1890.] NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 87 



taken out by the several companies operating in South Carolina 

 was over 423,000 tons, and the dividends paid more than 

 $400,000, — that is, nearly one dollar per ton. About one-half 

 of this output was exported to points on the coast, — to Balti- 

 more, Philadelphia, Richmond, and New York, in the order 

 named, — about one-third sent abroad, and the rest manufactured 

 into fertilizers at Charleston, or to a small extent sent into the 

 interior for treatment. 



The material is divided into " land-rock " and " river-rock," — 

 the former light-colored and dry, the latter dark and needing to 

 be kiln-dried before shipment. The first is dug from the ground 

 by pitting and trenching; the second is dredged from the rivers 

 that cut through the strata of the region, — the nodules and fos- 

 sils, in a rolled and waterworn condition, accumulating in the 

 beds of the streams. So great is the demand, that during the 

 year past the price of both kinds has steadily risen, averaging 

 about 16.00 per ton at the beginning of 1889, and approaching 

 $7.00 at its close. 



Outside of this Ashley-Cooper region in South Carolina, the 

 phosphate-beds have not been discovered in paying quantities, 

 save at a few points in North Carolina. In some of the south- 

 eastern counties of that State, the yield may perhaps become 

 valuable in years to come, when the South Carolina beds begin 

 to be exhausted. 



After these preliminary references to other phosphatic de- 

 posits, especially those near Charleston, I proceed to describe 

 the newly-opened Florida beds, which form the proper subject of 

 this paper. These are of two kinds, one closely resembling 

 those of Carolina, both in character and occurrence, and the 

 other entirely different. 



In southern and western Florida we find a rather low region, 

 nowhere exceeding 260 feet of elevation above tide. In crossing 

 the State from Fernandina to Cedar Keys, following the railway 

 survey in a direction N.E. to S.W., we pass over an alternation 

 of valleys and ridges, — the latter sandy, and known as '"'pine 

 lands"; the former swampy, and called "hammock lands." 

 The elevations vary greatly along this line of section, from 

 20 feet to over 200; the average, in Marion County, being about 

 80 feet above mean low water. 



Little attention has heretofore been paid to the geology of 

 Florida, as it was not supposed that valuable deposits of any kind 

 existed there. Up to 1881, the best summary of what was known 

 or published upon the subject was that compiled by Prof. Eugene 

 A. Smith, of Alabama.' After collecting and comparing the 



1 Amer. Journal of Science, Vol. XXI. 



