26 Phosphate Rocks of South Carolina, 
the hills, forming the soils of our cultivated fields, the 
mud banks of our bays and harbors, and periodically 
spreading over our rice fields its rich and “fertilizing 
sediment, brought down suspended in the waters 
of the Rivers. It is the HisroricAL AGs#, the age 
of mind, when man writes in “ Time’s Record” the 
passing events of the day. It is, emphatically, the 
telegraphic age, when he writes with a pen dipped in 
the electric fluid, and transmits his messages by the 
“sub-marine railway,” a simple wire resting on the 
coral beds of the Ocean. It is, also, the age of PHos- 
PHATES AND FERTILIZERS, of more value to mankind 
than the mines of Golgonda or the golden sands of 
California. 
Geologically, the rocks of this period are called 
Recent, and are placed in the table under the 
Quarternary, the fourth and last Division, the top- 
most layers in the Diagram, Plate I. To it belong 
the soils we cultivate, the sands and clays of our fields 
and forests, the garden loam in which do grow flow- 
ers, and roses, and fruits, thus causing all animated 
nature to realize the munificent hand of the Great 
Creator, Our Father, who liberally dispenses his 
“good things” to the Butterfly and the worm as 
freely as to the sons of men, both to the great and 
the small, for they are all the work of His hands! 
This fourth and last formation, is the crowning 
crust of the earth; in the geological series the “ top- 
most stone ;” formed especially for man’s immediate 
use; always receiving the rains and dews of Heaven, 
the more abundantly to minister to man’s wants and 
