renders thefe mafies .more friable where it
enters, by filtering, as it were, through
the foil at the furface. It may be of con-
fiderable ufe by fo greedily abforbing
rnoifturej dividing the earthy particles, and
forming a thin ftratum a few inches below :
and having regained a confiderable part of
the carbon, which , was difengaged by burning,
it probably imparts it to the young
plants.*
To the learned Dodtor Darwin, the
public are much indebted for information
on this head j this truly great philofopher
has clearly fhewn, that carbon is the life
of the vegetable creation. I hope the reader
will pardon me for the digreffion, and truft
my motive will prove a fufficient excufe.
* In many of the Iparry Iimeftones, that have been fub-
mitted to my examination, I found a confiderable portion of
the phofphoric acid, which may probably aft as a great fti-
mulant. ,
The
The face of the country, where the coarfe
gritftone makes its appearance on the fur-
face, next ftrikes the attention.
This fubftance forms long and narrow
mountains rathe* than hills ; the foil above
it, in moft of the elevated Situations, as the
Eafl Moor and Edgefide Hills in the neighbourhood
of Caftleton, Winhill, Lords Seats
and others in the north, is very indifferent.
On Cromford Moor it forms rude fcenery,
but more particularly fo near Birchover,
'where immenfe malfes lie in the rudeft
directions.
The mountains formed of the grit ftone
are the higheft in the county, and have
little depth of fo il; but the land immediately
below has 'more, and pays the cultivator
for his improvement: decompofed
vegetable matter forms the belt foil, and
is wafhed down by heavy rains. A large
tra£t of country might be mentioned where
1 2 this