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" twelve to eighteen inches thick, below which the chalk 
" rocks lie to an unknown depth." Mr. Legard, in a paper 
published in the Society's transactions, describes the soil at 
Neswick as " a strong clayey loam, the subsoil being a red- 
" dish clay, varying from two to three feet in thickness, and 
resting upon the chalk." The deep wold land is always 
found reposing upon flat table land, or where the surface lies 
more level ; and the same may be said of the isolated de- 
posits of clay, but the shallow wold land is always found 
where the surface inclines more from the horizon, and par- 
ticularly in the lines of the denuded valleys ; the soil in these 
places becoming thinner and less intermixed with the debris 
of flints. In fact, the " reason" of the variety of the soil on 
the Wolds is easily explained by a consideration of the 
diluvial beds of Holderness, which lie upon the chalk ; 
enormous masses of water have brought these beds of clay 
and boulders, not only over the Penine chain of England, at 
Stainmoor, but over the Hambleton hills and the western 
escarpment of the Wolds, furrowing out the latter into deep 
east and west valleys, — the degree of inclination of the chalk 
determining the velocity of these currents, and together with 
it, their motive power. Upon the more level and elevated 
portions, their influence has been feebly exerted, and the 
original debris of flints yet remains as the basis of the soil 
of the deep wold land ; but upon the more inclined portions, 
not only has the original debris of flints been removed, but 
along with it great bodies of chalk, and by the degradation of 
the rock thus laid bare, the present soil of the shallow wold 
land is formed. Indeed, the position of the shallow wold land, 
which is often found reposing at the steep angle of thirty 
degrees upon the sides of the valleys, afibrds an additional 
proof of its being the result of the decomposition of the 
chalk rock, for it cannot in these localities be a sedimentary 
deposit, neither is it a portion of any of the tertiary beds 
