SCOURING LANDS OF CENTRAL SOMERSET. 
305 
3. Examination of the Water Theory. 
It has been stated by trustworthy authorities that certain 
waters in the lias formation possess scouring properties. 
Two statements by Mr. Poole deserve particular attention. 
In his note to Mr. Clarke’s paper,* Mr. Poole says : “ Some 
years ago I carried a stream of water from the lias cutting 
of the Bristol and Exeter Railway, at Dunball, across 
Sedgmoor Drain into Horsey Slines (which the writer men¬ 
tions as a district peculiarly free from this disease), and it 
immediately began to scour the cattle, and I was obliged to 
cut off the supply.” 
Again : ce There is a stream of water which breaks out at 
Ford Farm, on the south side of the hill, between the parishes 
of Edington and Stawell, and flows through one of the 
offshoot moors of Sedgmoor, and which, for at least two 
miles of its course, viz., as far down as Bawdrip, scours the 
cattle in every field through which if passes. This spring is 
a strong petrifying spring. The scouring properties of the 
water are so well known that the watering-places on the 
course of the stream are frequently fenced off by farmers to 
prevent their cattle from drinking at them.” 
Mr. Clarke likewise mentions two cases. “ In one in¬ 
stance,” he says, “ a large piece of pasture-land was found 
to scour the cows kept upon it, to the great loss of the 
occupier, until he hit upon the expedient of cutting off the 
supply of spring-water from a neighbouring brook, and con¬ 
fining the supply to the rain-water held in the ditches, the 
result of which has been that very little of the disorder has 
since appeared upon the land referred to. The other in¬ 
stance was that of a field upon the peat-soil, which is not 
naturally liable to scour. But during a particularly dry 
summer the water from a brook, issuing from the blue lias 
clay, having been let down into this field for drinking pur¬ 
poses, the cattle immediately became affected with a similar 
disorder to that produced upon the scouring lands.” 
Mr. Bush, of Weston, near Bath, also informs me that in 
the parish of Kewstoke, near Weston-super-Mare, there is a 
piece of land situated upon the moor, close to the north 
side, the land adjoining being lias; a spring of water rises 
on the lias, and, till recently, flowed in an open ditch across 
this field. The tenant frequently found his cattle scour when 
in the field. About two years ago he conveyed the water 
across the field in pipes, since which the scouring has ceased, 
and he attributed the scouring to their drinking the water. 
* ‘Journal of the Bath and West of England Society,’ vol. iii, pp. 60-1. 
xxxv. 20 
