NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. Ill 



covered in the western parts of the state, must necessarily put it at a price much higher 

 than usual to our farmers. 



The marl here discovered is constituted principally of the solutions of small shells of 

 the muscle and of the snail families ; it is mixed with a proportionate quantity of vegetable 

 substances, such as leaves, roots, &c. which find their way by the winds into the waters 

 of these swampy, wet places : these sink to the bottom of the water, and the snails and 

 muscles deposite their ova upon them, and the returning spring, by its genial warmth 

 and natural process, brings them forth. They grow for the season, and in the autumn 

 again deposite their ova upon the fragments of vegetables, which find their way into these 

 watery habitations. I do not know what the theory of conchologist may be, as to the 

 procreation of these shellfish, nor am I at all versed in this kind of natural history; but 

 taking the facts as I have witnessed them, I feel authorized to give this as a theory result- 

 ing from actual and personal observation. If a better can be offered by others, I am 

 contented ; but, until then, I trust it may be insisted that this is a reasonable explanation 

 of the formation of marl. By this theory it will be perceived that the quantities of marl 

 are continually increasing, a fact of great importance to the inhabitants and owners of the 

 soil. It may be proper to mention, also, that this marl lies in different places in the 

 vicinity of the depositories of these bones, and that as yet, little use has been made of it 

 as a manure ; the high price of labour has hitherto prevented the farmer from having 

 recourse to this source of wealth, while he could enrich his lands so much more readily 

 and cheaply by the use of plaster of Paris, or gypsum, as before explained. Within a 

 circle, the radius of which does not exceed six miles, there are several hundred acres of 

 marl ; a very small proportion of this has been explored or dug to the bottom, where the 

 fossil bones have uniformly been discovered. By the force of their own weight, they 

 have naturally sunk through the soft marl, and found rest many feet below, on solid or 

 harder ground. And yet within the periphery of this circle, nine skeletons of these 

 prodigious animals have been discovered ! It may certainly be safely computed, that 

 not one hundredth part has been explored to the bottom. If, then, so many have been 

 found in so small a proportion of this mammoth ground ; and admitting that there has 

 been great good fortune in falling upon their place of rest, does it not afford a most 

 reasonable hypothesis to say, that there are vast numbers of these natural curiosities 

 deposited here for future discoveries, and that at some period our country (in this district) 

 was fully inhabited by this stupendous animal. 



My reflections on these subjects may appear chimerical and visionary ; but a full 

 knowledge of the facts I relate, careful and candid reflections, under all the circumstances 

 accompanying these phenomena, have led me to a firm and unalterable opinion, that these 



