CLAYS OF OCEAN COUNTY. 481 



OCEAN COUNTY. 



Prospecting- for clay in this county is attended with more or 

 less difficulty, on account of the thick pine growth covering the 

 land in many places, the frequent sandy overburden, and the 

 flatness of the region. If the clay is suspected, many borings 

 have to be made to> determine its extent (PI. LIV, Fig. 1). The 

 deposits visited and in some cases sampled belong entirely to' the 

 Cohansey formation. 



Whitings. — The Eastern Hydraulic Press Brick Company has 

 operated a clay pit for several years at a point about 2^ miles 

 southeast of Whitings, and from the standpoint of development it 

 is at the present time one of the most important deposits in the 

 county. The stripping varies, from 6 to 18 feet, and the clay is 

 probably 15 feet deep. Since the opening of the deposit a tract 

 of nearly 1,000 feet by 300 feet has been dug over. In working 

 it a trench 40 to 50 feet wide is run the length of the bank, the 

 overburden being taken off slightly in advance of the clay. The 

 latter is then dug and loaded into large buckets, which are hoisted 

 to the level of the track on the edge of the pit and dumped into 

 the cars to> be taken to the factory. A portion of the area worked 

 over is shown in Plate LIU, Fig. 1, and a near view of the 

 method employed for digging the clay is illustrated in Plate LIU, 

 Fig. 2. The large buckets seen in the view hold about 1,500 

 pounds of clay. It can be seen from this last view that there is a 

 gully just beyond the excavation in which the clay may outcrop, 

 otherwise the whole deposit is covered by sand. A clay bed of 

 this type serves well to> illustrate the need of thorough and suffi- 

 ciently deep prospecting. 



As this material is a fairly good type of Cohansey clay, a sam- 

 ple was tested. Its physical characters were as follows : 



Physical characters of clay from Whitings {Loc. 212). 



Air shrinkage 5.5 per cent. 



Tensile strength from 120-130 pounds per square inch. 

 At cone 1, fire shrinkage 5.5 per cent., color light buff. 

 At cone 5, fire shrinkage 10.8 per cent., color buff, steel-hard. 

 At cone 8, fire shrinkage 10.8 per cent., color buff, 

 At cone 15 fire shrinkage 9.3 per cent. 

 31 Civ G 



