.S26 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



iar stratum aJbout one foot thick, embedded in clay, and seemed to 

 be identically the same as those found scattered on the surface 

 of an adjoining held, all of them bearing- impressions of shells, 

 and having similar cavities and holes filled with clay. It was on the 

 23d or 24:th of February, 1844, whilst engaged in the removal of the 

 upper beds covering the marl, that the laborers discovered several 

 stone arrow heads and one stone hatchet. Not long after finding 

 these relics of human workmanship, and while engaged in our usual 

 visits to the Ashley bed (marl), a bone was found projecting from 

 the bluff immediately in contact with the surface of the stony 

 stratum (the phosphate rock); we pulled it out, and, behold, a 

 human bone! Without hesitation, it was condemned as an 'ac- 

 cidental occupant' of quarters to which it had no right, geologically, 

 and so we threw it into the river. A year after, a lower jawbone, 

 with teeth, was taken from the same bed. Subsequent events 

 and discoveries show conclusively that the first described bone 

 was 'in place,' and that ,the beds of the Post-Pliocene, not only on 

 the Ashley, but in France, Switzerland and other European coun- 

 tries, contain bones associated with the remains of extinct animals 

 and relics of human workmanship, proving most conclusively that 

 the Carolina specimens were found in place, and as the European 

 discoveries were made in 1854, and ours in 1844, to South Caro- 

 lina should be awarded the honor of the first discovery. 



''Whilst engaged in manufacturing saltpetre, on the west bank of 

 the river, during the Confederate war, the lime or calcareous earth 

 necessary in such operations was obtained by sinking pits into the 

 Eocene marl bed. Upon the removal of a few feet of the upper 

 layers the workmen discovered in one pit a number of oddly-shaped 

 nodules, resembling somewhat the marl stones (phosphate rock) 

 found in the stratum above the marl, but more cylindrical in form 

 and not perforated, and having their exterior polished, as though 

 each individual specimen had received a coat of varnish. They ap- 

 peared to have been deposited in a large corner or pocket in the 

 marl bed. These specimens were preserved and subsequently sub- 

 mitted to analytical tests, when their true value was revealed, and 

 then began the practical work that demonstrated the, fact that 

 South Carolina possessed a deposit of phosphates the richest, per- 

 haps, in the world." 



So much for the discovery of the South Carolina phosi»hates. The 

 commercial history and benefits flowing therefrom are full of interest 

 to both business man and farmer. 



On the development of the deposits, L. A. Ransom has given the 

 following brief summary in the ''Manufacturers' Record:" 



"The beginning of the War of 1861 interrupted the investigations, 

 then in progress by Mr. Ruffin, Professors Holmes and Pratt, Dr. 



