its infancy. The only successful work along these lines has been carried out on bones found in protected places (22-25)and Analyses on total sediments, on shells of various types (26,27). or fractions thereof, have not, so far, met with much success (28).Bones and shells are relatively simple systems from an organic viewpoint, whereas total sediments are much more complex in organic debris as well as in mi ralogy. Processing a total sediment is also more complicate and the amino nitrogen fraction turns out to be more complex than calcareous skeletons or bones. It is hoped that the processing concept which we have developed in this soil study may be of value to soil and geochemists in their investigations.

T

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