The rocks which lie beneath the surface soil in this county are all made
by deposit, for several thousand feet in thickness, and are what are
called stratified rocks. They indicate the fact that in past periods
of time Lincolnshire was all under a great sea. Occasionally in the
limestone rocks are found small branches or pieces of trees, as well as
great quantities of fossils of many kinds. The fact that oak and silver
birch twigs are found inside the limestone shows that trees were growing
elsewhere when the rocks were being laid down by the action of water in
Lincolnshire.
Beneath the limestone are found thick beds of red sandstone, while still
deeper down, over 3000 feet below the surface, lie beds of coal in the
north-western part of the county—indicating vast changes in the land
since what is now coal was first formed.
After the deposit or formation of these thick beds of rock, the land
seems to have been raised above the surface of the sea, to be in turn
covered with vast sheets of ice, called glaciers.
These glaciers extended all over Lincolnshire and up into North Britain
above Aberdeen in the one case, and joined another vast glacier
stretching right across what is now called the North Sea to land which is
known to-day as Norway.
These glaciers carried on their surface blocks of rock of many kinds,
some of an igneous nature, and as the glaciers moved slowly the fragments
of rock were carried many miles from their original source. As the ice
melted, these blocks of rock fell to the ground, and are now found all
over Lincolnshire.
The time when these glaciers of Britain melted away is given by Lord
Avebury[1] as about fifty thousand years ago, but they “may have lingered
among the mountains, and occupied some of the valleys down to a much more
recent period.”
The deepest borings in Lincolnshire have not yet reached the fiery or
igneous rocks _in situ_, except in the Isle of Axholme; therefore those
fragments of igneous rocks found on the surface, or in the soil, or
in glacial clays, indicate that they have been transported from their
original source, which, in certain instances, is as far distant as Norway.
Since the melting of the most recent glacier, other great changes
have taken place in the surface of the land, owing to elevations and
depressions, and the action of rain, frost, and denudation over wide
areas.
A vast forest (now submerged) formerly existed right along the edge of
the east coast of Lincolnshire; at specially low tides it is seen exposed
at Chapel St. Leonards, Ingoldmells, and other places on the East Coast.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account