190 
GEOLOGY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 
nearly to the inclination of the ground. It is a marl of fair quality, but 
much less valuable than the preceding. No. 25 is from II. D. Sessions’, 
4 miles from Wliiteville, — a solid shell-marl, of light color. Nos. 23 aud 24 
are from the north bluff of Waccamaw lake. The bed is within three feet of 
the surface. The upper portion of the bed represented by 23, is full of de- 
composed shells and is very rich in lime ; the lower portion (24) is quite 
clayey in appearance, and in fact, contains many black, smooth phosphatic 
(probably coprolitic) nodules. Such nodules are of frequent occurrence in 
the marls of both this and the preceding age, — Miocene and Eocene ; they 
are of no more value agriculturally, than so many flint pebbles, unless 
ground and treated with acid. Four miles below Wilmington, on the 
Cape Fear, at Col. Mcllhenny’s, there is a marl bed which is a light 
colored conglomerate of shells, small and large, — a sort of shell lime- 
stone, — containing 73.32 per cent, of carbonate of lime. It lies near 
tide level, and belongs evidently to the richer class of marls. No. 26 
is from the bluff at the mouth of Livingston’s creek, near the landing 
known as “ The Barn,” (a corruption of Le Bon Secours.) The bed lies 
at the top of the bluff 35 to 40 feet above the river. It is a mass of decom- 
posing shells and a sandy earth. At some points the shells are mostly 
oysters, while at others, within a rod or two, scarcely an oyster shell is to 
be found ; and arcinella spinosa abounds, and many other rare, and espe- 
cially small species. The marl is above an average in quality, and has the 
advantage of unusual accessibility. No. 27 is a specimen of shell marl 
sent to the laboratory from the plantation of Mr. Canady, on Town 
Creek in Brunswick county. It is an uncommonly rich marl. 
Besides the above samples, which have been analyzed, the Museum 
contains a number of others whose general character may be ascertained 
approximately by comparison with similar ones among these. For 
example, there is an outcrop of a “red marl” in the ravine nearly a 
mile northeast of Brinkley’s Depot in Brunswick, which resembles that 
near Whiteville, but contains less sand and more lime. There is also a 
blue marl at Applewhite’s, 4 or 5 miles south of Brinkley’s Depot, which 
is of average quality. Three miles south of Brown Marsh Depot, across 
the marsh and near its eastern margin at W. Smith’s, is a large bed of 
marl whose appearance is about the same as that of number 27. It has 
been well opened, but little used. At Jack Allen’s, some 90 miles above 
Wilmington, near the top of a high bluff, about 100 yards from the right 
bank of the river and at an elevation of nearly 100 feet above it, is an 
extensive bed of “ red marl” (brown), quite like that at the Barn, (No. 
26). This marl has been extensively and profitably used. There is no 
marl higher up the river, that I could hear of. But below this point 
