Oct. 11. 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



228 



Gravely the lake shore is scanned and various are the 

 opinions expressed. At last the most likely looking place 

 is selected, and we set off on our search, the Babes in the 

 Wood leading and their consorts leisurely jogging along 

 in. the rear. Stringing out across the lake, the leaders 

 reach the supposed outlet in advance of the others, and 

 after investigating for a moment call out, "No thorough- 

 fare!" We spread out as skirmishers and make the cir- 

 cuit of the lake, closely examining every likely spot, but 

 no outlet is found, and we meet once more at the place of 

 our first search. Here we take a reef in our jibbooni, 

 splice the main brace, and hold a council of war. 



"This blamed lake has an outlet somewhere, and I 

 know it,'* quoth the Governor. 



"So do I," says the Doctor: "but where is it?'' 



"Pretty outers you are!" says the Broncho, as she vin- 

 dictively slaps at a mosquito on the end of her nose; 

 "can't find the outlet to a lake as large as this!" 



"Perhaps it's a subterranean one," suggests Ghaperona, 

 but is laughed to scorn by the rest. 



"I can't' help thinking," puts in Heart's Delight, tim- 

 idly, "that this is the place." 



"So you said before, Mrs. Solomon," answered the 

 Doctor, "but this is one of the times when even your in- 

 tuition is at fault. There's no outlet here, that's cer- 

 tain." 



"What do you suppose those stakes there are for?" asks 

 Lulu. 

 "What stakes?" 



"Why that one you're holding on to, and those others 

 further in." 



"To fasten gill-nets to for catching whitefish," answers 

 the Doctor promptly. 



"Seven years have I lived on these lakes," breaks in 

 Dixie," and never saw I gill-nets set in the rushes before. 

 There is more here than meets the eye. Give a bowse on 

 thy peak halliards, Ghaperona, and let's investigate. 

 Shrewdly do I suspect that the outlet lieth hereaway." 



As The Tub swings slowly around, the Doctor, rising in 

 his place, calls out, "There's no outlet there, 1 tell you. 

 I—" He stops, sinks down, gives a pull on his oars, and 

 shoots past tbe lumbering Tub. "I — I guess I lied," he 

 says, meekly; "here is the outlet, sure enough." 



And now happens a thing so wonderful, so unprece- 

 dented, so past all belief, that the truthful chronicler of 

 this veracious narrative fears to record it, knowing that it 

 will be received with scornful incredulity. Heart's De- 

 light, who had twice asserted that this was where the 

 outlet ought to be, not only does not say "I told you so!" 

 but does not even look it, only curls down in the stern 

 sheets with a gentle "I'm so glad we found it." We are 

 awe-struck by the magnitude of this self-sacrifice, all but 

 the Broncho, who sweetly asks, "Does it hurt much, 

 dear?" 



"Does what hurt?" 



"Not to say 'I told you so.' " 



But here the Governor sweeps down on her with such 

 an avalanche of wrathful objurgation that she is silent 

 for the full space of five minutes; something, so family 

 tradition avers, never known to have happened before. 



Half an hour brings us into Pelican Lake, and by this 

 time the clouds, which have all day been threatening us, 

 mass their forces and let fall the rain. Another council 

 of war is held. 



"Shall we pitch the tent here or shall we try to find a 

 farmhouse and seek shelter there?" 



Here Dixie comes nobly to our rescue. 



"Some four miles down the lake is the old Burbank 

 place, occupied, I am told, by a family named Nye, who 

 were never known to shut their doors on any in distress. 

 A barn is there also, huge, capacious, vast, wherein 

 repose tons upon tons of sweet-smelling hay. Thither, 

 comrades, let us wend and test the kindness of this un- 

 known friend " 



"O rats!" breaks in the irrepressible Broncho. "Is 

 this a time for silly rhyme? Let us arise and climb!" 



A dash of water from the Governor's paddle silenced 

 her, and, as soon as waterproofs could be donned, we 

 started down the lake. Drip, drip, drip, falls the rain; 

 but the faster it fell, the higher rise the spirits of the 

 party till even sedate Lulu catches the infection, and 

 rolls out stave after stave of rollicking college songs, 

 while little Blossom fires off pun after pun, and conun- 

 drum after conundrum, in her quaint childish way, till 

 the Doctor grows weak in the back with laughter, and 

 begs her t^ quit. 



So the four miles to Nye's is quickly passed, and on 

 arrival there, Dixie is sent to the house as an envoy to beg 

 for hospitality. Returning with a beaming face, he an- 

 nounces that all is right, and the barn is at our disposol. 

