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Causes of the Presence of Phosphates 



XXVII. — On the Causes of the general Presence of Phosphates in 

 the Strata of the Earth, and in all fertile soils ; with Observa- 

 tions on Pseudo- Coprolites, and on the possibility of converting 

 the Contents of Sewers and Cesspools into Manure. — By W. 

 Buckland, D.D., Dean of Westminster. 



Professor Liebig five or six years ago invited the attention of 

 agriculturists to the possibility of applying to the same use as 

 bone-dust and guano the fossil bones and coprolites which occur 

 together in certain beds of the lias formation. This invitation 

 took place not many months after I had the honour of conducting 

 him to the well-known bone-bed in the lower region of the lias, 

 at the Aust Passage Cliffs, on the left bank of the Severn, near 

 Bristol, where two beds of lias (each from one to two feet thick) 

 are densely loaded with dislocated bones and teeth and scales of 

 extinct reptiles and fishes, interspersed abundantly with coprolites 

 derived from animals of many kinds, which seem to have converted 

 that region into the cloaca maxima of ancient Gloucestershire, at 

 the time of the commencement of the formation of the lias. 

 Coprolites are also dispersed plentifully through the strata of 

 many other parts of the lias, e. g. on the coast at Lyme Regis ; 

 but neither there nor in the bone-bed at Aust Passage is a suffi- 

 cient quantity accessible at a cost that would repay the digging 

 for the express purpose of collecting these mineralized fragments 

 of skeletons and fsecal balls of dip-ested bones for use as a sub- 

 stitute for recent bone-dust or guano. 



Geologists have long been acquainted with the abundant occur- 

 rence of rolled fragments of the bones and teeth of large qua- 

 drupeds, and of whales and sharks, and also of the bones and teeth 

 of many marine fishes, in the tertiary beds of gravel and shells, 

 called crag, in the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk ; and in 1846 

 Professor Henslow laid a paper before the British Association at 

 Cambridge, on the abundant occurrence of the ear bones of whales 

 in the crag beds of Felixstow, on the coast of Suffolk, together with 

 large quantities of rolled pebbles of phosphates of lime (which he 

 then supposed to be coprolites) among the miscellaneous gravel 

 and shells that compose the bulk of the crag formation. 



About this time also, Professor Solly's analysis of these sup- 

 posed coprolites proved their chemical composition to be nearly 

 identical with that of real coprolite from the lias ; and the atten- 

 tion of agriculturists was invited to their use as a manure of nearly 

 equal value with guano or bone-dust. Mr. Solly's advice to 

 agriculturists to make use of this newly discovered storehouse of 

 fertility has been duly responded to ; and many thousand tons of 

 these pebbles and bones have been collected from the shore near 

 Felixstow ; whilst many occupiers of inland farms near Felixstow 



