MARL NOT KNOWN TO BE CALCAREOUS. 377 



"Marls are~of different qualities in different counties of England. There 

 are reckoned four kinds of marl in Sussex, a- gray, a blue, a yellow, and a 

 red ; of these the blue is accounted the best, the yellow the next, and the 

 gray the next to that ; and as for the red, that is the least valuable. 



" In Cheshire they reckon six sorts of marl : 



"1. The cowshut marl, which is of a brownish colour, with blue veins in 

 it, and little lumps of chalk or limestone ; it is commonly found under clay, 

 or low black land, seven or eight feet deep, and is very hard to dig. 



"2. Stone, slate, or flag marl, which is a kind of soft stone, or rather 

 slate, of a blue or bluish colour, that will easily dissolve with frost or rain. 

 This is found near rivers, and the sides of hills, and is a very lasting sort 

 of marl. 



"3. Peat marl, or delving marl, which is close, strong,* and very fat, 

 of a brown colour, and is found on the sides of hills, and in wet or 

 boggy grounds, which have a light sand in them about two feet or a yard 

 deep. 



" 4. Clay marl ; this resembles clay, and is pretty near akin to it, but is 

 fatter, and sometimes mixed with chalk stones. 



" 5. Steel marl, which lies commonly in the bottom of pits that are dug, 

 and is of itself apt to break into cubical bits ; this is sometimes under 

 eandy land. 



"6. Paper marl, which resembles leaves or pieces of brown paper, but 

 something of a lighter colour; this lies near coals. 



" The properties of any sorts of marls, by which the goodness of them 

 may be best known, are better judged of by their purity and uncompound- 

 edness, than their colour : as if it will break in pieces like dice, or into thin 

 flakes, or is smooth like lead ore, and is without a mixture of gravel or sand ; 

 if it will slake like slate-stones and shatter after wet, or will tumble into 

 dust, when it has been exposed to the sun ; or will not hang and stick to- 

 gether when it -is thoroughly dry, like tough clay ; but is fat and tender, 

 and will open the land it is laid on, and not bind; it may be taken for 

 granted that it will be beneficial to it." 



In all these descriptions, so minutely stated, both general and 

 particular, and of ten different varieties of marl, there is no indica- 

 tion that calcareous earth is an essential constituent part; nor in- 

 deed does it appear that it was deemed a constituent part, proper, 

 even in the two varieties, in which bits of chalk are found. For 

 these are accidental admixtures, as would be any silicious sand, or 

 gravel, or land, or even river shells ; none of which, if found there- 

 in, would properly belong to true marl. 



The well-deserved reputation of Miller is a sufficient guaranty 

 that there was no more full or correct knowledge of marl, in his 

 time, than he possessed, and taught in the foregoing extracts. 



9. Johnson's Dictionary (octavo edition) defines marl in pre- 

 cisely the words of the first sentence of Miller, as quoted above. 



10. Walker's Dictionary (octavo edition) gives only the fol- 

 lowing definition a Marl a kind of clay much used for ma- 

 nure." 



* "Strong" applied to soil in England means stiff or clayey and in this 

 sense I presume the word is used above. E. II. 

 32* 



