CLAYS OF MORRIS COUNTY. 479 



MORRIS COUNTY. 



Extensive areas in the southeastern part of Morris county are 

 underlain by clay, some of which attains a great thickness, but 

 for the most part they are low and swampy, often several miles 

 from railroads, and somewhat buried by sand or swamp muck. 

 Hence they are mostly undeveloped. In the northern and western 

 parts of the county no- extensive deposits are known, although 

 some local beds of surface or flood-plain clays probably occur. 



Morristown. — A brick works is in operation i*4 miles from 

 Morristown, on the Bernardsville road (Loc. 293, PI. LI, Figs. 

 1 and 2), and is using a deposit of glacial clay lying in the valley 

 at that point. The clay underlies an area of 8 to 10 acres. It is a 

 finely laminated sandy material with a layer of many concretions, 

 about 6 feet below the top of the bank. These cause the brick to 

 split, if allowed to remain in the clay. The clay in the bottom of 

 the bank is much more plastic than in the upper part. The ma- 

 terial is used for making a soft-mud brick of good quality, tests 

 of which are given in the table, p. 256. 



Whippany. — North of Morristown, at Whippany (Loc. 294), 

 is another brick works, which has been running intermittently 

 and utilizes a deposit of very plastic glacial-lake clay. The ma- 

 terial underlies an area of about 35 acres, and has been dug to a 

 depth of 12 feet. It is finely laminated, and gets very tough 

 towards the bottom, so> that a disintegrator is required to break 

 it up. The material burns to an excellent red color of great 

 density, but has a high shrinkage, and would probably melt at a 

 rather low cone. The works are shown on Plate LH, p. 480. 



Schooleys Mountain. — At Schooleys Mountain (Loc. 284), in 

 the same county, a deposit of surface clay, derived by wash from 

 disintegrated gneiss, occurs on the property of J. A. Parker. 

 This material is fairly plastic, and works up with 35.4 per cent, 

 water to< a mass having an air shrinkage of 8 per cent. It burns 

 steel-hard at cone 05 with a fire shrinkage of 4 per cent., absorp- 

 tion 10.9 per cent, and a light-red color. The deposit is not at 

 present worked. 