 Thither we quickly transfer our luggage, and by the 

 help of a pot of hot coffee from the house, make a com- 

 fortable supper. But motherly Mrs. Nye cannot bear to 

 think of our going to sleep in our wet clothes, and in- 

 sisted on our coming into the sitting room, where a 

 roaring fire soon dries us out. The Governor, old cam- 

 paigner that he was, has made himself comfortable on a 

 blanket in the corner, when the Broncho, coming in, 

 looked around for a seat, and Mr. Nye rising says, "Take 

 my chair, niadame, unless you would rather sit on the 

 blanket by your husband." 



"By my what?" gasps the Broncho." 



"By your husband," repeats Mr. Nye. 



A roar from the rest drowns any answer she may make, 

 and as she turns bewildered she catches sight of Dixie's 

 face, wherein guilt shines confessed. In charity we 

 draw the veil over the punishment which that unhappy 

 man receives, but we confess he only meets his deserts, 

 as he had represented to the Nyes that they were a newly 

 married couple on their bridal tour, which, as the Broncho 

 was a school girl of "sweet sixteen," and the Governor a 

 grizzled, cynical old bachelor of thrice her age, as he 

 looked upon her as a child and she upon him as a grand- 

 father, it was, to say the least, putting it rather strong. 

 Bedtime comes at hast, and an adjournment is had to the 

 barn, where beds are made in the capacious haymow, 

 and we all lie down to sleep, after the singing of the 

 "club lullaby": 



"Run away liome, jump into bed, 



Say your little prayers and cover up your head. 



This very same thing I say unto you, 



Tou dream of me and I'll dream of you." 



But Lulu and the Broncho, who are sleeping together, 

 are seized with the demon of mischief, and they out- 

 Macbeth Macbeth in murdering sleep, till at last the 

 Governor rises in his wrath and gropes his way over to 



the part of the haymow where they lie, drives one this 

 way and the other that, as the hawk drives the frightened 

 quail before him, and reduces them to a terrified silence, 

 which lasts till the first rooster crows in the morning. 

 But space and time fail us to tell of the high jinks cut up 

 in the old red bam the next day, while the rain still falls 

 outside, of the frolics in the house watched with a benig- 

 nant smile by Mr. and Mrs, Nye, who, though grand- 

 parents, are gray-haired lovers still; it warmed the 

 frozen cockles of even the Governor's old bachelor 

 heart to see it; of our being joined by Jersey, who 

 had at first expected to be of the party, but had 

 been disappointed, and had finally been able to come; 

 of the row home the next day, and the pull up that 

 deadly river; of how Jersey took charge of the lunch 

 basket and ran off from the rest, so that we had noth- 

 ing to eat till we caught him and Lulu at the darn; 

 of how the wicked Broncho said that "if she had been in 

 Jersey's place we wouldn't have caught her by a dam site;" 

 of tbe long, lovely loiterings in shady nooks where the 

 winds whispered in the trees overhead and the rippling 

 water lapped against the sides of the boat, and the dragon- 

 fly swung back and forth from the arrow-head's spike of 

 snow to the cool white waterldy's chalice with its heart 

 of gold; of the row homeward in the gathering dusk, 

 with the changing lights in the western sky and the 

 shifting colors on the bosom of the lake, the silence 

 broken only by the loon's far cry, the plash of water from 

 the lifted oar, or a tender song crooned low by Heart's 

 Delight; of how the spell of the hour held us all in its 

 mysterious embrace till it seemed as if Eden's gate were 

 only just beyond that further green-topped hill; of how 

 Camp Comfort was reached at last and how glad, yet 

 sorry, we were to be home again; of the ride to town and 

 back through the stillness of the night to see the Doctor 

 start for home; of the ghost the Governor saw, and the 

 way he exorcised it; of the thousand things that happened 

 to make this trip to Pelican an event to be remembered 

 all our lives. 



Note by the Doctor, It isn't true that I couldn't find 

 the outlet. I knew where it was all the time, but the 

 Governor always puts on so much "side" about his wood- 

 craft that I just decided to let him find it himself. 



P. S. by the Broncho. I don't think it fair to make out 

 that I was so much worse than the rest. If the Governor 

 hadn't been trying to boss me all the time I'd behaved as 

 well as any of them. I think whoever wrote that is just 

 horrid, so there, now. 



P. 8. by Chaperoua. It's hardly fair to say that I 

 ruled the party with a rod of iron. That's one of the 

 Governor's exaggerations. He w r as always grumbling 

 because he couldn't sit with his feet upon the dinner 

 table and because I objected to bis putting his old pipe 

 on the bread plate. 



Note by the Governor. It has always been the fate of 

 great men to be misrepresented and maligned, and I shall 

 make no answer to the insinuations above, except to 

 wonder if they do not arise from envy because I caught 

 all the fish on the trip. "How many?" I never answer 

 impertinent questions. H. P. U. 



SPOILS FROM A DREDGE. 



