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This character is usually found to occur on the flat tops of all the lesser eminences in the District, and derives very great and important benefits from chalking, the preceding classes not being in the slightest degree benefited by that material. The depth of this red loamy stratum, above the chalk, sometimes subjects it in the winter season to an excess of moisture; but which is generally much relieved by a due attention being paid to gripping and water-furrowing. This circumstance, however, appears in many places to have given rise to a coarse, tough, and wiry herbage. It abounds with large ragged flints, and though naturally of an arid quality, is capable after chalking of producing excellent wheat, and a prime sample of barley.

"A fifth description of land is found to occupy the brows and side hills of this last class, but which has been much lessened of its loamy proportion by the winter rains and melting snows: here is generally but a thin staple of soil, and that chiefly composed of dissolved chalk, tough and clingy when wet, harsh and chisselly, but when worked at a proper crisis, is found loose and friable; and not unfrequently applied to the culture of turnips, and a convertible system, as well as for the culture of sainfoin, for which it seems most particularly adapted.

"Below the hang of the hills, a deep, strong, grey loam very frequently occurs, intercepted at some distance from the chalk rock by chalk rubble, but not containing so many of the coarse ragged flints, as may be noticed in the red tough loams of class No. 4. This land when wet, rises in a tough livery slice, and when dry, becomes extremely hard and chisselly. The tillage of this class, as well as that of No. 4, is extremely arduous, expensive, and heavy; but when the proper season is obtained for conducting its operations, the labour and difficulty of its husbandry is much lessened. The crops of wheat produced on this latter soil are very considerable, though in general it is not held in very high esteem for the culture of barley,

"Another description of strong laud is found in divers parts of this district, assuming a much darker colour than either the grey chisselly or red flinty loams. It is generally found of a good staple, and lying on a similar subsoil at a considerable distance from the chalk below. This land was observed to wear the marks of being too frequently overcharged with moisture; but in favourable seasons it yields excellent beans, as a precursor to, or after wheat, in the place of a fallow.

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The surface of most of the hollows, and lower sides of the hollows, with which the whole of this district is intersected (and exclusive of the vallies which afford the

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rivers and other living streams), is formed of an assemblage of small flat flints, combined with an extremely tough, but proportionably small quantity of loam; and which continues at various and indefinite depths to the chalk below. This is provincially termed shrave, of which there are two sorts, the one just mentioned, which gives the idea of a bank of shingle upon the sea-shore; the other, a red coarse pebbly gravel, mixed with a small portion of tough red loam, or more commonly with a dry, harshi sand, or small gravel, affording a warm subsoil, producing an early vegetation, and is generally applied to the culture of wheat, turnips, barley, and the artificial grasses.

"It must follow, from what has been already stated, that the higher parts of this district have much the appearance of an elevated plain, broken into many irregular parts, and intersected by several deep hollows, in which the brooks and rivulets, rising chiefly within the district, descend on a southern course towards the sea. Along these vallies considerable tracts of meadow and pasture ground are found. On the margin of these water-courses, or rather the vallies through which they pass, for obvious reasons, are seated the greater part of the inhabitants.

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"The soil of these low grounds partake very much of a black vegetable mould or moor, on a strong calcareous loam, sometimes superinduced with an adventitious sand, or stratum of fine gravel, or apparently broken into chasms, occupied with large bodies of peat, and which is occa sionally dug for fuel, or burnt in the manner practised in Berkshire for manuring ashes."

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Soils of the New Forest, and its environs; or the Southern Vale Lands of Hampshire.-P. 22. "The soil of the culs tivated lands bordering upon the forest of Bere, and Waltham Chase, including the crown demesnes, and other enclosed parts of those forests, consist partly of a thin vegetable mould upon strata of deep sand, coarse gravel, and a moist grey loam upon a woodland clay. A gravelly loam of a more uniform texture, assuming a light brown or rather hazel colour, seems partially to occur in this variety, and particularly to distinguish the neighbourhood of Southwick, Wickham, Bishop's Waltham, and Botley. The cultivated parts of the parishes of Titchfield, Crofton, Rowner, and Aiverstoke, consist of a thin light friable mould upon a gravel, a rich hazei-coloured loam upon a brick-earth, and a moist grey loam upon a strong, blue, white, and yellow clay. The same variety extends through all the cultivated lands from Gosport to the Itchen river.

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The soil of the beaths and commons which occur in this part of the county, and which are generally found to compose the higher lands between Gosport and Titchfield, between Titchfield, Bursledon, and Botley, and between the two latter places and the Itchen river, is not materially different from the same variety of soil and substrata which form the character of the new enclosures at Fareham, and which are found composed of a thin black gravelly mould, and a moist grey loam, on substrata of sand and gravel, strong white and yellowish clay, potters' clay, and brick-earth. Intervening between these latter and the top-mould, is often found a thin subsoil of gravel, but which may be rendered useful, if due advantage is taken of it, for conducting the sub-waters into drains properly constructed to receive it.

"The late enclosures of South Stoneham, consist chiefly of a thin, black, gravelly mould, upon a bed of harsh gravel, a peaty mould upon a blue and yellow clay; and, apon the whole, differing but little from the varieties above noticed in the parish of Fareham.

