SOILS: INFERIOR OOLITE SERIES. 465 
washed down the slopes, and form in some places a practically 
impervious coating on the borders of the valleys. 
Analyses of soils are of but little use, as the soils may vary 
considerably in the same field.* 
Inferior Oolite Series. 
The Midford (Bridport and Yeovil) Sand forms conspicuous grassy 
knolls in the neighbourhood of Bridport, &c.f Colmer's Hill west of the 
town is one of these conical hills, about 370 feet high, the summit being 
scarcely two chains by one. (Fig. 136.) There are many others around 
Bridport, near Beaminster, and northwards bordering the escarpment at 
Montacute, near Yeovil, and further to the north-east. 
There are many lynchets or terraced-fields in this neighbourhood, as near 
Loders, indicating that the hills were early under cultivation : others 
may be seen here and there in the escarpment near Crewkerne, at Brent 
Knoll, and Glastonbury Tor. At the present time the lower slopes of 
the hills are more usually under cultivation ; corn, roots, and even beans 
being grown in places. 
The soil on the Sand is generally fei'tile, although scrubby patches 
with gorse may be seen here and there : but as a rule the land formed 
by the Midford Sand is rich in comparison with that formed by the 
Upper Greensand in Dorsetshire. In that county the hedgerows grow 
luxuriantly, oak, ash and elm appearing to thrive as well as fir. The soil 
is a deep friable sand, more or less calcareous and somewhat loamy, 
especially when the lower portions of the Midford Sand come to the sur- 
face : hence it varies to some extent in different places. The pasture is 
usually rich. 
In Dorsetshire and South Somerset the district is characterized by 
deep sandy lanes or " hollow- ways," which afford a pleasant shelter for 
many ferns.J 
FIG. 136. 
Colmer's Hill t Bridport. 
North of Bath and along the Cotteswold Hills the Midford (Cottes- 
wold) Sand outcrops usually along steep slopes of the escarpment and the 
ramifying valleys. 
In the neighbourhood of Bridport and Beaminster the Inferior Oolite 
is much broken up, so that there is no regular escarpment. The hills 
formed of stone are usually flat-topped, and are thus readily to be dis- 
tinguished from those formed of the sands : the latter being more or less 
conical. Northwards of Yeovil and Sherborne the escarpment of Inferior 
* For analyses of Oolitic rocks, see Voelcker, Journ. Bath & W. Eng. Soc., ser. 2, 
vol. ri. pp. 232, &C. 
t H. B. W., Proc. Bath Nat. Hist. Club, vol. vi. p. 125. 
j H. B. W., Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. ix. p. 208 ; and Memoir on the Lias of 
England and Wales, pp. 2ul, 311, 314, 315. 
E 75928. G Q 
