On the Shell Marl and Coal regions of Virginia, §c. 58 
on the geology and m of that State. Its 
said of clay and sand is rich in carbonate of lime, derived 
—— of shells, and in animal remains of 
and land, relics of the antediluvian world, embracing 
in various stages ad all numerous marine shells of extinct 
and aac tes, belemnites and bronchias, are 
remarked. aiadioe ene of the genera, nautilus, m 
turbo and dentalium, occur—and bivalves half a foot in di- 
ameter. 
Teeth of the mammoth and shark, of unusual size, are 
oa in marl beds, adjacent to York River. On the eastern 
re of Maryland, large scallop shells, teeth conjectured to 
belong to the elephant, spines of large fish with vertebree half 
a foot in diameter, entire skeletons of fish, and human bones, 
are reported as occurring in marl deposits. 
Bones ascertained to belong to the human frame, have been 
preserved in diluvial — beds, in Saxony, blended 
with bones from tropical region 
Extensive beds of shells, mapeeuna from description to be 
mostly valves of clams, connected by calcareous cement, exist 
in Maryland, at Marlborough, and other places west of the 
Chesapeake. Thick strata of this shell rock are 
in sinking wells, and are disclosed on the banks of creeks. 
When indurated by exposure, this stone is he 
Large shells, of unascertained species, occur in valuable beds 
of marl, on Potomac Cree 
Although the great utility of marl, as a manure, has been 
long demonstrated in New-Jersey, by its practical results, yet 
the planters of the south, are not sensible of its value, or have 
too little enterprise to apply it extensively, but wherever the 
experiment has been made in Maryland and Virginia, its ef- 
fects have been Sova seciedy beneficial. It has been ad- 
vantageously cultivation of cotton, tobacco, 
— and indian corn. An intelligent planter, resident in 
the vicinity of York River, informed me that two years since 
he put a dressing of thirty loads of shell marl to the acre, on 
forty acres of sandy, exhausted ground, greatly improving 
the soil; a crop of wheat on this field the present year is among 
the most promising of any in that section of the state. A plant- 
er from the Rappahannoc mentioned a very: valuable result 
in his vicinity in raising various crape: from a light dress- 
ing of marl. A large me per acre of good tobacco has 
been raised on the Potomac by marling worn out land. : 
