84 E. V. d'iNVILLIERS — PHOSPHATE DEPOSITS OF NAVASSA. 



phate is hard, striking bars from a foot to fifteen inches long are used to cut 

 it loose from the surrounding limestone wall, while often it is necessary to 

 resort to dynamite to effect the same purpose. When the phosphate is loose 

 and earthy, which is the character of nearly 85 per cent, of the deposit, short 

 iron scrapers or scoops are used, when the material is thrown into a cylin- 

 drical can and drawn to the surface ; here it is filled into a box-tray holding 

 about half a ton and placed conveniently to four or five holes ; thence it is 

 wheeled to the drying pile beside the railroad track. In rare cases the phos- 

 phate holes become large enough to admit several men at one time, when 

 pick and shovel can be brought into service and the yield per man greatly 

 increased ; and this would seem to be more frequently the case on the upper 

 (red phosphate) flat. 



In partially dug fields it has been found possible to average about two- 

 thirds of a ton per day per man, mostly rock phosphate ; but in a new, un- 

 touched area the yield is about li tons per man. From the storage house 

 the material is thrown into hoppers on the wharf 47 feet above sea-level, 

 and from there it is drawn through long sheet-iron chutes into lighters, car- 

 rying about 31 to 4 tons, and thence conveyed to the ship. 



The work so far done on the upper flat is carried on in very much the 

 same manner, the material being conveyed in cars to the edge of the cliff 

 and dumped there through a chute 194 feet long to cars on the lower track, 

 and thence to the storage house. The two varieties of phosphate are stored 

 in different compartments near the wharf and drawn from at will. Each 

 lighter, of which there are at present seven, is manned by five men, and 

 during good weather is capable of making two round trips an hour to a vessel 

 moored from quarter to half a mile from the shore. As the average load 

 carried cannot be over 4 tons, the loading capacity under the most favor- 

 able circumstances of wind aud weather would be about 75 tons a day of 10 

 hours for each lighter in service. The sea current is generally so strong and 

 the swell so great that this output is rarely maintained for two consecutive 

 days, and the material when dry is constantly exposed to loss in its frequent 

 handling, blowing away in clouds of dust. Still, with all the disadvantages 

 under which the company labors, compelled as it is to transport men, food 

 and materials of all kinds from the United States, and greatly handicapped 

 by the lack of sufficient appliances for landing and utilizing the same, a 

 considerable annual output is regularly maintained ; and if the plans now 

 in contemplation, looking toward a more rapid and economical movement 

 of material from the pits to the vessels, are carried into effect, the output can 

 be readily trebled and the cost very materially decreased. 



