42 CRKTACEOUS STRATA. CURFEW. [CHAP. XXII. 



from a depth of 300, and often 500 feet, derived from the un 

 derlying gravelly and sandy beds. Farther from the outcrop of 

 these gravelly beds borings have been made 800 feet deep with 

 out success. The temperature of the water was found to increase 

 in proportion to the depth of the wells. A proprietor told me 

 he had found it very difficult to get trees to grow on the prairie 

 land, but he had succeeded, with great care, in rearing a few 

 mulberries. 



The common name for the marlite, of which this treeless soil 

 is composed, is &quot; rotten limestone.&quot; I found many lumps on the 

 surface, much resembling white chalk, and containing shells of 

 the genera, Inoceramus, Baculite, Ammonite, Hippurite, and that 

 well-known fossil of the English chalk, Ostrea vesicularis. 



In the market-place of Montgomery, I saw an auctioneer sell 

 ing slaves, and calling out, as I passed, &quot;Going for 300 dollars.&quot; 

 The next day another auctioneer was selling horses in the same 

 place. Nearly the same set of negroes, men, women, and boys, 

 neatly dressed, were paraded there, day after day. I was glad 

 to find that some settlers from the north, who had resided here 

 many years, were annoyed at the publicity of this exhibition. 

 Such traffic, they say, might as well be carried 011 quietly in a 

 room. Another resident, who had come from Kentucky, was 

 forming a party, who desire to introduce into Alabama a law, 

 like one now in force in Kentucky, that no negroes shall hence 

 forth be imported. By that statute, the increase of slaves has, 

 he says, been checked. A case had lately occurred, of a dealer 

 who tried to evade the law by bringing forty slaves into Ken 

 tucky, and narrowly escaped being fined 600 dollars for each, 

 but had the ingenuity to get off by pretending that he was ignor 

 ant of the prohibition, and was merely passing through with them 

 to Louisiana. &quot; By allowing none to come in, while so many 

 are emigrating to the west and Texas, we may hope,&quot; he said, 

 &quot; very soon to grow white.&quot; 



Every evening, at nine o clock, a great bell, or curfew, tolls in 

 the market-place of Montgomery, after which no colored man is 

 permitted to be abroad without a pass. This custom has, I un 

 derstand, continued ever since some formidable insurrections, 



