18 



our Club, and himself a Suffolk man, has been kind enough to 

 obtain for me a few particulars respecting these, which I will 

 give in addition to what I have already said. 



The diggings in Suffolk are confined entirely to the Crag 

 formation, which extends inland from the Coast to the distance — 

 in some cases — of ten or twelve miles, the largest quantities of 

 nodules, however, being found nearer the sea. The Suffolk 

 nodides are of rather less value than those of Cambridgeshire, 

 averaging a less per centage of the phosphate of lime. The cost 

 of raising them is said to be from 8s. to 15s. per ton. The 

 present price at Ipswich is about 28s. per ton, but it has been a» 

 high as 65s. or 70s. In some cases the landlords sell the royalty : — 

 in others they raise them on their respective estates and sell 

 them. In one instance, in which a Suffolk landlord raised them 

 on his own estate for sale, he is said to have realized ^8,000 on 

 one farm, after paying the tenant 15 s. per ton for raising, 

 washing, and carting. 



Besides the diggings in the Eastern Counties, I believe there 

 are some other parts of England in which these phosphatic 

 nodules have been obtained for agricultural purposes ; but of 

 these diggings I have no particular knowledge. None occur in 

 this neighbourhood. Mr. Charles Moore, who is so well 

 acquainted with the Geology of the Country round Bath, informs 

 me that the Upper Green-sand is very continuous at the base of 

 the chalk escarpment throughout the Counties of Wilts, Dorset, 

 Somerset, and Devon, its greatest superficial area being between 

 Great Bedwin and Devizes, and again in the neighbourhood of 

 Warminster. In many other localities to the West it is often 

 not more than from a quarter to a half-a-mile in breadth. For 

 this reason, and owing also to the general physical and well 

 cultivated character of the districts in which the beds occur, 

 they are but seldom opened up, and not very readily detected. 

 When, however, they are opened, tlie phosphatic nodiUes, as at 

 Cambridge, are usually found present though more widely 



