In transcribing the following passage from Smith’s text, I have begun with the rough OCR material provided by the Internet Archive and then collated it with the Internet Archive’s page images. If you spot any errors, please notify the webmaster. — George P. Landow
Much of the clay which extends over the higher parts of Norfolk and Suffolk, is clearly alluvial, it being very generally mixed with rounded fragments of chalk and other strata, similarly water-worn. Sand and gravel are intermixed but sparingly; and the circumstance of these lighter soils being so generally on the sides of hills and valleys, which lie between the clay eminences und the chalk, leaves no doubt of its being the outcrop of an intermediate stratum. The clay is distinguished in Suffolk, by the general name of woodlands; in Essex also, by woods and forests; and in Norfolk, usually by greens. In other parts of these extensive strata, less obscured by alluvial gravel, considerable surfaces of reddish brown, and some lighter and darker coloured clays with intermixtures of sand and small roupd pebbles, seem to be the general character of the best planes of strata over the sand. These are the timber soils chiefly productive of oak in the New Forest and parts adjacent, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk. Some of the same kind of loamy clay as forms the north-east coast of Norfolk, stretches along the north-east side of the chalk in Lincolnshire, and along the coast of Holderness.
Related material
- A County-by-County Geological Description of England’s Counties
- Smith’s Explanation of His Map of Geological Strata in England and Wales
- The History of the Idea of Geological Strata before William Smith’s Formulation and Map
Bibliography
Smith, William. A Memoir to the Map and Delineation of Strata of England and Wales. London: John Cary, 1815.
Created 11 September 2018