l'KXUOSIi.] 
PHOSPHATES OF ALABAMA. 
75 
Table of analyses of North Carolina rock phosphates etc.— Continued. 
[I to IV. Phosphatic conglomerate of New Hanover County, X. C] 
Sand and insoluble matter 
Carbonate of lime 
Phosphate of lime 
Equivalent to phosphoric acid 
I. 
II. 
III. 
IV. 
20.28 
24 96 
42.98 
35.48 
57. 29 
54.71 
10.12 
51.81 
11.81 
16.42 
26.64 
6.40 
5.41 
12.57 
2.83 
fl. Phosphate conglomerate from JN r ew Hanover County, N. C] 
Carbouate of lime 64. 2G 
Phosphate of lime 11. 1C 
Equivalent to phosphoric acid, 5.11. 
Magnesia 0. 81 
Potash 0.40 
Sulphates and chlorides Trace 
Sand, soluble silica, oxide of iron, alumina, etc., undetermined 23. 37 
100. 00 
AMORPHOUS NODULAR PHOSriIATES OF ALABAMA. 
The phosphate deposits of Alabama belong to the Cretaceous forma- 
tion and are found in two parallel belts running across the State. The 
following very general section, in an ascending order, will show their 
positions : 
(1) Eutaw group. 
(2) Phosphate stratum. 
(3) Rotten limestone formation. 
(4) Phosphate stratum. 
(5; Ripley group. 
The Cretaceous formation of Alabama probably corresponds to the 
Upper Chalk of Europe, which also, in some places, contains beds of 
phosphatic nodules. It runs from the western part of Georgia in a 
WNW. direction through Alabama into Mississippi, where it takes an 
abrupt curve to the north. After passing through the western and north- 
ern part of Mississippi it enters Tennessee and runs through that State 
almost to the Kentucky boundary line. The phosphate deposits, it is 
said, can be traced along a considerable length of this formation, but, 
as far as has yet been discovered, it is only in Alabama, and there only 
in a few places, that the deposits are of considerable extent. In that 
State the Cretaceous strata dip gently to the south, and as a result of 
this dip the nodule bed, at the base of the Rotten Limestone, is found at 
ten to twenty miles north of the one at the summit of that formation. 
The general character of the two deposits is very much the same. 
They are composed of shells, phosphatic nodules, shell casts, and fossils, 
all much worn, broken, and rounded, and buried in a matrix of a soft, 
white or gray limestone. The nodules are generally flat in their gen- 
eral shape and chestnut brown in color, and average, in size, from one- 
(540) 
