FALLEN OUT OF CULTIVATION IN ESSEX. 71
that the black patches are mainly at places where the London Clay
forms the surface of the ground.
" At the north-east corner of the map there is a tract covered with
Chalky Boulder Clay quite free from black patches.
" Between Chelmsford and Maldon there is a considerable extent
of gravel and alluvium, and on it there are not many black patches
excepting in places where the gravel is thin, and the London Clay
which underlies it is near the surface.
" There is a small black patch on Bagshot Sand and Boulder
Clay at Frierning, and one on gravel on the hillside between that
place and Ingatestone. And between Woodham Ferris and
Bicknacre Priory there are several black patches on Boulder Clay
and loamy gravel.
" South of Woodham Ferris there is a large black patch on the
alluvium of Woodham Marsh, and there is another on the alluvium
of Hadleigh Marsh. All those south of the railway from Pitsea to
Benfleet are on alluvium.
" At the eastern end of the map there are some black patches on
gravel and alluvium. Near Hadleigh there is one on Bagshots, and
there is one near Mucking on various formations ; but with these
exceptions the black patches are on London Clay."
Mr. Monckton noted, in addition, an extraordinary statement
in paragraph 10, p. 36, of Mr. H. Pringle's Report, as follows,
remarking that "it is seldom one meets with a statement more hope-
lessly inaccurate ; it is not even correct of the solid geology":—
" The soil of Essex, with the exception of two small patches, is
geologically classed as London Clay."
Mr. Holmes adds to the above that "surely the author of this
Report should have known of the existence of the Drift Maps of the
Geological Survey. The latest published, that of sheet 47, appeared
in 1885, the others earlier. And the Drift Maps show that north
of a line drawn from east to west through Chelmsford the London
Clay, where it exists, occupies but a very small proportion of the
surface. While, as its outcrop, against the Glacial Drift, is along a
line from Bishop Stortford to Sudbury, it is not to be found, either
at or below the surface, over a good many square miles of north-
western Essex."