78 



THE MUSEUM. 



the old wood, and seems a signal of 

 safety and a call for gathering of every 

 Chickadee within twenty yards around. 

 Then they began to gather. Every 

 bush swarms with them. I remain 

 still, and the cautious little fellows 

 hop nearer. If I move they are off; 

 if I remain perfectly still they hop 

 around and over me without the slight- 

 est hesitation. My large boots seem 

 the object of the greatest curiosity to 

 them, and more than once several 

 good sized overflow meetings appar- 

 ently took them for a text and preach- 

 ed with great success, each bird in his 

 turn, then altogether upon this topic 

 alone. At last, and somewhat uncon- 

 ciously, one toe moves several inches, 

 when whist! the panic that ensues is 

 fearful and the meeting overflows and 

 all breaks up in an instant. A whish 

 of many wings, a vindicative ee-ee-ee, 

 growing fainter and fainter, then ceas- 

 ing altogether, and I am positively 

 alone. Did I wait ten minutes they 

 would all come back; but my atten- 

 tion is called in another direction. 

 The Hudsonian Titmouse breeds in 

 the interior, all up and down the 

 coast, where it prefers the tangled un- 

 dergrowth so difficult of access. Its 

 note is wheezed and not a clear pro- 

 nounced "dee," repeated several 

 times. — By Winfred A. Stearns in 

 "Bird Notes in Labrador." 



The Florida Phosphate Rock. 



The ordinary phosphate of commerce 

 so indispensible to the farmer, is, in its 

 raw state, a rock of a peculiar forma- 

 tion, found chiefly in Florida, with a 

 few out-croppings in the adjacent states 

 of Georgia and South Carolina. A full 

 discussion of this subject belongs to the 



agricultural journals, but there is one 

 phase which it is the especial province 

 of a journal having the scope of the 

 Museum to consider. 



This is the origin and formation of 

 the rock. 



Phosphate rock ow^es its name to the 

 fact that it contains a very large per- 

 centage of phosphate of lime, a sub- 

 stance which does not enter to any 

 great extent into the composition of 

 other rocks. It is this fact that gives 

 it a commercial value as well as a ge- 

 ological interest. The origin of the 

 rock is not perfectly understood and 

 various theories have been advanced 

 concerning it; some of which are non- 

 sensical, others, at first appearing to 

 be sound but evaporating when a more 

 thorough knowledge is had, and a few 

 which, to a greater or less extent, seem 

 to stand the test, and one which, in the 

 light of present knowledge fully explains 

 the matter and may be assumed to be 

 correct. To understand it thoroughly 

 it is necessary to review briefly, the 

 geological history of Florida. 



Until a comparatively recent date, 

 the peninsula of Florida had no exist- 

 ence. The Gulf Stream entered what 

 is now the Gulf of Mexico, swept its 

 western and northern shores, and, 

 emerging hugged closely to the south- 

 eastern corner of the United States. 

 At length the Mississippi river deposit- 

 ed enough sediment at its mouth to 

 change the direction of its current af- 

 ter reaching the ocean. It now bore to 

 the south-east, directly against the 

 Gulf Stream, and with sufficient force 

 to slightly deflect the latter. One re- 

 sult of this deflection was the forma- 

 tion of a quiet place at the point where 

 the Gulf Stream turned towards the 



