NJDEP - NJGS - First Annual Report of the Geological Survey of the ...

8Ominatious having been made, besides the .large amount ofqualitative investigation necessary; and the results alreadyobtained possess several wholly unexpercted and impo_'tantpoints of interest, which hold out high.promise of the value ofmore extended and thorough explorations and investigationsof these abundant calciferous deposits. '_y resul_ thus far obtained, are as follows:• . *qMarl, taken from the surface of a deposit found upon theestate of Isaac Bonnellj in' Montague Township, SussexCounty. -I It presents the appearance.of a light gray pulverutent mass,I.A.principally made up of the debr_ of small _fresh-watsr shell_and is mixed with radicles of grass or other roots, and a fewsmall black specks of peaty matter. When heated upon asheet of platinum, it blackens, smokes with:a .peaty odor, and.burns easily to a nearly whi_ ash, which exhibits a curiouskind of repulsion for the platinum while hot, passing into asort of spheroidal stute, and floating in the air, remaining inthis condition for a long time, certainly after the expulsion ofall volatile matter, and at a tomperaturc_too low/o cause evolutionof carbonic acid, thus indicating the development of atrue repu]sive force. After cooling, it is found caked togetherinto a compact mass. These phenomena seem to me to bopyroclectric. Wb.en heated in a close tube, glves off D;considerablequantity of water_ which is strongly ammoniacal,tegether with a tobacco-like odor (indicating the presence ofammonia-crenate of lime).* This order is very strong and persis.tent,tilting the whole laborutory with a smell precisely resemblingthat of an old foul tobacco pipe. At a stronger heata quantity of tarry fnattsr distilled over. W'atsr boiled for along time with the marl acquires a faintly yellowish tint, and* Ber_eliu_as quoted in Loewig's "Chemie der arg_n_,_t_onVerbin_ xdungen," I. 485.NEW JERSEY GEOLOGICAL SURVEY