1 8 FLORIDA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT. 
the United States. A few years ago, during 1915, the plant at 
Quincy was destroyed by fire, but it has since been rebuilt on an 
enlarged scale. The Fullers Earth Company, with mines and mill 
at Midway, operates a modern plant which produces a large amount 
of the fullers earth coming from this county. 
Acknowledgment should here be made of the courtesies ex- 
tended to the. Geological Survey by the management of the mines, 
Mr. W. L. McGowan of the Floridin Company and Mr. C. C. 
Ruprecht of the Fullers Earth Company, and for their help and 
kindly interest in the problem of the occurrence and age of the de- 
posits which they are working. It is chiefly by the fossil animal 
and plant remains found within a formation that the age of that 
deposit can be determined. That this is appreciated by the man- 
agement of the mines in this county is evidenced from the. fact that 
upon different occasions fossils have either been brought in in 
person or sent to the Survey office. Furthermore, notice of the 
finding of fossils has been given so that observations and study 
might be made 011 the ground before removal from the matrix. 
This help is very much appreciated on the part of the Survey, and 
has assisted to no small degree in the study of the fullers earth 
bearing formation. 
The fullers earth of Gadsden county occurs as strata inter- 
bedded between sandstone or bluish to yellowish sands, varying in 
places to calcareous and shell bearing marls. The fullers earth it- 
self rarely contains fossils. However, both vertebrate and in- 
vertebrate remains are occasionally found in the sandstone stratum 
lying between the two strata of fullers earth. It is principally 
from this sandstone material after it has been dug out and hauled 
to the “dump” that the fossils have been obtained. Of the verte- 
brate fossils thus found the tooth of the early horse, Mery chip pus, 
may be mentioned as the most characteristic.* Much material of 
value to science has been obtained through careful search of the 
mines of Gadsden county and through the help of the miners them- 
selves, who are assisting in the work of preserving any fossils 
found in the fullers earth bearing formation. It is hoped that this 
assistance will be continued and that more determinate material 
may be secured. The fullers earth beds lie within the. Alum Bluff' 
formation which, as indicated by the fossils, is of Miocene age. 
* Fla. Geol. Snrv., Eighth Ann. Rept., pp. 87-88, 1916. 
