The history and antiquities of Boston, and the villages of Skirbeck, Fishtoft, Freiston, Butterwick, Benington, Leverton, Leake, and Wrangle; comprising the hundred of Skirbeck, in the county of Lincoln. Including also a history of the East, West, and Wildmore fens, and copious notices of the Holland or Haut-Huntre fen ... sketches of the geology, natural history, botany, and agriculture of the district; a very extensive collection of archaisms and provincial words, local dialect, phrases, proverbs, omens, superstitions, etc. By Pishey Thompson. Illustrated with one hundred engravings.

GEOLOGY OF THE DISTRICT. 671
clay underneath, until the Barnack ragstone stratum (the same of which Boston steeple is
built) is reached, which, having the benefit of the great elevation and porous nature of the
Ancaster hills at its outcrop, will doubtless furnish a powerful spring of water, that under
proper management in pipes, would rise, and supply every street and building in the town
of Boston with water, either for use, comfort, or security against fire, equal, or perhaps
superior, to that which London or any other city enjoys; some idea of the reasonableness
of these expectations may be formed, from the fact which I observed on the 18th of
October last, when leaving Revesby on my return to Derbyshire. About a mile and a half
beyond Sleaford, I crossed a brook-course just as I entered upon the sand stratum (below
the Barnack ragstone), the water was then so completely dried up, as not to run at all across
the ford which I crossed; yet, when I got a mile and a half higher up, at the village of
Wellsford, I found a tolerable mill's stream of water running in this brook, and which was
consequently all absorbed by the sand stratum on which it ran in the short space abovementioned.
" When I got to Ancaster I met in the evening with a gentleman, who told me the particulars of a boring in search of coals, some time ago, about 121 mile from Sleaford, by the side
of the road towards London, which at a great depth tapped so powerful a spring, that the
same has ever since boiled up a considerable height above the ground and given rise to a
small brook. I lament much that I did not learn these particulars when at Sleaford, in
order that I might have endeavoured to ascertain the depth of this spring, and the strata
bored through; yet I think little doubt need be entertained that the sand and ragstone
above-mentioned furnished this supply of water; at any rate, these water-charged strata
may be confidently expected to pass forwards in the direction of the dip, towards Boston,
and where it is to be hoped that ere long a new vent will be given for them, through which
to pour their salubrious and never-failing streams. Should a powerful rising spring be
found under Boston, I think that the same would have a material effect, in forwarding the
settlement of villages in the newly-drained fens, by shewing the practicability of supplying
the same plentifully with good and wholesome water, the want of which must otherwise
prove a great denial to settlers from the upland districts."
We think the clunch-clay upon which the alluvial deposits rest is the ancient
formation of the district; the most correct account which has beeh published of
any borings which have been made in this extensive bed, is a paper on " The
Geology of the Wolds of Lincolnshire," by Mr. EDWARD BOGG, who bored in this
stratum to the depth of a hundred yards, near the village of Donington, on the
west side of the river Bain.'
Mr. BoGG says,~ —
" Although the dip, or the angle of inclination, of this argillaceous bed cannot be determined
by ocular proofs, at or near Boston, yet, when we examine the dippings and outcrops of the
different incumbent strata on the north which repose upon it, and which assemblage of
strata forms the elevation of the Wolds, we have there decisive evidence of four different
beds basetting out to the west, and the chalk which overlays the other three incumbent
strata, sinks to the east under the alluvial deposit which forms the marshes. Again, in the
counties to the south where the clunch-clay makes its appearance, accompanied by the
chalk and other overlaying strata, the same evidence of an inclination to the east, are
obviously apparent. The thickness of this bed of clunch-clay, where it has suffered no
diminution from the erosion of water, has, I believe, never yet been ascertained; for in the
instance mentioned by Mr. Farey, at Newton Longville, where the clunch-clay was sunk
through, there is every reason to suppose that the upper parts had been displaced by
water; for its surface, being covered with alluvial clay and other extraneous substances, is
a proof of its having been thus exposed, and that the incumbent deposition is principally
composed of its own debris. The cornbrash or Sleaford stone appears to have been found
immediately under the clunch, and afterwards the Barnack ragstone; now this order of
stratification may occur at Boston, and it is fair to suppose that it does, yet the Grantham
clay on the west of the Ancaster hills, possessing characteristics similar to the clunch, is a
circumstance tending to shake our belief, as to the absolute certainty of the fact. It is to
be regretted, that the sinking and boring executed at Boston by Partridge and Naylor,
should have taken place at a time previous to the diffusion of geological knowledge; it cannot therefore prove a matter of surprise, that several inconsistent statements are to be
found in the account as taken by Naylor; his description sufficiently evincing a want of
1 Geological Transactions. 2 In a letter to the author.