mouths are 

 choked. The only power competent to accomplish this object 



TOL. XII. U 



