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
The surface of this stratum is remarkable for circumstances which the most unobserving cannot pass without notice. Soft, tough, wet clay in a state of nature must ever have been the worst of roads, and most of the bye-lanes and parish-roads are so now. To remedy this inconvenience it may be noticed, that many ancient caused or raised ways, have been made across the course of this stratum; which was generally done with pitching, or the flat and thin beds of the forest marble, or sandstone rock, set on edge. Every traveller must unavoidably observe this character of the stratum under consideration. It will be known to the agriculturist by its wet tenaclpus properties and difficulties in tillage. The grazier and skilful land-purveyor well know its pastures by the blue cast of carnation-grass, and other coarse herbage; and its emmet-hills and blackthorns are sufficiently characteristic for the general observer. These are the features which may be readily traced through every part of the country which produces it; but its cause may be found on a map, by certain, districts of low lands, which are frequently subject to inundation. It forms the chief boundary of the great level of the fens, and continues thence northwards, through wet and low lands to the estuary of the Humber.
All the low land of the vale of Bedford, Ottmoor, North Wilts, the vale of Blackmoor, and the watery vale of the Isis, from Cricklade to Oxford, is upon this stratum. Its course is also more particularly designated by many smaller names of moors, forests, commons, and waste lands, or at least by such as have till lately remainedt in that state. [44-45]
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