40 
FLORIDA STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 
among other sources of information, maps of these deposits by 
Geo. H. Eldridge and by C. G. Memminger. 
DISCOVERY OF THE FLORIDA PHOSPHATE 
DEPOSITS. 
The knowledge of, or belief in the existence of phosphatic 
material in Florida seems to have been prevalent from an early 
date. Thus, in a paper by Pratt (1868) we find a reference to 
and an attempted explanation of the coprolite or guano-like 
deposits of Florida. The original of Pratt’s paper not having 
been available to me I have been unable to determine from the 
reviews of the paper whether Pratt’s reference is to phosphatic 
material known to occur in Florida or assumed to occur. 
From Professor J. M. Pickel (1890) we have a statement that 
“Dr. J. C. Neal, formerly of Archer, now of the Florida Agri¬ 
cultural Experiment Station at Lake City, discovered in Levy and 
Alachua Counties, in 1876, and tested chemically phosphatic 
rocks, which were in 1885 sent to the Smithsonian and analyzed 
quantitatively.” 
In 1880 Dr. Chas. U. Shepard writing of the phosphate 
deposits of South Carolina stated that they certainly extended in¬ 
to North Carolina on the north and probably as far south as. 
Florida. 
Aside from these references the first definite information of 
deposits of low grade phosphate rock in Florida seems to have 
been obtained incidentally in connection with the investigation 
of building stone made for the Tenth United States Census, 1880. 
The first samples of the phosphate rock were collected from a 
quarry being operated for building stone near Hawthorne, in 
Alachua County. This quarry had been opened by Dr. C. A. 
Simmons, of Hawthorne, in 1879. The samples were sent to 
Washington probably during the summer of 1880. The paper 
which gives the analysis of this rock bears the date, June 29, 
1881. It is contained in the Proceedings of the United States 
National Museum for 1882, which were issued in 1883. Whether 
Dr. Simmons knew or suspected the phosphatic character of this 
