PHOSPHATE LANDS. 127 



but in the main have the characteristics of original bedded deposits, 

 probably in part of purely chemical and in part of organic origin. 

 They have therefore been inferred to have practically the same rich- 

 ness undergi'ound that they show at the outcrop. However, in view 

 of the unproved value of the deeper portions of the phosphate beds it 

 is advisable that they be sampled by deep prospecting before any 

 plan for the final disposal of the lands is adopted. If such pros- 

 pecting shows that the greater part of the rock included in the esti- 

 mates is relatively of low grade it will be self-evident that the ex- 

 haustion of the phosphate resources is not so distant as it now 

 appears and that the value of the outcropping portions that are now 

 known to include high-grade phosphate rock is much greater than is 

 at present suspected. 



SUMMARY or PHOSPHATE SITUATION. 



The question of the future adequacy of our phosphate resources 

 for our own needs had been mentioned by several authorities prior 

 to the conference of the governors in 1908, in which the discussion 

 of this and kindred topics drew public attention to the situation. 

 At this conference the possibility that foreign investors might acquire 

 the better-known and supposedly richer portions of our deposits 

 was suggested, the wisdom of permitting the exportation of so essen- 

 tial a quasi-public commodity was questioned, and the desirability 

 of an early examination of the available supplies was emphasized. 

 In part as a result of these indications of public interest, in part 

 as a continuation of the policy already adopted in reference to 

 coal lands, and in part because of the legal dilemma existing in the 

 western fields through the inadequacy of the laws governing the 

 disposal of mineral land the Secretary of the Interior, on December 

 10, 1908, withdrew from entry about 7,000 square miles of public land 

 in Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming, pending an examination of their 

 phosphate resources. In the following summer the United States 

 Geological Survey began the examination of these lands and the 

 investigation has been continued up to the present time, some 4,000 

 square miles having been examined in a preliminary way and about 

 2,500 square miles surveyed in detail. 



The first withdrawal was based partly on information collected by 

 the Hayden Survey in 1877 and partly on later detailed and recon- 

 naissance examinations made by the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey. Field work done subsequent to this withdrawal revealed the 

 regularity and the character of the phosphate deposits, so that it has 

 been possible not only to revise the estimates of the reserves in the 

 area actually examined since the first withdrawal but also to make 

 a closer interpretation of the information gathered by the earlier 



