wastes is formed of a hard and durable species of whin and freestone mixed with white acre (that is, quartz), and a species of granite gravel, covered with a strong growth of black heath, rooted in a thin staple of dry brown peat. lying immediately on the rock, and from which it is pared by the inhabitants for the purposes of fuel. Where water, has been arrested on the sides of hills and low places, peat, to a greater or less depth, has been produced; but in no instance is the quantity of peat or turf to be re-. garded as considerable."

P. 15. (North Devon.) "The land between the Taw. and the Torridge rivers, bounded southwardly by the parishes of Wear Giffard, Henshaw, Yarnescombe and Atherington (and formed by a continuation of the same. ridges, although considerably lower, which mark the lead-, ing features of the country lying east of the Taw river), consists with little variation of a well stapled, tender, grey, and brown loam on the shillot, shaley, and schistus rock,. and well calculated for a system of convertible husbandry. Upon the low grounds a stratum of loam or brown potter's, clay occurs between the surface soil and the rock, and which at Fremington is of a considerable depth, and much, used in the coarse potteries of Barnstable and Bideford. Westward of the Torridge, and through the parishes of Northam, Bideford, Abbotsham, Alwington, Littleham and Land-cross, the same general character of country continues, although the soil occasionally varies from a grey and brown loam to that of a light red or cedar-colour, and lying on a deep stratum of rubbly loam, highly shaded with, and partaking of the same hue.'

The subjoined passage is extracted from "District II. Free Dunstone." It stands at the head of the section, and may be fairly considered as a proper specimen of the lands of that district.

P. 16. The soil in the parish of Little Torrington, consists of a loose free loam of a good staple, on a deep rubbly subsoil. At Frithlestock it abates considerably of this good quality, and in many places is found to consist of a moist grey loam on a tough yellow clay, much better adapted to the culture of oats than of barley. Through the parishes of Monkleigh, Buckland Brewer, the free or Dunstone soil prevails, occasionally varied with small veins of a cedar-colour on a substratum of rubbly loam, in which there are sometimes found black flints or firestones, particularly in the parish of Buckland Brewer. This bright hazel-coloured land, generally denotes a favourable disposition for the culture of wheat, barley, oats, turnips and clover."

It were difficult to discover a specific difference, between the many-soiled lands, described in the two last extracts, to warrant the distinction by which they are separated. Those extracts, which immediately follow each other, rather serve to show that they inseparably belong to one and the same natural district; and, indisputably, to the same agricultural district. There is no line of demarkation between them;-other than what the painter has been pleased to draw.

P. 20. (District II. " Dunstone Land.")" The soil in the parishes of Shepwash, Buckland, Filleigh, Petrockstow, Marland, and Langtree, may be divided into three classes: the first consists of a loose friable loam of a good staple, lying upon the schistus rock; the second, a well stapled reddish brown loam, on an understratum of rubbly clay, which is found finally to rest on a hard shillot rock, breaking up into excellent building stones; the third class chiefly occupies the vallies and low grounds, and is composed of a thin grey loam, on a subsoil of white, yellow, and blue clay."

Here, no "dunstone land" appears :-it being a variety of land, it would seem, which is rarely to be met with in District II.; judging, I mean, from the few instances of its being mentioned, in the thirteen pages set apart for that section. Even the red loam, which is pretty common in North Devonshire, is more frequently, I think, noticed; but not once (if I mistake not) in "District I. North Devon."*

To a man who is desirous to purchase an estate, or to rent a farm, of a particular description of land, in the County of Devon, Mr. V.'s details may be highly useful; to assist him in the search. But, to the agricultural public at large, their value is less considerable. I therefore refer those, whom they may particularly concern, to the work itself.

FOSSILS.-Limestone. This truly estimable fossil abounds in Devonshire-not in extensive ranges of heights, as it is found in many parts of the island; but rather in "veins," or narrow lines, with little elevation, above the adjacent lands.

In tracing those lines, and marking them on his map, Mr. Vancouver has much merit, and deserves well of the County. Mr. Fraser set the example, and made a valuable beginning, in the southern districts; but Mr. Vancouver has greatly extended the search; and has, I apprehend, pointed

**Those notices are creditable to Mr. Vancouver, as a Surveyor and Reporter of soils; but not so, as a delineator of districts.

pointed out the principal places in which limestone may be raised, in the several districts of the County.

Wood Coal." Bovey Coal."-Of this peculiar fossil, Mr. Vancouver gives an interesting account. P. 70. “After following a western branch of the Bovey river from the commons of Widdecombe in the Moor, we descend into a plain bounded on the north by a range of craggy hills in the parish of Bovey Tracy, and westwardly by the high lands of Ilsington and Heytor rocks. In this plain or valley is found rising to the surface, and with a gentle dip or inclination to the southward, distinct strata of a fossil substance called Bovey coal. This lies in several parallel seams at the distance of six or eight feet from each other, and to the depth of 60 feet."

