On the Agricultural Geology of England and Wales. 493 



partially an important influence on the summits of some of the 

 tabular hills, they are found by other observers to exercise a 

 more general influence on the soil at their base. The vale of 

 Pickerin^j^ has a oreneral covering, according to Phillips (Geology 

 of Yorkshire), of diluvial clay and pebbles. The soil of the clay 

 district of Cleveland is said by Mr. Melbourne to consist of a 

 somewhat flat stratum of diluvium, principally dissolved lias, rest- 

 ing upon lias. It has been shown in the former part of this essay 

 that the lias in the counties of Rutland, Leicester, and Warwick, 

 is covered by deep erratic deposits of very mixed materials. Mr. 

 Bravender* lays it down as a general rule, applicable to all the 

 divisions of the lias, that their fertility depends on the presence 

 or absence of a diluvial covering. He adduces the neighbour- 

 hood of Cheltenham as an instance of fertility, and large portions 

 of the Vale of Gloucester as an instance of unproductiveness, from 

 this cause. 



One of the most remarkable features in the agricultural geology 

 of the oolites is the extensive area through which there is an un- 

 doubted intimate connexion between the strata of the oolitic 

 group and the soil. In the county of Rutland, which is much 

 covered by erratic deposits, this in a great measure disappears. 

 The author of the Report on that county, the smallest in Eng- 

 land, enumerates no less than twenty- five local names of soils 

 there, and expresses his conviction that, numerous as they are, 

 the actual varieties of soil are quite as numerous. The deri- 

 vation of the soil on so much of these lower oolites from the 

 subjacent rock, in the counties of Gloucester, Oxford, North- 

 ampton, and Yorkshire, may be considered a proof of the truth of 

 the generalisation that the distribution of soils is dependent on 

 contours. On that range phenomena are exhibited on a large 

 scale, which numerous observers have proved to exist on a smaller 

 scale on the chalk hills. It will be remembered, that w^hite soils 

 derived immediately from the chalk, were confined in the south 

 of England to steep escarpments, or to elevations of 800 or 1000 

 feet. It is at such elevations, or on steep escarpments, that 

 oolitic soils, become the rule on the oolitic hills. In Oxfordshire, 

 Epweli Hill, belonging to this formation, is 700 feet above the 

 sea; Arbury Hill, Northamptonshire, 800 feet. In the Cots- 

 vi^olds there are Lansdown Hill 812, Stow on the Wold 804, 

 Broadway 1086, and Clever Hill 1134 feet. In the eastern 

 Moorlands of Yorkshire are several hills 900 to 1000 feet high, 

 the highest reaching to 1485 feet. 



New Red Sandstone. — In the Reports to the Board of Agricul- 

 ture the soils on the New Red Sandstone of the vale of York are 

 described in great detail. According to Mr. Legard these varia- 



* Journ. Geol. Soc. 



