Reclaiming part of Forest of Delamere. 
373 
dients are shown by the plan and section. Stronger rails were 
procured for the locomotive line than had hitherto been used 
for the moveable roads, and they were fastened on longitudinal 
sleepers, consisting of deal planks ; the line was formed by cut- 
tings and embankments, so that the engine, with its train of 
waggons, started at the pit's mouth and ran as far as was con- 
venient to the several points from which moveable rails diverged, 
over which the waggons were drawn by horses to distribute the 
loads. The longest distance which the locomotive ran was a 
mile and half, and the horses took on the waggons a distance 
of about half a mile further. In some cases the moveable rails 
had to traverse the sides of steep slopes, or to go up and down 
sharp inclines for short distances. 
When one part was marled, the main road was taken up and 
laid in another direction. The system, as before practised at 
Honslough, was adopted of taking out the marl upon the moveable 
roads and tipping it in heaps, which were afterwards spread. 
The engine drew twelve full waggons, weighing, including 
herself, about 33 tons, up the incline of 1 in 100, at the rate of 
four to five miles an hour, and took the empty ones back up 
1 in 77 at six to eight miles an hour. (See sections E. F. H. and 
F.G.) 
On reference to the plan it will be seen that the marl pit lies 
at some distance from the principal part of the land to be marled 
at E. in a valley at the east foot of Eddisbury Hill, and forming 
part of Old Pale Farm. The marl was of quite a different charac- 
ter from that before described, and had the appearance of dull 
red clay. It differs from the rock beds of the new red sandstone 
formation, which afford the marl in general use in the country, 
and is probably derived from the denudated marl beds and 
conveyed by water to an ancient valley. In composition it does 
not materially differ from the rock beds, as the following table 
will show : — 
Moisture 1*55 
Organic matter and water in combination -85 
Lime 5 - 7(i 
Magnesia 2 "11 
Potash and soda calculated as chlorides 2 - 01 
Carbonic acid and loss I'll 
Insoluble silicious matter G3 - 48 
Oxides of iron and alumina and traces of phosphoric acid .. 16 - 53 
When taken out upon the land in lumps and dried by exposure, 
it laminates like thin slate, and is easily mixed with the soil 
by ploughing and harrowing. The pit was from 15 to 20 feet 
deep below the ordinary surface of the land : this depth includes 
the bearing or fee as well as the bed of the marl, the latter being 
from 12 to 15 feet in thickness in the centre or deepest part, 
