About half the distance was through woods and muck swamp and the rest over salt marsh. The salt marsh consists of a layer of tough turf about 30 inches thick. This turf floats on a mass of soft, oozy muck which is, along the Raritan, from 10 to 60 or more feet thick. A man may safely walk on this turf where the turf is entire. Where there are holes or rotten places one is liable to go down out of sight.
Cattle eat a small amount of salt hay with relish.
Mr. Bloomfield filled in the route of his railroad with sand and gravel and strippings from the clay pits. He used either horses to draw the clay cars or a light weight locomotive. For years and years Mr. Bloomfield was obliged to add more fill to the route of his car tracks for the fill constantly settled into the mud. During the World War the United States Government decided to establish an Arsenal on the Raritan River. They took possession of a considerable tract of land below Bonhamtown, including much of Mr. Bloomfield's clay land and his dock and clay railroad.