P. 71. "The Bovey coal exhibits a series of gradations, from the most perfect ligneous texture to a substance nearly approaching the character of pit coal, and which by exposure to the air breaks into thin laminæ, assuming the appearance of the grey or common schistus rock of the country, but in which are indistinctly to be traced the original fibrous vegetable of which it was composed, and which is generally the roots and trunks of the pinus sylvestris, or Scotch fir; the former being distinguished by the workmen as root; the latter as broad coal, flattened into parallel layers by the compression it has undergone; and frequently rising to the thickness of a large folio volume. The upper strata of these veins are of a greyish colour, and resemble a mass of the shaley rock; the lower assuming a black coal colour, and showing between its leaves, but particularly on its transverse fracture, the same smooth glassy appearance common to stone-coal. The root coal has a broken and wavy texture. On examination of some of the roots of the bog timber in the neighbouring morass, a faint smell of turpentine was still retained, and the turpentine appeared in an inspissated state between the fibrous substances of the wood; hence there is reason to suppose that, next to the woody fibre, resin is the substance that, in vegetables passing to the fossil state, most powerfully resists alteration, but which once effected, becomes the substance whence bitumen is produced. Among the clay, but adhering to the coal, are found lumps of a bright yellow resinous earth extremely light, and so saturated with petroleum, as to burn like sealing-wax, and when not carried too far, to produce an agreeable and aromatic vapour. This, by analysis, appears to have, resin 55, asphaltum 41, eartby residuum 3. Large pieces of the board and root-coal have been taken up at different depths in the Stover plantations, and at the distance of

about two miles from the present coal-pits. This substance is also found diffused in very small pieces through all the beds of potters' clay in the parishes of Teigngrace and King's Teignton."

Mr. V. attempts the rationale of this extraordinary fossil. His ideas concerning it are very ingenious; but do not bring conviction to my mind. I am well acquainted with the site of the Bovey coal quarry, and the surrounding country.

Pipe Clay.-Bovey Pits.-Mr. Vancouver notices a use to which the refuse clay is put.-P. 43. "The waste clay dug out of these pits is converted into a beautiful white durable brick, by the admixture of about one-third part of sand. The clay is first dried in the open air, and then pounded and mixed dry with the sand, and afterwards worked and tempered together. It is necessary the bricks should be well dried before putting them in kilns."

Iron Stone.-P. 54. "A considerable quantity of very rich ironstone is annually sent from the neighbourhood of Combe-martin to Mr. Raby's iron-works at Llenethy, in South Wales.".

MINERALS. On this division of the natural economy of Devonshire, Mr. Vancouver is less intelligent, than on the two which precede it. Prosecuting the search, by Districts; -and picking up, bere and there, items of information, without afterward classing them, so as to place, in separate points of view, those which pertain to the different species of metals, that are raised, or were raised at the time of survey, in the separate parts of the County;-the chaotic aggregate becomes unpleasant to examine; and, in a degree, unprofitable to the student, who looks for something of the nature of scientific information.

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

APPROP

APPROPRIATION.-P. 271. "It seemed a very desirable object, on the commencement of this Survey, to ascertain with as much correctness as possible, the extent of waste land belonging to the respective parishes in this district to this end, very particular inquiries were directed in all the different parishes; but so extremely vague and contradictory were the accounts received, together with the doubts entertained of the moors, in many places, being. appurtenant to particular estates, or open in common to all the inhabitants, that the subject at length became much confused,

confused, and involved in contradiction, and it was judged better to pass over those inquiries, and direct the attention more fully to the quality of such wastes, let their bounda ries and extent be what they may, or the right of ownership in them be in whom it would."

P. 272. ("North Devon.")" According to the prevalence of drought or moisture in the surface and substrata of these wastes, their herbage and common covering is found to vary, and may generally be divided under the following

heads:

"The first, of a soil formed of a tender light coloured loam when dry, but when moist, assuming a brighter brown colour, and lying upon a brown and grey clayey subsoil, veined and mixed with portions of small rubbly or argillaceous gravel. This land is always covered with a close and sweet herbage, on which the sheep are found to lie very hard, and to keep it constantly pared down. Through the loose veins of under-strata, springs occasionally rise, creating small spots of rushes, and a few square yards of boggy ground; its surface is otherwise free from any incumbrance of furze, fern, or heather, and seems as loudly to demand, as it appears willing to réquite the labours and fostering care of the skilful husband

man.

f

"The second denomination of these wastes may be called furze and fern lands: a portion of granite gravel is always found to have place in the composition of their soil and substrata. This is generally of a drier nature than the one just noticed, and seems well adapted for a system of barley and turnip husbandry.

"The third class is that where a dwarf growth of heath or heather is found, but which is nearly smothered and eaten out with a variety of coarse aquatic grasses. The soil is bere generally composed of a dark moor or vegetable mould, lying on a close and deep stratum of blue and yellow clay, intermixed with a coarse argillaceous rubble, and a reddish coloured clay or fox-mould, equally retentive of, and generally charged with an undue proportion of moisture.

"A fourth class is composed of a red spongy substance, answering, in all appearance, the character of a red Irish bog. This is always kept highly saturated with water, and is found of various depths, on a substratum of peat, which again ultimately rests on a compact bed of white, blue, and yellow clay. By conducting the improvement of this class in the manner its nature and situation demand, very great advantages must inevitably result, not only from the undertaking itself, but its effects on the surrounding,

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