FROM Beaufort, South Carolina, our correspondent 

 "Piseco" sent us last spring some interesting relics 

 gathered by him from one of the dredges engaged in min- 

 ing the phosphate beds there. He thus describes his 

 visit to the works: 



Since the war, Beaufort has, after a brief resurrection 

 into active business life, fallen back again into quietude, 

 as has its seaport town, Port Royal. Possessed of one of 

 the best harbors, if not the best, on the coast, and in the 

 very center of the Sea Island cotton plantations, it is 

 within easy distance of the rice-growing lowlands, and 

 the uplands from whence cotton and lumber are exported 

 in still large quantities. When in i860 a railroad was 

 started to connect Port Royal and Augusta, the prospect 

 that Port Royal with its splendid harbor would develop 

 into a city to rival Charleston or Savannah was good. 

 But the war came, and impoverished all who were in- 

 terested. A second successful attempt has failed also: 

 the certain rivalry aroused the antagonism of the rail- 

 roads already established to other parts. The Port Royal 

 road became the property of those opposed to Port Royal, 

 and it is now so managed that competition with Charles- 

 ton and Savannah is impossible. A few ships came to 

 the commodious wharves for lumber, but the great Port 

 Royal elevator has never hoisted a load of grain, and for 

 years the cotton compress has been idle. 



Within a few years, though, a new industry has sprung 

 up, one with which competition is difficult. This is the 

 mining of the beds of phosphate rock, with which this 

 section of country is underlaid. The stratum or plate is 

 generally from three to six inches in thickness, in some 

 places a foot, and in occasional "pockets" several feet. 

 The extent of this formation is not known. The present 

 estimated limits are from six miles north of Charleston 

 to thirty miles south of Beaufort, extending inland some 

 thirty miles. 



The rock is dug by aid of powerful dredging machines, 

 which give employment to many men. Over 200,000 

 tons of rock were exported to Europe last year, and 

 probably as much or more will go this year. As each ton 

 pays the State a royalty of $1.05, the industry helps it 

 wonderf ally. The fertilizer is prepared by grinding the 

 rock very fine, treating it with sulphuric acid and mixing 

 with it "tankage, that is the dried blood, entrails, etc. 

 from the Chicago slaughter houses. There are six or 

 seven companies that mine the rock for export, but two 

 which prepare the fertilizer. Through the courtesy of 

 Mr. Frederick Brotherhood, superintendent of the South 

 Carolina Dredge Co. , I have witnessed the entire process 

 of dredging and preparing the rock for export. 



Starting early in the morning a rowboat ferry carried 

 us a mile to Ladies' Island, thence a five-mile drive 

 through pine forests brought us to Dale's Landing at the 

 eastern end, from which a three miles' row down the 

 Coosaw River brought us to the mouth of Bull River, 

 where a flock of dredges and scows were at anchor and 

 at work. There were five dredges belonging to three 

 different companies. We went alongside and aboard the 

 Kennedy, the largest and most powerful of them all and 

 built upon an entirely novel system, devised by Mr. 

 Brotherliood, The other dredges' were the ordinary river 



j and harbor dredging machines, fitted with the Johnson 

 grab or Osgood bucket, principally the former. The 

 apparatus consists of a four clawed clam-like "grab," 

 suspended by chains from a derrick, dropped close to the 

 bottom, then closed and with its contents hoisted, swung 

 over a chute, opened and a stream of water played on the 

 contents as they slide into the single lighter alongside. 

 Apparently in this system the weight of the grab deter- 

 mines its i>ower of sinking through the mud, which often 

 overlies the rock several feet deep, and breaking through 

 the stratum or plate of phosphate, it must be well filled 

 by mud before it gets any rock, and coming up closed, 

 very little has chance to escape. The Brotherhood dredge 

 is built and worked upon an entirely different system. It 

 consists of a large seaworthy vessel of about 700 tons bur- 

 then, about 188ft. long, 34ft. wide and 16ft. deep. Along 

 the center is a well like a centerboard well, 80ft. long, 

 16ft. deep and 5ft. wide. Through this, supported upon 

 a frame in such a manner that the series can be adjusted 

 to work in any depth less than 43ft.. are 38 steel buckets, 

 each of 1 ton capacity, which travel on an endless chain, 

 somewhat resembling in action the buckets of grain eleva- 

 tors. Each bucket is armed on its upper front edge with 

 four large steel claws. Directly beneath the point where 

 the mouth of the bucket discharges its load is a pair of 

 heavy toothed steel rollers running across the hull. 

 Beneath these "crushers" are the inner ends of two 

 revolving steel cylinders placed also athwartship, the 

 outer ends reaching to the center of the beam of the 

 lighters', which, one on each side, are hauled beneath 

 them. These washers are placed at a slight incl ne, the 

 outer ends being higher than the inner, extending the 

 entire length. The interior of these cylinders are fitted 

 with a spiral knife edged partition about 6in. high called 

 the "flight." This acts as a carrier. A heavy stream i^ 

 driven through the cylinder from the outside, which 

 thoroughly washes the rock;. the mud, sand, etc., escap- 

 ing through many inch holes in the sides. 



