agricultural requirements, and this demand is yearly increasing at a very 

 rapid rate. The occurence of natural phosphates presents the most 

 varied and interesting modes of formation, as may be surmised by find- 

 ing their deposits, not only in nearly every geological system, but in 

 many different series of the same system. 



Now in beds which may -be, have a fresh water or marine origin, 

 now appearing as hardened conglomerate or rocks, and sometimes as 

 ■sand and loose gravel : then again in vein formation or pockets, some- 

 'times amorphous, at other time crystallized. 



In the matter of texture, colour and other physical characters, we 

 'find the same endless variation. 



The origin of the demand for these phoshatized products is com- 



'paratively of recent date. It was only in the commencement of the 



^present century that crushed bones were employed as a fertilizer in 



agriculture, and strange to say, only then on occount of the gelatine or 



■organic matter they might contain. 



The following curious statement which appeared in a scientific 

 journal in the year 1830, a propos of the employment of crushed bones 

 in England, exposed the ignorance on the subject at that day and reads 

 as follows: — "As to earthy matter or phosphate of lime contained in 

 the bones, we may disregard it. It is insoluble and indestructible, and 

 cannot serve as a manure, even in damp soil, and in immediate contact 

 with the rootlets of the plant. " 



The suggestion of Liebig, to treat the bones with sulj-jhuric acid, 

 opened a new era, to the utilisation of phosphatic materials in agricul- 

 ture and the manufacture of artificial manure was soon established. 



The illustrious Elie de Beaumont thus expressed himself with reg- 

 ard to the commencement of the mining of mineral phosphates. 

 *" Colbert has said that France would be lost for want of forests, and 

 everyone perceives that without coal his prediction would soon be 

 accomplished. In his day, one would have failed to comprehend how 

 a great country might disappear." 



NATURAL PHOSPHATIC DEPOSITS. 



These valuable provisions of nature are the result of various causes 

 and agencies familiar to the geological observer and their contained 



*Jean Baptiste Colbert, born 1619, Minister of Finance to Louis XIV. 



