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of the chalk rock ; but it seems as if the calcareous matter 
being washed out, the remaining flints form the basis of the 
present soil. The analysis of the soil proves this to be the 
origin of one variety, as will be noticed in the sequel; for 
there is scarcely any carbonate of lime detected, not more 
than 1, 2, or 3 per cent, while the chalk rock contains 90 per 
cent, of that earth. In some parts of Bedfordshire, and at 
Highclere, in Hants, the soil is composed of more than two- 
thirds of flints ; but on the chalk districts of Kent, Surrey, 
and Sussex, the soil is said to be composed of a red clay 
mixed with rolled flints, varying in some instances to a loamy 
clay, or to sand and gravel. Indeed, wherever in the south 
of England, and particularly on the south side of the Thames, 
the junction of the chalk with the tertiary beds is exhibited, 
the surface of the chalk along the line of superposition 
usually bears marks of having undergone a partial destruction 
subsequently to its consolidation ; a bed of debris being 
spread over it, consisting chiefly of flints luashed out of its 
mass, and the surface being irregularly worn into frequent 
cavities, many of them of considerable depth, filled with 
similar debris. There are examples of these cavities in every 
chalk quarry on the Yorkshire Wolds, proving that the chalk 
in this locality has undergone a similar kind of washing, 
by which there has been formed upon its surface a detritus 
consisting chiefly of flints. There are in this district two 
distinct characters of soil known agriculturally, i. e. the deep 
and the shallow wold land ; and there is probably a third 
variety formed by distinct deposits of clay, with scarcely 
any intermixture of sand or pebbles. In the survey of the 
East Riding of Yorkshire, published by the Board of Agri- 
culture in 1812, and drawn up by H. E. Strickland, Esq., 
the soil of the Wolds is said to be, with little variation, 
" a light, friable, calcareous loam, from three to ten inches 
" in depth ; and on the hills covering a chalk rubble from 