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"The frequent intersections of clay and gravel occasion many wet and boggy places, round which, peat is dug, or rather turf is pared, to a depth of four or six inches, by the inhabitants for fuel.

"A country veined with clay, sand, and gravel, continues through the parishes of North Stoneham, Townhill, Swathing, Bishopstoke, and Otterbourne; ascending northwardly from the latter village, the miscellaneous soil and substrata suddenly terminates in the great body of chalk forming the character of District No. II.

"The cultivated lands north of Southampton, Millbrook, and Redbridge, are much contracted by the extensive commons of Nutshaling and Southampton, but their soil generally consists of a mild gravelly loam and a tender loamy clay. This valuable character pervades to a considerable extent, the commons of these places; but as we approach Chilworth and Badsley, it is found to abate somewhat of its natural superiority.

"Considerable enclosures have lately taken place in these latter parishes, from which, by the aid of draining and the application of chalk, great advantages may be expected to be derived in future. The same variety of soil and substrata prevails through the southern parts of Timsbury; but northwardly it enters the chalk district, A substance called malm, of which there are two sorts, black and white, is found on the borders of Timsbury and Rumsey, and much used as an alterative manure on the sour clays and gravelly heaths composing the en

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closures recently made in those parishes: it is applied in quantities of about eight waggon-loads of 66 bushels each per acre.

"The country south of the Buckholt and Houghton hills, including the parishes of East and West Tytherly, consist of a strong flinty loam upon a chalk, and which is found to extend southwardly as far as the parish of East Dean, and the northern parts of the parish of Lockerly. The southern parts of which, East Dean, Shirfield English, and East Willow, consist of a thin gravelly loam on a subsoil of close retentive clay; below which, very often occurs deep beds of sand and gravel. This land is very subject to springs, which in their present neglected state, prove very injurious to the country. As the land rises eastwardly from the river Teste, a more uniform substratum, and a stronger staple of land, occurs, and in which there was observed a very thriving growth of oak timber.

"In the lower part of the country the oak tree clay disappears, and elm generally, with some ash, are found to flourish on a more genial surface and open subsoil. The low grounds bordering upon the river Teste, possess a general character of loose moor or vegetable mould, beneath which is a calcareous substance also called malm (i. e. marl or chalky clay), and much valued as a manure, either upon the light or stronger loams which occur in the parish of Rumsey Extra; the quantity applied agrees with that before-mentioned.

"Descending southwardly from the heaths towards Paulton's-park, we find that noble demesne to possess a soil and substrata not only highly favourable to the growth of oak, but to forest trees in general. The park and surrounding country preserves a smooth and uniform appearance, till broken south-eastwardly by Hill Common and Tachbury Mount. A considerable extent of flat low ground then occurs in the same direction, including Netley Marsh; thence towards Eling, and for some distance westwardly into the New Forest. The soil of this plain is generally a moist grey loam of a thin staple, on a woodland clay and brick-earth. That of the adjacent enclosures, of a freer and more open quality.

"The country along the confines of the New Forest, and the western side of the Southampton water, is much broken, exhibiting along the river hills a considerable variety of top and under soil, and consequently affording several wet and spongy places, many of which have been much relieved, and some completely cured, by judicious draining. On the demesne of Cadland, these improvements, under the direction of Mr. Elkington, have been carried to a considerable extent, which has not only contributed

contributed to adorn this otherwise interesting country, but at the same time to render its climate more salubrious to the inhabitants.

"Leap Pond is an extensive, though highly improvable morass; and as the property in the waste appears to be vested in two gentlemen only, and each possessing highly interesting demesnes in its neighbourhood, it was not without some surprise that it was observed to have lain so long in its present condition.

"The soil in the manor of Beauley may be taken ge. nerally as a specimen of that which occurs in the country round Lymington, and thence westwardly along the seacoast for three or four miles. This consists of two leading characters: the one a mild gravelly loam, approaching a hazel colour, lying on an open subsoil sometimes termi nating in sand or gravel, but more frequently intercepted at various depths from a deep bed of red, blue, and white marl below; the other a thin light black gravelly mould, generally of a moderate depth, and lying on a close stratum of clay and brick-earth of various colours, and under which at a still greater depth, is occasionally found the same field of marl first noticed."

Mr. Vancouver's account of the Isle of Wight, in regard to its soils, is, I will venture to say, superior to that which would have been given of them, by any other of the Board's Surveyors; yet, owing to the variety and intermixture of lands which that islet comprizes, and which would require a small volume, to describe them with valuable effect, I do not feel myself warranted to transcribe, into this register, his detailed account of them.

I must not, however, deprive myself of the pleasure of saying, here, that Mr. Vancouver has my best thanks, and ought to have the thanks of every well wisher to the accumulation of facts in the rural science; for his luminous report of the soils of the most interesting parts of Hampshire. He has a happy turn of mind toward the obser vance, as well as the verbal delineation, of the lands of a country.

FOSSILS.-Limestones.-P. 41. "The only difference that appeared to exist in the great body of rock chalk,” (?) "is that of the white and the grey stone: the first when burnt into lime, falls into clear white powder; the second into a cream-coloured powder, and is particularly applicable for a cement in water-works. The grey chalk” (?)*" is raised in large quantities near Petersfield, and is

*This is doubtlessly "the Claystone" or "Blue Lias," of various districts.-See Homesteads, ensuing.

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