58 
it is four feet thick. It is the same thickness on 
Askerne Common. At Moss and Fenwick it is six 
yards thick, evidently thickening to the East. At Lake 
Drain, in Womersley, it varies from two to three feet, 
and eventually bassets out at the North side of 
Womersley parish, in an East and West line, which 
runs down through Balne. After boring through this 
clay the water invariably rises above the bottom of the 
clay. At Shaftholme it rose three feet six inches ; at 
Fenwick, six feet ; at Telts, five feet. There are few, if 
any, springs rise through the clay. Its cohesive nature 
may be judged of by the fact that bricks and tiles are 
made of the soil and subsoil at Telts. The drainage is, 
of the Owston and Askerne pastures, into the Don, and 
of Fenwick, Womersley, Balne, &:c. into the river Went. 
In places some fields stand higher than others, and they 
are always more fertile ; even if a field stands one foot 
above the adjoining field, it will be found superior to it. 
Yet there is little variety in the quality of the soils on this 
stratum of clay; perhaps some of the best land is on 
Norton common, where the subjacent sand approaches 
the surface. The Fenwick land is jDcrhaps superior to 
any upon it, but there is a tract of alluvial soil, which 
enhances its value, running parallel to, and formed by, the 
river Went. The rent of the Fenwick land is as high as 
30s. per acre. The whole of the land on this stratum 
may be termed wheat soil, which crop it best produces? 
but even this grain of inferior quality and in small 
quantity ; perhaps 15 bushels per acre would be an 
average of the whole district. Not an acre of feeding 
pasture is found upon it, those at Fenwick being an 
alluvial deposit from the Went. Hence this land is 
" over-cropped and under-stocked." The rent is from 
8s. to 20s. per acre. 
