East Riding of Yorltshire. 
91 
at Biough. It furnishes extremely tenacious soils, which soils 
would perhaps be more profitably devoted to pasture than tillage. 
The inferior oolite may be seen immediately underlying the 
chalk at the village of Acklam, where it occupies rather high 
ground. From thence it descends, but still forms a ridge of some 
elevation, and may be traced by Gaily Gap to Howsham, and 
Weston and Firby. Passing along the range of the Wold hills in 
a southerly direction, no trace of the oolites can be found from 
Acklam until they re-appear near the village of Sancton ; they 
then trend away in narrow beds lying parallel to the chalk, until 
they are lost and overlaid by ihe alluvia of the Humber banks. 
Wherever the beds of the lower oolite are near the surface a fine 
friable soil is found, well adapted for the growth of turnips and 
barley. 
The upper oolite beds are also well defined. Beginning at 
the north-western edge of the Wolds, they are first met with about 
half way betwixt North Grimston and Wharram-le-Street. From 
this point these tabular hills range by Langton Wold to Welham 
and Malton. Like the inferior members of the series, the disin- 
tegration of this rock produces good turnip and barley soils ; the 
same distinguishing characteristic of these soils, however, which 
has been pointed out by Sir John Johnstone in a paper of his in 
the first volume of the ' Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society 
of England,' is noticeable here also, viz. that the soil formed by 
them is equally well fitted for pasturage as for arable culture. 
At North Grimston this may be seen in some very superior 
grazing-land lying west of the village. Langton Wold also, 
though partly covered by aboriginal heather, is in other parts 
distinguished by the fineness of its herbage ; and if we step 
beyond the limits of the Riding, and observe the grass-land in the 
neighbourhood of Castle Howard Park, we shall find ample 
testimony to the truth of this observation. 
The remainder of the Vale of York district, and which consti- 
tutes three-fourths of the whole, extending south and south-west- 
ward from Garrowby Street, may be considered as practically 
level. It is crossed, as has been stated, in two or three places by 
beds of drift gravel and clay ; these, however, are too unimportant 
in extent to merit any description. 
The soils throughout this level tract, being for the most part 
diluvial, are various. Descending from the Wold hills near 
Pocklington, and passing over the narrow beds of lias clay which 
here form their base, we find a tract of chalky gravel extending 
from this town nearly to Market Weighton. Cultivation and the 
progress of agricultural knowledge have conduced to convert this, 
which was probably formerly a very hungry soil, into profitable 
arable land. Beyond these gravels, which do not extend far 
