74 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
This tract of country offers an extensive and liiglily interesting 
field of inquiry to tlie geologist^ tlie antiquary and the agricul- 
turist, each in his turn may revel among its treasures, but the 
last alone is the favored alchemyst, who reaps and secures the 
golden harvest. Let us commence with the investigations of the 
geologist; and if we accompany him in his perambulations 
along the periphery of the Level, we shall find that in Lincoln- 
shire, its western border is formed of the Oxford clay arising 
from beneath the alluvial beds ; on the north, the Kimmeridge 
clay forms a belt of high ground, and to the east a small portion 
is bounded by the greensand and chalk strata, which are cut off 
from those of Norfolk by the estuary called the wash ; from 
Peterborough, in Huntin don shire, to St. Ives, in Cambridgeshire, 
it is bounded by Oxford clay, forming its southern margin ; the 
high grounds botinding it on the east in Norfolk are composed 
of Kimmeridge clay, and the inferior greensand strata ; and the 
small portion extending into Suffolk is bounded by the chalk 
hills of Brandon and Mildenhall. Throughout almost its entire 
extent the alluvial beds repose upon the Oxford clay, having in- 
terposed generally a few feet only of di'ift,^^ composed chiefly 
of debris of the chalk and Kimmeridge clay, the chalk appearing 
in the form of small nodules plentifully interspersed through the 
clay. In this district of the fens (Norfolk and Lincolnshire), 
the Kimmeridge clay passes insensibly into the Oxford or 
Clunch,^^ there being no oolite rock interposed. The sections 
which I have been enabled to collect are but few, in consequence 
of the little inducement there exists to dip into these beds, and 
the probability is, that when the drains were made no records 
were preserved of the strata exposed, if indeed, any particular 
notice were at that period taken of them. Tlie earliest section 
that I can find recorded, is in Dugdale ; it relates to the digging 
for a foundation at Salter's Lode, near Downham ; the succession 
of strata is thus described, " the silt was observed to be ten feet 
deep ; and next below that, three feet thickness of firm moor ; 
