On the Agr icultural Geology of England and Wales. 455 



the soils of Hounslovv Heath are also referred. They belorii^', 

 however, to the superficial deposits, and exhibit every variety from 

 deep and strong, to thin and 2:ravelly, loams, having gravel at least 

 fifteen feet deep interposed between them and the London clay, 

 with which the gravel is in contact. Again, the soils of the 

 plastic clay in Hampshire* are described as composed of flinty 

 gravel, generally yellow, sometimes of a brown, red, or blackish 

 colour; from Ringwood, however, in the whole of its course 

 eastward, it is a dark coloured gravelly or sandy loam on clay, 

 mixed with reddish brick-earth and gravel, forming a very rich 

 loam, similar to that of much of the London clay, where the sand 

 is absent." From a minute examination of the eocene tertiary 

 district west of the Southampton Water, we should describe it as 

 overspread with erratic flint gravel, the sands and clays of the 

 older tertiaries only appearing on the sides of steep escarpments 

 and among broken ground. The poverty of the poor soils of 

 Hampshire and Dorsetshire results partly from the coarse par- 

 ticles of which the siliceous sands when exposed are composed, 

 but chiefly from the thinness of the covering of loam on the 

 erratic gravel spread over the table lands. The good soils east 

 of Ring wood, and along the whole southern coast nearly to 

 Brighton, are caused by the deepening of the loam as the great 

 valleys and the coast are approached. 



Mr. Morton sums up the results of this examination of the soils 

 on each formation in a section devoted to the classification of 

 soils, in which they are divided into the aluminous, the calcareous, 

 and the siliceous, to each of which divisions are referred the soils 

 assigned to the different formations, in the following manner. 



Alumixous Soils. 

 Clai/ the prevailing ingredient. 

 London clay \ 



We^M Q\ly I Little or no calcareous matter. 

 Clay of the coal measures . . ) 



Blue lias i A considerable portion of calcareous, with 



Oault / less siliceous matter than the last. 



Calcareous Soils. 

 Lime in excess — much clay — little or no siliceous matter. 

 The lower chalk marl . . . . ] 



Some of the gauit [Constituents impalpable. 



The clay of the oolite . . . . j 



* At the time Mr. Morton wrote, the eocene strata of Hampshire were referred to the 

 plastic series. Mr. Prestwich has recently determined their true geological relations, 

 which will be described in the sequel. 



