colour and very hard to dig; one changed into the
other so quickly that it was easy to see where the top soil ended and
the bottom soil began; no further change could, however, be seen below
the eight inch line. A drawing was made to show these things, and is
given in Fig. 1. You may find something quite different: sand, chalk,
or solid rock may occur below the soil, but you should enter whatever
you see into your notebooks and make a drawing, like Fig. 1, to be kept
for future use. Before filling in the hole some of the dark coloured
top soil, and some of the lighter coloured soil lying below (which is
called the subsoil), {3} should be taken for further examination; the
two samples should be kept separate and not mixed.

First look carefully at the top soil and rub some of it between your
fingers. We found that our sample was wet and therefore contained
water; it was very sticky like clay and therefore contained clay; there
were a few stones and some grit present and also some tiny pieces of
dead plants--roots, stems or leaves, but some so decayed that we could
not quite tell what they were. A few pieces of a soft white stone were
found that marked on the blackboard like chalk. Lastly, there were a
few fragments of coal and cinders, but as these were not a real part of
the soil we supposed they had got in by accident. The subsoil was also
wet and even more sticky than the top soil, it contained stones and
grit, but seemed almost free from plant remains and from the white
chalky fragments.

A few experiments will show how much of some of these things are
present. The amount of water may be discovered by weighing out ten
grams of soil, leaving it to dry in a warm place near the fire or in
the sun, and then weighing it again. In one experiment the results
were:--

Weight of top soil before drying ... 10 grams = 100 decigrams
" " " after " ... 8.3 " = 83 "
---- ---
Water lost ... 1.7 " = 17 "

A column 100 millimetres long was drawn to represent the 100 decigrams
of soil, and a mark was drawn 17 millimetres up to show the amount of
water (see Fig. 2).

Weight of bottom soil before drying ... 10 grams = 100 decigrams
" " " after " ... 8.7 " = 87 "

Water lost ... 1.3 " = 13 "

{4} Another column should be drawn for