it abounds, is corrected by a due admixture of clay and vegetable matter, there are few soils more manageable, or which yield better either in grass or in the usual crops of the country.

This soil is frequently covered and hid by bogs, and swells of gravel; it may be found generally at the bottom of these subsequently formed incumbents, within the area above mentioned; but in no other portion of the country with which I am at present acquainted. It is further remarkable, that this peculiarity of fossil soil is encompassed within the area of the basalt formations, and in the lowest levels, to the very bases not only of the basalt mountains, but also to those of the primitive range, which lays within the secondary area.

Hitherto we have said nothing respecting vegetable soils. In fact, the examination of these is foreign from geological scrutiny. Bogs are a congeries of coarse and aquatic plants, deposited over the earthy soils, by means of certain causes, of which notice will be taken hereafter, under a distinct head. Loams are an admixture of finer vegetable matters decayed within the staple of the soil, which soil is generally of an alluvial character, deepened either by frequent culture, or by the incidental accumulation of fallen vegetables. Loams may have for their basis, beside vegetable matter, the detritus of any of the solid rocks; they may be magnesian, calcareous, argillaceous, &c. or a mixture of all. Every soil, as well as loam, has a certain though inferior portion of decomposed stony matters, with decayed roots, leaves, and stems of vegetables; those soils are deepest which are penetrated most deeply; and where this addition of vegetable natter ceases, there commences what is called Till (Tellus) or under-soil. There is very often a concrete of iron, beneath the vegetable matter, perhaps deposited from the decomposition of the plants, growing in the soil above: when this takes place, the roots can penetrate no deeper, until the iron-bind (as it is termed) is broken, and gradually mixed with the upper soil.

It is the peculiar province of tillage, (properly so called,) to pene

trate, to deepen, and to intermingle the tills and soils. These processes, though of the greatest utility, require skill and caution; but these are considerations, not immediately connected with the present discussion.

Such then, are the chief observations, which are submitted to the reader for the purpose of initiating him, if heretofore inobservant of such matters, into a physical investigation of the differences of soils and surfaces, together with the reasonable theories as to the causes of their formation; and although these observations may be intermixed with comments somewhat hypothetical, yet even these, it is humbly hoped, may hereafter become the source of utility, or at least of entertainment, to ingenious and investigating minds.

In proportion as agriculture, which has always been accounted among the most liberal arts, shall have advanced (as it is now rapidly advancing) towards the precision of an experimental science, in the same proportion will it become desirable that the classification of soils should be reduced, from a provincial, to a scientific arrange-ment and nomenclature. So strongly is the author impressed with the substantial value of this particular portion of his enquiry, that he has thought it a duty of the first rate, to exhibit the general nature, together with the peculiar localities of these various soils. The geologist will weigh this catalogue with some interest. The cultivator will accept of the distinctions, as an humble hint, which may hereafter lead towards an accomplishment much needed in his department. For want of persons soundly acquainted with this subject, how many pretenders usurp, on ill founded confidence, the valuation of estates, and the direction of improvements, not only to the prejudice of the proprietor and the occupant, but even to the injury of the national agriculture, which is, and has always been, of every people, its most substantial interest and resource.

In order therefore to present the reader with a more precise and detailed view, as to this part of the report, I shall now make another distinction of the country, which is, into its natural divisions.

P

These are, 1st, the coast of the sea, with the flats of Lough Foyle; 2d, the valley of the Foyle with the Liberties of London Derry; gd, the vale of the Roe; 4th, the vale of the Fahan; 5th, the vale of the Mayola; 6th, the coast of Lough Neagh with its flats; 7th, the half valley of the Bann with the Liberties of Coleraine.

The first division begins at Bally-reagh, near Port Rush, and thence proceeds below the western forelands of Magilligan.

Coast of the Sea-Flats of Lough Foyle.

This district has for its soil, near the ocean, an intermixed silicious and calcareous sand; this kind of sand is occasionally covered with boggy soils, wheresoever the stagnation of water has given rise to the growth of aquatic vegetables.

As you advance on the sandy beach, near to Downhill, a bed of white limestone begins to show itself; it is thence apparent until you reach the confine of Woodtown: after this, it is covered by the rubble and fallen rock of the incumbent masses, till it presents itself, still rising, as it passes, to the west, under the steep and elevated sections of Benyevenagh and its adjacent forelands.

