64 JOURNAL OF THE 



NORTH CAROLINA PHOSPHATES. 



CHARLES W. DABNEY, Jr. 



History. — All the writers upon North Carolina geology have re- 

 ferred to the coprolites found in the coal stratas and in the marl 

 beds. Dr. Emmons, in his report published in 1852 (p. 46) mentions 

 the coprolites in the marl on the south of the Cape Fear md one- 

 half mile below Elizabeth City. The specimen he analyzed con- 

 tained 71.59 per cent, of phosphate of lime and 9.68-per cent, of 

 sand. He describes them as rounded or spiral in form, and con- 

 cludes that they must be true coprolites and not pseudo-coprolites 

 or modified marls, as the distinction was in his day. On p. 63 of 

 the same report, he mentions coprolites as occurring in the marl on 

 the banks of the Tar at Greenville. Dr. Emmons refers, on p. 6, to 

 the coprolites of the coal and marl in the following words : 



' ' They do not exist in sufficient abundance in either formation to 

 warrant the expense of extracting them ; still the facts are impor- 

 tant and should never be forgotten." 



The knowledge of the subject remained virtually in this condition 

 from that time (1852) to February, 1883, when the writer had the 

 beds at Castle Hayne, New Hanover county, opened and examined. 



Dr. Kerr refers to the coprolites in the marl beds in two places. 

 On 193 of his Geology of North Carolina, 1875, Vol. I, he says, speak- 

 ing of the specimen of marl from Dr. Roberts, near Mount Olives, 

 Wayne county : 



" It is a good representative of the marl beds of the immediate 

 neighborhood. =;= * * in this region the eocene marl has been 

 commingled with a considerable percentage of the underlying green- 

 sand, and contains numerous sharks' teeih, rounded fragments of 

 bones and coprolites." 



In another place he refers to the small coprolites in the marl in 

 the north bluff of AVaccamaw Lake, Columbus county. He says : 



"The lower portion =^ * contains many black, smooth phos- 

 phatic (probably coprolitic) nodules. Such nodules are of frequent 

 occurrence in the marls of both this and the preceding age — miocene 

 and eocene ; they are of no more value agriculturally than so many 

 flint pebbles, unless ground and treated with acid. ' 



