464 LOWER OOLITIC KOCKS OF ENGLAND : 
To the south of Great Ponton tunnel an enormous boulder of Lincoln- 
shire Limestone (143 yards long and 60 feet thick) was observed in the 
Boulder Clay, by Professor Morris ; a still larger boulder (300 yards 
long by 100 yards broad) has recently been discovered by Mr. Fox- 
Strangways in the Boulder Clay north-west of Melton Mowbray. 
Quarries have been opened in this mass, in one place to a depth of 15 feet. 
Landslip^. 
Landslips are met with here and there along the escarpments, where the 
bads of the Inferior Oolite Series rest on the Lias clays, and where the 
Great Oolite rests on the Fuller's Earth clays. 
Some of the more remarkable slips have taken place near Bath. Thus 
in 1828, 300 or 400 tons of earth fell away from Beechen Cliff, where the 
Inferior Oolite rests on the Lias. Again much trouble has been caused at 
Bath itself by the slipping of the ground at Hedgemead, below Lansdown ; 
this slipping occurs on the Lias, and may possibly be in part caused by 
the underground loss of material, that ia carried away by the Bath 
springs. 
Great slips have occurred from time to time at Bathampton, Claverton 
and Winsley, where the Great Oolite rests on the Fuller 's Earth. 
Along the Cotteswold Hills, landslips have taken place at Cowcomb, 
south of Chalford, where 15 acres foundered about the year 1800 ; near 
Dowdeswell ; at Hewlets Hill, near Cheltenham ; and under Cleeve 
Cloud. 
Other instances have been noted where the Lincolnshire Limestone and 
Northampton Beds rest on the Upper Lias clay, as at Gretton, and near 
King's Cliffe.* 
SOILS. 
The Oolitic uplands are for the most part under cultivation, 
and there are few areas of " waste " land. 
In those tracts, south-west of Buckinghamshire, where there is 
little or no Drift, the soil on the Oolites is generally speaking of 
a brashy nature, being composed of reddish-brown calcareous 
loam with irregular and more or less rounded, and sometimes 
flat, pieces of the underlying rock. This " top-soil" is called 
" stone-brash/' and it results from the decomposition of the 
strata, the brown earth being to a large extent the residue of 
the limestone-rubble of which only fragments are left. That this 
is the case will be admitted by anyone who notices the " piped " 
surface in gravel-pits, where the gravel is composed of oolitic 
stones commingled with flints and other siliceous materials. 
Rarely will any but siliceous stones be found in the brown soil 
that has mainly resulted from the dissolution of the calcareous 
stones. (See Fig. 105, p. 368.) Instances may be seen near 
Peterborough. In the counties of Dorset, Wiltshire, Somerset, 
Gloucester, and Oxford, the strata are practically free from Drift, 
and we'find only occasional pebbles of quartz in the soil. The 
brown earthy residue (before mentioned) is in itself by no means 
a fertile soil, it is only very good when mixed with fragments of 
limestone, as otherwise it is apt to get pressed down into a 
dense impervious layer.t The decomposed rubble and earth are 
* Judd, Geol. Rutland, p. 261. 
t J. C. Morton, Nature and Property of Soils, Ed. 4, p. 60 ; see also Rutley, 
Quart, Jouru. Geol. Soc., vol. xlix. p. 377. 
