55 



GEOLOGY OF THE PHOSPHATE BEDS OF SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., made some remarks on the 

 geology of the phosphate beds of South Carolina. Dur- 

 ing a recent visit to Charleston, he had observed the 

 phosphate diggings on the Ashley river, and at a locality 

 on the northeast railroad eight miles from Charleston, but 

 through the courtesy of C. C. Coe, Esq., Superintendent 

 of the Marine and River Phosphate Mining and Manu- 

 facturing Company, and Dr. C. U. Shepard, Jr., he had 

 enjoyed special facilities for studying the Quaternary, or 

 Post Pliocene formation in which the phosphate bed 

 occurs, having made two excursions in company with 

 these gentlemen on the Company's steamer Gazelle. He 

 was also indebted to Prof. C. U. Shepard, St., for 

 much valuable information regarding the chemical as well 

 as geological history of these interesting beds. Analo- 

 gous beds have been discovered in the later tertiary of 

 England near Cambridge, but they are becoming ex- 

 hausted, and manufacturers of superphosphates are now 

 importing large quantities of the crude phosphate rock 

 from Charleston, S. C, as well as the phosphate, or apa- 

 tite, rock from the Laurentian formation of Canada, which 

 Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, the distinguished chemist of the 

 Canadian Geological Survey, believes to have resulted 

 largely from the decomposition of shells, especially those 

 of Lingula. 



The phosphate beds of South Carolina are spread over 

 an area alone; the coast one hundred miles alona - , and 

 about twenty miles in breadth ; the formation is not con- 

 tinuous, being sometimes, as stated (in conversation) by 

 Prof. C. U. Shepard, Jr., replaced by ferruginous sand. 

 It has already been largely used as a fertilizer for worn 

 out lands of the sea island cotton region, and promises 

 from the unlimited supply of the rock, to become a large 



