420 On the Chemical Composition of Phosphatic Minerals 
as made with a view to bring its value and utility before the 
public, it appears was made on the 4th December, 1867, by 
Messrs. W. D. Dukes and Co., to Mr. Geo. E. White, New 
York ; on the 15th December, to Dr. Clements, of Baltimore ; 
and on the 19th December the Charleston Mining and Manu- 
facturing Company shipped, per steamer ' Falcon,' to Geo. P. 
Lewis, of Philadelphia, sixteen tierces. 
Professor Tuomey, in his ' Geology of South Carolina,' p. 153, 
says : — 
" The calcareous strata of the Charleston Basin occupy an 
irregular area of 55 to GO miles, extending from the Santee on 
the east, to the Ashepoo River on the west, and lying between 
the Atlantic Ocean on the south and east, and the limits of the 
Buhrstone formation on the north. 
" Of these the Santee beds are geologically the lowest and 
oldest, and consist of thick beds of white limestone, marl, and 
green sand. They dip or slope gently towards the south, and 
underlie the newer Eocene marls of the Cooper and Ashley 
rivers, of which those of the Ashley are most recent, and con- 
stitute the top of the Eocene series. 
" The combined thickness of these with those of the Santee 
beds is reckoned at 600 or 700 feet. The beds underlie the 
city of Charleston, as proved by borings taken in 1824 from the 
Artesian well ; and extend under the harbour, as shown by speci- 
mens of marl brought up by the anchors of vessels ; and also by 
borings from the well at Fort Sumter, which, at 300 feet, brought 
up the green sand of the Santee beds." 
On page 235 he states : — 
" The other marls and marlstones of the State present every 
variety, from a pulverulent mass to the solid rock. . . . They 
are rich in calcareous matter beyond example ; and in addition 
to this, they contain phosphate of lime in very valuable pro- 
portion. This exceedingly interesting ingredient is found most 
abundantly on the marls of the fish bed of the Ashley, where 
it is derived from the bones of marine and land animals 
buried in that deposit. The remains of crustaceous animals 
found in nearly all the beds indicate another source of this 
substance." 
In or about the year 1844, Professor Holmes published the 
results of his experiments on "Marling" in the columns of the 
' South Carolina Agriculturist ;' and in describing the super- 
position of the beds in his marl-pit, mentions a remarkable bed 
of nodules as " conglomerates," 12 inches thick, bedded in the 
clay and sand, which overlaid the heavy beds of marl below. 
Wliilst searching for phosphatic materials. Dr. Pratt found in 
1867 that a bed or stratum, outcropping within ten miles ol 
