140 AMERICAN MANURES. 



continent,, and perhaps in the world, is near 

 Charleston, in South Carolina. The country is 

 indebted to Dr. N. A. Pratt, of that city, for 

 discovering the value, and aiding in the develop- 

 ment of this great source of national wealth. 

 He says, in his report on this subject : " This bed 

 has long been known in the history of the geolo- 

 gy of South Carolina, as the ' Fish bed of the 

 Charleston Basin,' on account of the abundant 

 remains of marine animals found in it Profes- 

 sor Holmes, of Charleston, having not less than 

 60,000 sharks' teeth alone, some of them of 

 enormous size, weighing from two to two and a 

 half pounds each. The bed outcrops on the banks 

 of the Ashley, Cooper, Stono, Edisto, Ashepoo, 

 and Combahee rivers; but is developed most 

 richly and heavily on the former, and has been 

 found inland forty or fifty miles. Near the 

 Ashley river, it paves the public highways for 

 miles ; it seriously impedes and obstructs the 

 cultivation of the land, affording scarcely soil 

 enough to hill up the cotton rows; and the 

 phosphates have for years past been thrown into 

 piles on the lawns and into the causeways over 

 ravines, to get them out of the reach of the 

 plows. It underlies many square miles of sur- 

 face continuously, at a depth ranging from six 

 inches to twelve or more feet, and in such quanti- 

 ties, that from five hundred to a thousand tons 



