238 
THE MEDITERRANEAN NATURALIST 
be; for thus he spoke of it: “Devotedly as we 
may all desire such a consummation, let us 
neither too hastily adopt, nor too hastily reject, 
these speculations of the German chemist. If 
he is correct in supposing that the phosphate of 
lime contained in fossil bones and coprolites, can 
be economically converted to the same purposes 
as that in recent bones his observations will be 
worthy of the most serious attention of agricul- 
turalists.” 
This has long ago proved to be case. Forty 
years have elapsed since those words were proved, 
and a new era opened in the history of agri- 
cultural science. Experiment after experiment 
has been tried and the value of this artificial 
manure has ever been more and more highly 
appreciated. 
In 1848 a new discovery has made by Prof. 
J. S. Henslow. “It had long been a remark of 
common notoriety, that the soil of the lower part 
of the chalk formation possesses remarkable 
powers of fertility, very little or no manure 
bring required to produce the crops; especially 
in the application of bone manures; and in most 
instances it was positively useless” ft)- This occurs 
upon the “out-crop” of the upper Green Sand 
deposit, which is immediately below the chalk 
at Farnham in Surrey. 
M. T. Mainwaring Paine, in December 
1847, forwarded some “Marl” to an eminent 
chemist, and the result of his examination proved 
that a large percentage of phosphate of lime was 
contained in the soil; nor was this all: intren- 
ching for drains through the Gault, the Lower 
Green-sand was exposed upon which the former 
reposes. This, too proved to contain layers of a 
“Mortar-like” substance, with nodular masses in- 
terspersed, highly charged Avitli earthy phosphates. 
On the publication of Mr. Paine’s interesting 
discovery, Prof, Henslow called attention, in the 
‘Gardener’s Chronicle’ to the Suffolk nodules, 
which were then being raised at the rate of 
sixty tons per week; as Avell as to the fact that 
he had previously suggested to Mr. John Deck, 
a practical chemist of Cambridge, to analyze some 
of the nodules so abundant in the Upper Green- 
sand stratum in the neighbouhood of that toAvn. 
( 1 ) From the" Agricultural Gazette”, 18IfS. p. 121. 
Having folloAA-ed the Professor’s suggestion 
they proved to contain earthy phosphates in pro- 
portions varying from 57 to 61 p. c. The Prof, 
had communicated his views in a letter to the 
“Bury Post” July 3rd, 1845, nearly three years 
previous to Mr. Paine’s re-discovery, concluding 
with the words — “W hether these various nodules, 
thus abounding in phosphate of lime, can be made 
available for agricultural purposes, must depend 
upon the possibility of their being collected at a 
cheaper rate than an equal quantity of bones can 
be. Perhaps this is a point not yet sufficiently 
determined though my own opinion is decidedly 
in favour their being sufficiently abundant to 
collect them.” This was soon to be realized: 
but a few years elapsed, when every tenant who 
OAvned a crop of Upper Green-sand in the neigh- 
bourhood of Cambridge riddled his acres with 
pits. If one Avalked from Bambridge along any 
pit roads into the country, within distances vary- 
ing from the suburbs to tAvo or three miles, the 
eye could not fail to see one, two, three or more 
pits in the adjacent fields. The process of acquiring 
the nodules there is considerably more laborious 
than in Suffolk. Pits are dug, and the ' Marl” or 
clay is thrown into circular trenches, in which a 
rake is drawn round and round by a horse, while 
Avater is continually being pumped into it. By 
this means the clay in washed away, and fossil 
shells and nodules are left behind (I). At Felix- 
stow all that is requisite is to sift the sand from 
the nodules and fossils AA-hich are there thrown 
together into a heap to be conveyed at once to the 
manufactory. i 
As other localities Avhich have subsequently 
been discovered, Potter in Bedfordshire may be 
mentioned; where are quantities of rolled pebbles, 
ammonites etc apparently like those of FelixstOAv 
being the remains of a beach — but belonging to 
the Lower Greensand, if I remember rightly, 
another occurs near Flamborough Head Yorkshire, 
called the Black-rock. This is in the Gault or 
(1) As is the case of the. Red Crag so iviih the 
upper Green-sand the fauna of the period is now 
much known in 'consequence of this discover y of 
the use of the nodules; bones of a pterodactyl, for 
instance which must hare been feet in length 
of wings ha vc been found. 
