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large share of the gi-een granules. Beneath the whole there is a 

 gray-yellowish clay, in which the grains abound; they are reoiark- 

 ably large, and are associated with numerous casts of shells. A 

 similar layer is seen in Jacob Curlis's pits, where it contains beau- 

 tiful casts of the nautilus and several univalve shells, and also 

 shark's teeth. The marl stratum, composed of nearly the same 

 layer, is exposed again between Jacob Curlis's and the Whale 

 Pond Mill, at John Curlis's. At all these points, the bed contains 

 a considerable share of astringent matter, sulphate of iron, which, 

 wherever it shows itself in excess, may be counteracted by fol- 

 lowing the suggestions proposed in this report. 



Elis/ia JVesfs,. near Long Branch. — A very interesting and 

 rather extensive exposure of the marl stratum may be seen on 

 the farm of Elisha West, about one mile south of the boarding- 

 houses at Long Branch, and in a direct line, not more than a 

 fourth of a mile from the sea. The pit is dry, a rather unusual 

 circumstance, and occurs near the head of a gently sloping 

 hollow or small valley, which circumstance in connexion with 

 the obvious outline of the ground between it and the shore, leads 

 the observer to believe that the top of the stratum is not as low, 

 by several feet, as the sea-beach. It follows, if this be correct, 

 either that the marl bed runs horizontally and meets the cliffs at 

 the sea-side, above their base, where the inclined pile af fallen 

 matter may conceal it, or else that it descends with a gentle 

 eastward dip until it merges beneath the ocean at a lower level 

 than the tide. This question is of some consequence to the neigh- 

 bourhood, for a good marl pit opened directly on the shore would 

 benefit no inconsiderable line of coast. 



The section in the pit is about twenty feet deep, being almost 

 entirely in the marl stratum. The top layer, one foot thick, con- 

 sists of an indurated marl, somewhat similar to that at the top of 

 the marl at Ely's, on Shark river. It contains but a trivial pro- 

 portion of the granules, which are imbedded in a paste of a 

 grayish-white calcareous clay, identical in aspect and compo- 

 sition with certain waterworn rocky masses which strew the 

 beach in front of the boarding-houses. This apparent identity in 

 all respects except hardness, furnishes a farther proof that the 

 marl stratum is prolonged to the sea-side, and rests either at the 

 level of the beach or at so small a depth beneath the surface, as 

 to be within the action of the surf, which may, I conceive, disturb 



