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Carter: Lincolnshire Ramble. 



three old oak woods, viz., Maltby Wood, Haugham Pasture, 

 and Burwell Wood, and though not very close together are all 

 in the same neighbourhood, on the eastern flank of the wolds ; 

 in some parts the chalk is slightly covered with clay, but it is 

 interesting to note that the three localities for the shell are in 

 the same long post-glacial ravine, where the surface is chalk. 

 This ravine is the most important of the post-glacial excavations 

 of the immediate neighbourhood, and is described in detail by 

 Mr. Jukes-Browne in his Geological Survey Memoir of 1887. 

 The principal channel commences, he says, at the south corner 

 of Burwell Wood and runs N. W. to Haugham Wood, where it 

 receives two tributaries. The valley bottom is flat, but not 

 level, having shallow depressions or basins where rushes grow, 

 and which are, doubtless, hollows of solution or swallow-holes. 

 At the S.W. corner of Haugham Wood there is a curious bulge 

 in the valley, forming a kind of cul de sac with an oblong- 

 swallow-hole in the centre ; it succeeds a very sharp bend in the 

 valley, and has evidently been formed by the forcible rush of 

 water in times of flood. In Haugham Pasture the channel 

 takes a sharp horse-shoe bend, and here there is a large pond, 

 probably marking the site of a swallow-hole. The ravine then 

 runs north-east to Cavvthorpe. 4 This ravine is, I understand, 

 the most northerly locality in Britain in which Clausilia rolphii 

 has yet been found. 



Passing by Jenney Wood, we paused to examine a keeper's 

 tree — an oak — from whose branches hung two Polecats, several 

 Weasels, a Hedgehog, a Kestrel, a Sparrowhawk, a Jay, a Mag- 

 pie, etc. On some of these victims we observed in considerable 

 numbers the well-known beetle Dermestes marinus. Continuing 

 our walk we arrived at the border of Maltby Wood, and found 

 ourselves in the field known to some Louth naturalists as the 

 ' Botanists' Meadow,' but more commonly called the ' Greasy 

 Field,' from the fact that this is the only local habitat for the 

 ' Greasy Fritillary ' (Melitcea arte?nis). Here, amongst long 

 dry herbage of the previous season, Anemone nemorosa raised 

 innumerable delicate blossoms to the May-day sun, and the 

 whole scene was one of indescribable loveliness. The charm 

 was enhanced by the notes of the cuckoo, the green wood- 

 pecker, the melodious voices of the lark and other songsters. 

 Here, too, was the charming pink of the little Lousewort [Pedicn- 

 laris sylvatica) ; and the ' Oxlip ' — not the true Primula elafior, 



4 A. J. Jukes-Browne, Geology of East Lincolnshire, Geological Survey 

 Memoir, 1887, p. 125. 



Naturalist, 



