586 Indications of Fertility or Barrenness of Soils. 
stone, called Sussex marble. Its consistency is that of soap 
when cut by the plough, and in consequence it is difficult and 
expensive to cultivate as arable, and the pasture is wet and poor. 
2. Hastings, or Iron-Sand. — This deposit consists of sands and 
sandstones, alternating with clay and limestone. It has been 
called " iron-sand " from its ferruginous brown colour. 
3. Ashburnham Beds. — These beds are composed of clays, 
shales, and bluish-grey limestones and sandstones. . 
4. The Purheck Beds. — These are composed of clays, sand- 
stones, and shelly limestones, called Purbeck marble. In this 
deposit layers of vegetable mould are found, and the stumps of 
trees in a vertical position. 
Considerable tracts of land on the three last-named deposits, 
being unmixed with soils of a tenacious tendency, are covered 
with heath and furze, and are consequently barren. 
III. — The Oolitic Formation. 
This is the next below the chalk, where the Wealden is defi- 
cient, and forms a broad belt of elevated land running through 
the centre of England, from the Isle of Portland to the north of 
Scarborough, in Yorkshire. It has a great many subdivisions, 
the principal of which we shall enumerate: — 1. Upper Oolite; 
2. Kimmeridge Clay ; 3. Coral Rag; 4. Oxford Clay ; 5. Corn- 
brash and Forest Marble ; 6. Great Oolite, Stonesfield Slate, and 
Fuller's Earth ; and 7. Inferior Oolite. 
1. Upper Oolite. — This deposit is not a continuous one, being 
overlaid by others, and hid from observation. It consists of 
Portland and Aylesbury rock, and has partings of sand and even 
clay, so as to be quarried for building-stone, and for clay and 
sand for brick, at the same time, which has been made and burnt 
in the quarry. The soil is light and sandy, and easy to cultivate. 
In damp seasons it produces excellent crops of corn ; but the 
pasture is poor and unproductive. 
2. Kimmeridge Clay. — This deposit is a stiff blue clay, very 
tenacious and retentive of water, and very difficult and expensive 
to cultivate. It is made, by cultivation, to produce good crops, 
but is naturally unproductive, without a deep covering of mould. 
Where this occurs, the old sward is good. The extensive embank- 
ment near Swindon, on the Cheltenham and Great Western Union 
Railway, where a very troublesome slip took place soon after 
the line was opened, is situated on this formation, and was caused 
by its extreme retontivcness of, or solubility in, water. 
3. Coral Rag. — This de])osit forms a nice clean, light, arable 
soil, but is not particularly fertile. Most of it is easily made so 
by cultivation. The pasture is poor and nnproductive in its 
