used for AgHcultural Purposes. 405 
Composition of Fossil Phosphatic Wood found in Bedfordshire 
Coprolite Beds. 
Moisture 1*12 
Organic matter and water of combination .. .. 3 "49 
Lime 47 '75 
•Piiosphoric acid 32*96 
Oxide of iron and alumina, carbonic acid, &c. .. 10"49 
Insoluble siliceous matter 4 • 19 
100-00 
* Equal to tribasic phosphate of lime .. .. 71 '95 
The structure of the wood was most distinctly preserved. It 
will be seen that the fossilised wood had lost almost all its 
organic matter, and that it had been replaced mainly by phos- 
phate of lime ; the specimen analysed by me contained as much 
as 72 per cent, of phosphate of lime, and, comparatively speak- 
ing, little siliceous matter, and oxide of iron and alumina. 
4. Welsh or Silurian Phosphate. 
Phosphatic minerals were discovered some years ago in several 
places in North Wales. The phosphatic deposits occur not far 
from the lead-bearing clay-slate districts of Llangynag. The 
rocks are Silurian, of the Llandeilo series, and the phosphatic 
minerals occur in clay-slate. The slate contains merely traces 
of phosphoric acid, has a dark colour in some places, and, like 
most clay-slates, contains iron pyrites. 
Mr. Hope Jones, of Hooton, Cheshire, has, I believe, the merit 
of having first directed attention to an extensive deposit of 
phosphatic minerals, which he discovered, whilst searching for 
other minerals, in the neighbourhood of a place called Cwmgynen, 
about twenty miles west of Oswestry. The strata (clay-slate) in 
this locality contain several beds of contemporaneous felspathic 
ash and scoriae ; and the usual fossils of the Llandeilo series 
are found, but not in great numbers. Mr. Hope Jones has 
traced the phosphatic beds a long distance, and has found them 
continuous for about two miles. 
I have myself visited the phosphate mine at Cwmgynen, and 
also some other mines in the same locality where the Welsh 
phosphates are found. 
The strata of the district are vertical, and the mine at Cwmgynen 
has a good natural drainage to a depth of about 500 feet. It 
can be economically worked in galleries for phosphatic lime- 
stone and black phosphatic shale. A true vein or fissure, con- 
taining mica and metallic deposits, separates the phosphatic 
