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Show 134 AMOUN'l' OJ! EARrl'IJ CuAP. III. inch in length; and other fragment of coalcinders together with a fow white q nartz: pebbles. Beneath this layer aud at a depth of 4~ inches from the surface, the original black, 1 oaty, sandy soil with a few quartz p Lbles was encountered. I-Iere therefore the fnlO'Inouts of burnt 1narl and cinders had boon covered in the course of 15 years by a layer of fino vegetable mould, only 2~ inche in thickness, excluding the turf. Six and a half years subsequently this field was re-exmp.incd, anJ. the fragments were now found at from 4 to 5 inches beneath the surface. So that iH this interval of 6! years, about 1~ inch of mould had been added to the superficial layer. I am surprised that a greater quantity had uot been brought up during the whole 21~ years, for in the closely underlying black, peaty soil there were many worm . It is, however, probable that formerly, whilst tltc bnd remained poor, worms were scanty ; and the mould would then have accumulated slowly. The average annual increase of thickness tor the whole period is ·I D of an inch. Two other cases are worth recording. In the spriug of 1835, a field, which had CHAP. III. BROUGHT UP BY vVOHMS. 135 long existed as poor pasture and was so swampy tbat it trembled slightly when stamped on, was thickly covered with red sand so that the whole surface appeared at first bright red. When holes were dug in this field after an interval of about 2} years, the sand formed a layer at a depth of ! iu. beneath the surface. In 1842 (i.e., 7 years after the sand had been laid on) fresh holes were dug, and now the red sand formed a distinct layer, 2 inches beneath the t:lurface, or li inch beneath the turf; so that on an average, · 21 inches of mould had Leen annually brought to the surface. Immediately beneath the layer of reel sand, the original substratum of black sandy peat extended. A grass field, likewise not far from Maer Hall, had formerly been thickly covered with marl, and was then loft for several years a' pasture; it was afterwards ploughed. A frieud had three trenches dug in this fjeld 28 years after the application of tho marl,* * '!'his case is given in a post ·cript to my paper iu the 'Transact. Gcolog. oc.' (Vol. v. p. 505), alltl contains a serious error, as in the account rccei vcd I mistook tho figure 30 for 80. 'l'hc tenant, moreover, formerly said that he had marled tho field thirty years before, but was now positive that this was dono in |
