34 
FLORIDA STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
The incline leading to a pit belonging to T. A. Thompson, near Neals, 
gave the following section: 
Pale yellow incoherent sands. 5 to 10 feet 
Red clayey sands. 7 to 10 feet 
Gray phosphate sands (exposed). 15 feet 
The gray sands give place laterally to phosphate rock. 
Pit No. 2 of the Cummer Lumber Company is, perhaps, the largest 
single pit in operation in the hard rock phosphate section. This pit is 
reported to include at the present time about thirteen acres. Pit No. 5 
of this company, one mile west of Newberry, gives an exposure of the 
sandstone and flint pebble conglomerate already referred to as occurring 
occasionally in the hard rock deposits. The pebbles are round and more 
or less flattened. They vary in size from very small pebbles to pebbles 
weighing five to seven pounds. 
In the pit of the Union Phosphate Company, at Tioga, a considerable 
number of rounded elongate siliceous boulders occur. These vary in size, 
the largest approximating a ton in weight. They are embedded in the 
phosphate-bearing matrix. 
The many other pits which are now being worked, or which have 
recently been abandoned, although varying much even within a single 
pit in details, are in general much the same as those described. 
The limestone in this county, as a rule', lies relatively near the sur¬ 
face. In most instances the limestone is encountered before or very soon 
after reaching the water level. The phosphate is thus largely worked out 
by dry mining and dredges are^rarely used. The limestone is encountered 
at varying depths. One pit may show a great deal of limestone projecting 
as peaks, while another pit of equal depth near by may scarcely reach the 
limestone. Some of the limestone peaks project 15 to 25 feet above the 
general level of the bottom of the pit. The phosphate-bearing matrix here, 
as elsewhere, fills up the irregularities in the limestone. The top surface 
of the limestone is, as elsewhere, entirely irregular. The red clayey sand 
called “hardpan” by the miners may be present or lacking in the pits of 
this section. The loose, pale yellow sand is practically always present, 
varying in thickness from 1 to 25 feet. 
MARION COUNTY. 
The plate rock deposit found in the vicinity of Anthony and .Sparr, 
in the north central part of Marion County, represents an eastward ex¬ 
tension of the phosphate-bearing formation. The relation of the phosphate 
matrix to the underlying limestone is the same as previously described. 
The limestone projects into the phosphate matrix as rounded peaks. Cir¬ 
cular depressions, similar in appearance to pot holes or to “natural wells,” 
