hayes] TENNESSEE WHITE PHOSPHATES. 423 
clay, and within an area # about 50 by 100 feet numerous fragments of 
phosphate occur on the surface and are shown in a few shallow pits. 
The smallness of the area within which the float rock is found indi- 
cates that no considerable deposit occurs here, although there may 
be a pocket of some depth. About 5% miles from the river, also on 
Lick Creek, the phosphate shows in the roadside as a ledge in place 
about 2 feet in thickness. Its lateral extent can not be determined, 
but it is probably not great. Little if any float rock appears on the 
surface, and the presence of the ledge would not be suspected except 
for the accidental exposure in the road cutting. About a mile farther 
up the creek on the south side of the valley, on Tom Young's place, 
several large bowlders of phosphate occur on the cultivated hillside. 
No prospecting has been done here, but the scarcity of float would 
indicate that the deposit is small. 
The distribution of the phosphate deposits on Toms Creek has 
already been described, and thorough prospecting has failed to reveal 
any considerable amount between the main deposits near the mouth 
of Wilsdorfs Branch and the Tennessee River. 
On Roan Creek, which is next north of Toms Creek, white phosphate 
has been found at one point about 5^ miles from the Tennessee River. 
A prospect pit in the creek bottom has brought to light a small amount 
of the breccia variety. The phosphate forms a matrix in which par- 
tially rounded chert pebbles are embedded. The latter are in every 
way similar to the gravel forming the bed of the creek. As already 
stated, this creek does not cut down to the limestone, except at its 
mouth, and therefore the conditions favorable for the formation of 
the lamellar variety are nowhere present in its valley. The same con- 
ditions prevail in the next creeks to the north, Crooked Creek and 
Blue Creek. Numerous leases have been taken on the farms in these 
valleys, but they afford no indication whatever of deposits of phos- 
phate. Occasional bowlders of chert breccia cemented by limonite are 
found, and these are locally regarded as indications of phosphate. 
They, of course, afford no indication whatever of the presence of such 
deposits. 
Little can be added to descriptions of the Toms Creek deposits east 
of Wilsdorfs Branch contained in the former report. They have not 
been opened to any extent, and while conditions at a few points are 
favorable for the existence of extensive deposits, their extent can be 
determined only by further systematic prospecting. 
Some prospecting has been done in the vicinity of Beardstown at 
points noted in the 1896 report. The lamellar phosphate here occurs 
more or less intermingled with clay, and the test pits have not yet 
revealed a continuous bed such as appears at Toms Creek. It is by no 
means impossible, however, that such a bed may not occur at greater 
depth than the pits have yet reached. This locality affords better 
promise than any other in the district except Wilsdorf , and is worthy 
of more systematic exploration than it has yet received. 