The dredge is moored with a long chain ahead, and a 

 shorter one on each bow and quarter. By means of in- 

 dependent engines, these chains are hauled on or slack- 

 ened, so that the desired position, as determined by 

 range-beacons on shore, can be obtained, and constantly 

 slightly changed. This position brings the claws of the 

 buckets, as they revolve, in contact with the lower side 

 Of the edge of the plate; and as the bucket tears its way 

 upward, driven by the full power of the engine, it fills 

 with the rock, leaving little space on top of the load to 

 hold mud or other foreign matter lying above the phos- 

 phate; and of such as it does take, most is washed away 

 as the bucket rises, at constantly changing angle through 

 the water. The entire process is automatic. 



Standing upon the upper deck of the Kennedy I 

 timed for comparison the working of the two systems. 

 The nearest dredge was about 100yds. away, and from 

 dump to dump of her grab, three timings gave average 

 of 45 seconds, the depth being 21ft. at the Kennedy's 

 moorings. So far as I could judge, the loads were not 

 so large as that of each bucket of the Kennedy, cer- 

 tainly not larger. The 38 buckets of the Kennedy made 

 a complete revolution in 3m. 10s. or 5s. each. Assuming 

 the loads to be equal, say \ ton each, the Kennedy thus 

 brought up 9} tons while the other brought one, and it 

 is more than probable, that of clean rock delivered into 

 the lighters the disproportion was still greater. By 

 another timing the Kennedy put into the lighters 13 

 buckets or 3+ tons of clean rock in 1 minute. A lighter 

 has been loaded in two hours. At times, especially when 

 working in thick rock, boulders from five to fifteen hun- 

 dred pounds weight are brought up. The general char- 

 acter of the rock is much smaller. Many pieces called 

 rolling rock are no larger than one's fist. The lighters 

 carry 120 tons each and frequently from 4 to 6 are loaded 

 in a day and towed to the drying sheds on southwest side 

 of Port Royal Island about thirty miles from the "mine." 

 There the company has commodious wharves, at which 

 the largest steamers lie and load, and the rock, in 

 fragments from the size of one's head down to pieces big 

 as eggs, is here resorted and piled. Sorting brings out 

 the pieces of marl, stone, ballast-rock, quartz and other 

 kinds of rock brought down from the highlands by gla- 

 ciers, and most of the fossil specimens. On the decks of 

 the lighters the pile of rock grows too fast under its 

 steady stream, for close work. 



The phosphate is piled in great sheds over a series of 

 hot air flumes, by which it is thoroughly dried; this is 

 very necessary, as much of the best rock is porous and 

 carries about 10 per cent, of moisture, on which it would 

 not be profitable to pay freight. Porous hardly describes 

 the condition, for the so-called pores, the work of myri- 

 ads of extinct fiddler crabs and sea worms, are from Jin. 

 to lin. in diameter. Some of it is very hard and smooth, 

 some seems decompt sel and can be broken easily, re- 

 vealing in its internal h ructure a conglomerate of shells, 

 bones, teeth and copriolites. This is the character of the 

 best rock, some of it containing over 75 per eent. of phos- 

 phate. 



Not only did the reptilian and Eocene periods con- 

 tribute, but in turn, as the land and water changed 

 places, fish and animals in great variety added their 

 quota to this long hidden wealth. Even the present age 

 contributes, for among our finds yesterday was a battered 

 sardine box and a beef bone. 



I can imagine nothing which would more interest a 

 student in geology than to stand, as I did, on the deck of 

 the lighter and watch the rocky stream depositing its 

 strangely mixed specimens, relics of past ages — Eocene, 

 Pliocene and later— especially if given, as I was, the assist- 

 ance of two men, who with hoes sorted and trimmed 

 boat, and the privilege of retaining our finds. Many 

 valuable specimens, such as elephant and mastodon teeth, 

 are broken in the crushers, but enough remain to pay 

 the watchers and to prove that in olden times, ages be- 

 fore Father Adam made his debut, the neighborhood was 

 very lively. 



The dredges are great levelers; old families have no 

 precedence over new; nor are there class distinctions; the 

 bones and teeth of animals and fish of the present day, 

 sharks, whales, bear, deer and elephants tumble out, 

 mingled with those of long extinct species. 



The watcher must not expect to find many specimens. 

 The collection of these is a work of time. My hour on 

 watch was rewarded by one shark's tooth, one clam, one 

 small spiral shell and one bit of rock, on the surface of 

 which was a most beautiful impression of a very small 

 bivalve shell, and several small spiral shells were imbed* 

 ded. 



