482 
Geology of Norfolk. 
manure drawn up a steep ascent by horses in cumbrous carts. 
Were the operations conducted on a large scale, aided by the 
steam-engine and other mechanical appliances which excavators 
by profession have learned from the science of engineers, there 
can be no doubt that the same substances might be raised from 
depths and conveyed to distances which would now be deemed 
prohibitory, even in Norfolk, and that land might be improved, 
under such circumstances, with chalk, or clay, or a mixture of 
the two, at a cheaper rate than that at which most farms have 
been clayed or marled in that county. Nor is it only the light 
lands in the vicinity of chalk which would be benefited by its 
application. On the wheat and bean lands of the southern portion 
of the district of the lower drift of Norfolk heavier dressings of 
till are applied than on the light soils of the thick and thin upper 
drift in the northern, eastern, and western parts of the county ; 
and by the testimony of all with whom I have conversed, this 
application of clay to clay is beneficial. This clay, however, 
contains a large proportion of hard chalk, and it is very probable 
that this is the beneficial ingredient, and that the hard chalk 
alone, were it accessible, would answer a better purpose. 
Neither is it only in the vicinity of the chalk that these im- 
provements are practicable. On the western side of the central 
ridge of England, large accumulations of the deposits of ihe 
erratic block period, as already stated, occur. The lower portion 
of these consists, as in Norfolk, of boulder clay derived from the 
grinding down of the Silurian slates, from the ruins of the lias (of 
which large outliers, near Whitchurch in Shropshire, attest the 
former extent), or from the wreck of the clays of the new and old 
red sandstone formations. This boulder clay is in many places 
highly calcareous, partly from the fragments of shells present in 
it, partly from the detritus of limestone rocks. On the coast 
sections of the long point of Caernarvonshire, fragments of the 
carboniferous limestone are so abundant in this clay, at some 
points, that they are collected for lime-burning ; and even the 
distant chalk of the county of Antrim has contributed its cal- 
careous matter to the mass. In the same vicinity there are sandy 
surfaces which would benefit largely by the application of this 
clay, in conjunction with the cultivation of turnips, to which 
they are at present utter strangers. In Cheshire also, and the 
adjoining counties, and, in short, wherever the upper drift extends, 
there are soils of sand and gravel capable of improvement by 
means of the accompanying clay of the lower drift, or by the 
clays of the stratified rocks. 
I cannot close this paper without acknowledging my obligations 
to Mr. Rose for the information and assistance which I received 
from him in his own g( ological domain of West Norfolk. 
