TENROBE. ] 
PHOSPHATES OF ALABAMA. 
77 
In this last place the surface is largely composed of greensand, though, 
in some places, this is washed off, exposing the phosphate-bearing bed. 
Where the ground has been much eroded and cut into gullies, it is cov- 
ered by a solid sheet of nodules, phosphatized shell casts, fossils, fer- 
ruginous concretions, and unaltered shells. There is a much larger per 
cent, of the brown nodules here than iu the upper nodule bed ; but as 
in that bed, so here, the nodules are very few compared with the fossils 
and shell casts. The indurated ledge represented in the section seems 
to have the same general composition as the sand that underlies it, but 
to be in a hardened condition. 
The phosphate deposits of Alabama are more difficult to mine than 
the South Carolina phosphates and cannol be shipped as cheaply. Con- 
sequently they have not as yet been put to any practical use. But they 
have been found in sufficient quantities in several places to become of 
considerable local importance. Among other places, they are found 
in considerable quantities on the laud of Mr. J. F. Wiatt, near Coatopa, 
and of Mr. Spencer and Messrs. Davis, near Hamburg. 
Table of analyses of amorphous nodular phosphates of Alabama. 
[Northern belt, (a) The nodules and phosphatic casts of fossils from Spencer's field, Hamburg, Ala.] 
Phosphoric 
acid. 
Bone phos- 
phate. 
Analyist. 
22.00 
19.80 
38.00 
35.5 
25. 66 
26.1 
25.8 
36.0 
38.0 
48.00 
43.16 
82.84 
77.39 
55. 88 
56.90 
56.24 
78.48 
82.81 
W. I. Herzberg, University of Ala- 
bama. 
Do. 
John Daniel, University of Alabama. 
Do. 
Charles Gibson, Chicago. 
Jehu Daniel, University of Alabama. 
Do. 
Do. 
Do. 
Phosphatized shell 
Surface nodules, sample I 
Nodules from near Selma . . 
Nodules from near Selma . . 
Nodules from near Selma . . 
Nodules from near Selma . . 
[ (&) Matrix of the nodules from Spencer's field, Hamburg, Ala.] 
Phosphoric 
acid. 
Bone phos- 
phate. 
Analyist. 
5.12 
1.2 
4.65 
8.00 
2.2 
:;. i; 
11.16 
9. 16 
10.14 
17.44 
4.80 
7. 85 
E. M. Harris, University of Alabama. 
John Daniel, University of Alabama. 
L. L. Dean, University of Alabama. 
Do. 
Charles Gibson, Chicago. 
Do. 
Blue matrix of nodules 
White matrix of nodules . . . 
(551) 