The soils beneath this are clayey, stiff, and reddish, composed of the solution of the soft argillaceous grit, which sustains the bed of limestone. Frequently they are interspersed with knolls of basalt, or with detached rocks and tumbling stones, of the same substance. Nearly of this kind is all the high arable from Coleraine through Dumbo, by the high lands of Magilligan; this soil is cold and difficult, but it is strong, and when kept open with lime, sand, or shells, or even when often turned, it forms a desirable farm, especially if peat-moss be convenient, to enter into the compost.

Lower than this, in general near the shores, the surface is covered with looser materials; thus, along the shore of Ballyaghran, even among the rocks, we find sand, composed of the minute crumble of the basalt. This sort is blackish-brown, surcharged with iron; it concretes on the surface, and is ungenial to good plants. plants. It is

accordingly either naked, or covered with ling. There are spots of better soil on the same coast, approaching in quality to a sandy turf, and even to a gravel; but they are all incoherent for want of a due proportion of clay, except in the bottoms, whither the clayey matter has been washed down by the rains. These bottoms are rugged, sour, poached, and covered chiefly with the coarse tribes of aquatic vegetables. At the confine of the Bann-mouth, the sands being calcareous, are of a whiter colour. They are blown into hillocks, which are kept from shifting, only when retarded by the roots of the bent. These are of considerable extent on both sides of the river, and are just so far useful as they afford a scanty provender, with a shelter, for rabbits. Near Downhill, the basalt knolls, with interspersed vegetative surfaces, formed chiefly out of the decay of their materials, are extended to the margin of the ocean.

From the rocks of Downhill to the rabbit-warren of Magilligan, the coast affords no soil whatever, but only a sandy beach, bounded on one hand by the billows, and on the other by the perpendicular basalts. The remainder of the low ground, till you arrive at the mouth of the Roe, consists chiefly of sandy bent hills; within these are druims, or low ridges of a sand thinly covered with vegetative turf. There are also narrow bottoms of peat-like composition, which run between those, in a remarkable parallelism, all the way from the high lands to the shore; these are called misks, and are much more favourable than the former, either to pasture or tillage. All this soil has a substrate of sand, whose depth is below the level of the ocean..

The extent of this intermixed soil will best appear by turning to the map, where also will be seen an area of deep turf bog, occupying, in the interior, no inconsiderable portion of this tract.

There is only a narrow strip of stiff clay, in this direction, on the north side of the mouth of the Roe; but on the south, the prevalent character of the soil is that of a marley ouze; this is termed carse by the Scotch, and by the English warp. I have seen this soil opened

to the depth of seven spadings, and found, that it is composed of ouze and shell alternated. The flat country, which consists of these materials, extends four miles in length, and two measured inland; that is to say, from the Roe to Walworth, and from below Burnally to the coast. Fossil shells are dug up in all the ditches through this district at certain depths; yet the surface is not always of this marley character. The bottoms of Aghanloo, for example, are of the stiffest clay, almost impassible to the plough; these are occupied in meadow, over a great extent on the east bank of the Roe. Here and there some turfy soil occurs. Forty years ago, these bottoms were almost inaccessible, except to wild geese; they now are under a miserable management, in grazing for nine months, and in meadow the remainder, that is, from June to August; the hay of these three months growth, being chiefly foran, sells at six guineas per acre on the foot. There arise, however, out of this flat, near Bally-henry and Carrick-muddle, sandy ridges which pass coastwise by Carrickmenagh, Carrick-reagh, and Carrick-clare. These banks die away, as the beach winds to form the bay of Ballymacran. Below this sand lies stiff marley clay, in depth about eight feet, and beneath this white sand of unknown depth.

From Ballymacran and passing under Walworth, the beach is covered with herbage, furnishing salt marshes in great request for grazing horses. The same stiff soil is continued, with some little interposition of mossy meadow ground, sometimes narrower, sometimes broader, for more than six miles. Below Wilsborough there runs a low bank of gravel and sand, which denotes the approach towards the mouth of the Fahan. This ridge is, however, but local, for the general tendency of the subsoil is to the quality of a rich and loamy clay, in some places bluish, but more commonly reddish; over this clay lies a peat-moss, the extent of whose surface is best defined in the map. The depth of this bog is from less than three to more than twelve feet. Under the bog, and before the plough can enter into the subsoil, there lies a thin concrete, which is so difficult to