5

of E ART PI, &c*

Of Mark , (os a cold, sad nature, a substance between Clay andChalk ) seldom have we such quantities in Layers, as we have of theforementioned Earths ; but we commonly meet with it in places afie-ld to it, and stis taken out of Pits, at several Depths, and of diversColours, red, white, gray, blue, all of them unctuous, of a slipperynature, and differing in Goodness; for being pure and immixt, it 1 bonersclents after a Shower, and when dry ed again, slackens, and crumblesinto Dust, without induration, and growing hard again .• They are pro-vable for barren Grounds, as abounding with Nitre ; and sometimesthere has been found in Marie Delfs , a Vitriolic Wood, which willkindle like Coal.

Lastly, Chalk, which is likewise of several Kinds and Colours, hard,softer, fine, courser, abstergent, slippery and marly, and apt to dissolvewith the Weather into no unprofitable Manure: Some of them havea sandilh, others a blacker and light surface ; and there is a fort whichproduces sweet Grafs, and aromatic Plants, and some so rank, especiallyin the Valleys of very high Hills, as to feed not only Sheep, but otherCattle, to great advantage, as we may fee in divers places among theDowns of Sufferf. But it has a peculiar virtue above all this, to im-prove other Lands, as we shall come to shew.

I forbear to speak particularly of other Argillaceous Fullers-Earth,Tobacco-Clay dry and astringent, the white Cimolia , and the severalfictile Clays ; because they are not so universal, and serviceable to thePlough and Spade; much less of Terra Lemnia , Chia, Melitenjis,He t ruse a, and the rest of the Sigillata ; nor of the Bolus's , Rubrics,and Okers y Figuline t Stij>tic, Smegmatic , SCc. as they are diverflyqualified for several uses, Medical, and Mechanical ; but content myself with those I have already enumerated.

Now besides the Description and Characters we have given of theseseveral Moulds and Earths, as they reside in their several Beds andCouches, there are divers other Indications, by which we may discovertheir Qualities and Terse El ions \ as amongst other, a most infallible oneis, its disposition to melt, and crumble into fine morsels, not turn toMud and Mortar, upon the descent of gentle Showers, how hard soeverit seem before, and if in stirring it rise rather in Granules , than massyClods.

If excavating a Pit, the Mould, you exhaust, more than fill it again,Virgil tells us stis good Augury; upon which Laurembergius affirms,that at Witt emberg in Germany , where the Mould lies lo close, as itdoes not replenish the Foss out of which it has been dug, the Cornwhich is sown in that Country, soon degenerates into Rye ; and what isstill more remarkable, that the Rye sown in Thuringia (where theEarth is less compacted) reverts, after three Crops, to be Wheatagain.

My Lord Bacon directs to the observation of the Rainbow , whereits extremity seems to rest, as pointing to a more rofeid and fertileMould; but this, I conceive, may be very fallacious, it haying twoHorns, or Bases, which are ever opposite.

But the Situation and Declivity of the Place is commonly a morecertain mark; as what lies under a Southern, or South-East risingground; but this is also eligible according to the purposes you wouldemploy i t for; some Tlants affecting hotter, other colder exposures;some delight to dwell on the Hills, others in the Vallies, and closer

4 S Seats;