In criminal examinations it may be necessary to establish that questioned and known soils come from the same localized area. It was felt that trace elemental distribution of this material, as determined by neutron activation analysis might provide the basis of these trace elemental differences. An evaluation of these data was also made to determine the individuality of soils having a particular elemental composition. This work was supplemented by atomic absorption analysis which was used to measure the major constituents and those trace elements not particularly amenable to nondestructive neutron activation analysis.