Soils— The Chalk. 
253 
upper grounds, tlicy very soon return to their normal transparent 
clearness. 
Thoug-li neither wet nor dry, this table-land is, as might be 
supposed from its composition, a very tenacious soil. The 
remedy is happily close at hand, just beneath. "Wells" are 
sunk through the clay, and chalk brought up and spread abroad 
for the frosts to pulverise. The cost is 40^. per acre ; the effects 
are larger crops, and more healthy land. 
The No. 2 soil, on the sides of the hills, is little more than 
chalky rubble, or chalk finely comminuted and decomposed by 
atmospheric action. Residents of much experience, without 
offering any explanation, have remarked that the soil is stronger 
on the northern than on the southern slopes.* The chalk, where 
weaker, is of a grey or whitey-brown colour, thin, and wanting 
in cohesion. For instance, when reduced to a fine tilth for 
turnips, the rain, in a dry season, seems to go through it, and to 
make no show, although chalk never burns. 
Flints appear in both these soils, either lying dispersedly, 
mixed with gravel and pebbles, or intersecting without interrup- 
tion, in regular horizontal strata, the upper chalk formation. 
So thick is the flint-drift, spread like a coverlet on a bed of 
chalk, in some of the dry hollows, that cultivation would seem 
as little profitable there as on the shingle of a sea-beach. But 
you are reassured when told of the costly experience of a new- 
comer, who, having picked off the flints and carted them away, 
and thereby lost his crops, acknowledged his error by restoring 
them, as shelter against March winds, protection against summer 
suns, and warmth against winter frosts. 
The alluvial deposits (No. 3 soil) are considerable tracts of 
meadow and pasture (involving distinct agricultural manage- 
ment) in the valleys through which the streams flow. Such are 
the soils on the banks of the Stour and the Avon, in the south- 
western portion of the southern district ; and of the Test and 
Anton and the Itchen, partly in the middle, partly in the southern 
district. The alluvial soil, though part of it is transported from 
a distance, derives its chief characteristics from the hills above 
and beside it, and so varies with the formations through which 
the rivers flow. The detrital accumulations, combined with 
vegetable matter arising from the flow and the stagnation of the 
water, compose the dark-coloured surface. Where the cuiTent is 
slow and the valleys large, peat and peaty soils have been 
^ * One explanation that has been given me is, that the movement ■which occa- 
sioned the existing surface configuration was from south-east to north-west ; and 
that consequently the rolled combinations of chalk and clay settled down on the 
northern or leeward side. This theory fits the facts, almost as well as if it were 
made for them. 
T 2 
