SOILS : GEEAT OOLITE SERIES. 467 
Fullonian or Fuller's Earth Formation. 
The soil is generally cold, wet, and heavy, and it supports poor grass 
with here and there barren patches, and a good deal of rushy ground. 
Most of the fields are devoted to pasture, but there are tracts of wood- 
land, and of arable land where corn, beans, &c. are cultivated. 
In Dorsetshire the pasture is variable, the soil being in places improved 
by a downwash of Greensand. This is probably the case south-east of 
Mosterton near Crewkerne, where there is good pasture-land, and some of 
the best Dorset cheese is made in the neighbourhood. In some parts, as 
west of Toller Porcorum there is a good deal of chert detritus covering 
irregular slopes of the ground, and there the gorse and heath nourish. 
Again near the coast-guard station at Langton Herring, much of the 
land is dry owing to the thick oyster-bed, many of the fossils appearing 
in the soil, and here the gorge has established itself in places. 
On the Fuller's Earth Eock the soil, although somewhat brashy, is 
heavy ; corn, roots, and potatoes are grown near Bruton. 
East of Milborne Port the Lower Fuller's Earth Clay forms park-like 
tracts of meadow-land, well timbered in the hedge-rows with oak and 
ash, and there are occasional orchards. 
In Gloucestershire the Fuller's Earth areas are mostly grass-land, but 
the ground is often irregular and broken owing to landslips. Fine elms 
grow in places, and there are tracts of woodland, and occasional orcharda, 
especially on the more marly beds. 
Upper Estuarine Series. 
With regard to the Upper Estuarine Series, Prof. Judd remarks " These 
beds form a cold, stiff land, which, even when well-drained, gives rise to 
a very unkindly soil. Consequently, the tracts occupied by these beds 
are often left waste, and constitute some of the few heaths and com- 
mons in this highly cultivated district ; among these may be instanced 
Ailsworth, Helpstone, and Luffenham Heaths." 
The clays of the Upper Estuarine Series do not, as a rule, cover any 
very extensive areas. " On the contrary, they usually constitute the 
short and somewhat steep slopes between the tabular masses formed by 
the limestones of the Great and Inferior Oolite respectively ; and, in fact, 
their mode of occurrence is very similar to that of the Fuller's Earth in 
the Cotteswold Hills. Where, however, these clays do cover any con- 
siderable area, they are almost always obscured by drift, while in the 
steep slopes between the two limestone series, clear and valuable sections 
are often afforded to us." 
In the woods of the Bedford Purlieus, now to a great extent cleared, 
the beds of Estuarine Clay can be traced below the Great Oolite.* 
Great Oolite. 
The Great Oolite in Somersetshire, Wiltshire, and Gloucestershire, 
forms, as a rule, a thin stonebrash or brown brashy soil, on which corn, 
turnips, potatoes, and other crops are grown.f 
Near Bradford-on-Avon and Bath, we find in many cases, small enclo- 
sures bounded by hedge-rows and stone-walls, and with fir plantations on 
the slopes. North of Marshfield we come to a more open country, but 
the fields are divided by stone walls, and there are few trees, the tract 
sloping gently towards the east. 
Old cultivation-terraces or lynchets may be seen on the slopes east of 
Farleigh, and here and there in the Avon valley between Bradford and 
Avoncliff. Vineyards formerly existed near Bath and on Claverton 
Down.]; 
* Judd, Geology of Rutland, &c., pp. 189, 194. 
t For analyses of Great Oolite soils, see Voelcker, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. 
xi. p. 495. 
J H. N. Ellacombe, Proc. Bath Nat. Hist. Club, vol. vii. pp. 36, 42. 
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