The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-11-14
THE CHARLESTON PHoSPM4TEs.
Interesting Sketch Of the Discovery
and Development of the Native Bone
Phosphates OF South Carolina.

|
ment of the Ashley phosphate beds, contrib
utes the following article 10 the last number c
the Southern Cultivator:
At the continued solicitations OF many friend
in my native State (Georgia( and elsewhere,
have the pleasure OF contributing to the col
umns of your journal concise statement o
the discovery. and economic deve:opment o
the phosphate deposits Of Ashley River, or, O.
l cali them, tho ''Native Phosphates of Soutl
Carolina" together with discussion OF thei
chemical. physical and geological history.
These remarkable and really wonderful de
posits of wealth and fertility to the Stat'
are now, for the first TINA discovered on th'
continent of America. A full scientific discus
sion of this remarkable discovery would, per
haps, be foreign and ill-placed among the prac
tical and eminently utilitarian contributions o.
YOUR more valued correspondents; / shall
therefore, eliminate all that appears theoretical
and give only facts, which no doubt will be O.
most interest to your readers.
Tho calcareous beds OF South Carolina are
Justly considered the most remarkable, per
haps, in the world, and very carly attracted at.
tention; and in the time OF the late venerable
Edmund Ruffin, Esq were extensively explor-
ed aud analyzed. Many subsequent explorers
among whom stand, Ire.eminent, Professor
NJ. Tourney, State Geologist OF South Carolina,
and Professor F. S. Holmes, of the Charleston
|
studied these beds that, previous to the year
1850, they were as we and widely known, geo.
| logically and pa Sc )nthologlcaur, as any other
equally extensive in the world. But by con-
tracted, ill-judged and false notions Of economy
on the part of our Southern Legislatures, and
pervading all OF our State Geological Surveys,
the chemical department OF such surveys never
receive the attention it merits, and is generally
entirely overlooked or considered matter OF
| altogether secondary consideration, AMI of no
| importance; whereas, it should constitute the
head and front Of all agricultural or geological
surveys, which should always be eminenLly
practical in their character.
The calcareous mails of South Carolina have
been closely studied, classified and analyzed,
and their value as mars, containing small
percentage of phosphate Of lime, has been
| known for twenty years; but there is another
bel, not of mari, but adjacent to these, equally
well known and described, the composition OF
VIII ch has, until lately, been unknown and
| misunderstood.
Reference to the Geology of South Carolina,
| BIZ Professor III. Tuomey, published in 1S4S,
will show all that was known OF them up to the
year 1867, viz:
1st. That the calcareous beds of this section
| had been carefully studied, classified and ana
| lived, and were known to contain from SO to S5
per cont. of carbonate Of lime, and from to
9.2O per cent. Of phosphate OF lime.
''conglomerates, constituting bed which
oyerines the Newer Eocene marlsl, bcdded in
the clay, were universally considered as silici-
fed "having lost all or most OF their lime,
which rarely exceeded six per cent tTou-
mey's Geology of South Carolina, p. 1861
81. That the fossil bones, marine AMI torres
trial, were also considered 'petrifed" or siici-
fed'
Sec also magnificent work on the "Post
Pleiocene Fossils OF South Carolina" by Pro-
lessor F. S. Holmes (1S59), Introduction, p. Ii.
These are the published records, but Pro-
fessor Holmes has informed me that Profcs-
sor Tourney made a crude analysis of these
"Nodules" some years ago, and he thinks the
estimate was fifteen to sixteen per cent OF
phosphate OF limo, but not enough to counter
balance the carbonate OF lime, iron and sand
which they also contained and 1t was consider
ed unavailable for agricultural purposes.
RECENT HISTORY.
During the late war, while 10 charge of the
chemical department OF the U. 5. Nltre and
Mining Bureau, and engaged in ins pectlpC the
saltpelre beds OF Charleston aud Ashley River,
which were constructed under tho charge OF
nv friend Prof. Z. :. Holmes, my attention
was repeatedly directed by him to the remark
able accumulation of fossil bone IN bed long
since described and known as tho Fish Bed of
the Charleston Basin," and also to the exist
of lime in tho heavy marls below, as indicated
by tho analysis OF Prof. c. u. Shepard, publish
ed in the Geology of South Carolina i'll 1S48.
knowing that the maIls OF Georg ia were COM
paratively poor in that in9redient-so far as
examined by me, rarely exceeding (3) three per
cent.-thc contrast was to- striking to escape
notice; and took various samples to Augusta,
Ga., for examination, but more urgent matters
ut that time prevented the analysis, and the
rooL oil finn 10 1rnnyrn
my friends in Georgia, and TO some in this
State, that during the war [ determined to es-
tablish chemical works in the South, and at its
close settled in Charleston rather than else
wherc, with view OF working up the native
resources of the State, through the supposed
advantages which this city afforded; and that
rs early as the year 1866, l attempted to estab-
lish O company for tho manufacture of acids
and fertilizers, but without success. In 1867,
the attempt was renewed with better hopes Of
success, and while, from May to August OF that
year, selecting suitable location for such
works, and as chemist to the North Carolina
Geological Survey" searched in both the Caro-
linas for native home material Which might be
turned to profit in the manufacture OF acids
and fertilizers was fortunate enough to DIS
cover that bed out-cropping within ten miles
Of Charleston, contained as large percentage
OF phosphate OF lime as any OF the phosphate
guanos imported from the tropical islands,
and used i'll this country and abroad, for the
manufacture OF fertilizers.
This bed has been long known in the history
of the Geology of South Carolina as the "Fsh
Bed of the Chorleston Basin," OH account Of
the abundant remains of the marine .nimals
found in it t-ProfcssoI Holmes, Of the College
OF Charleston, having i'll his cabinet not less
than GO, 900 specimens OF sharks teeth alone,
some of them OF enormous size, Weighing from
two to two and half pounds each The bed
out-crops on the banks of the Ashley, Cooper,
Stono, EdisLo, Ashepoo and Combahee Rivers,
but is developed most heavily and richly on the
former, and has been found as far inland as
forty or fifty milos.
Near the Ashley River, It payes the public
highw for miles-it seriously impedes and
obstructs the cultivation of the lands, afford
ing scarcely soil enough to chill up the cotton
rows" and the ''pnosphates" have been for
years past thrown into piles on the lawns, or
into causeways over ravines, to get them out of
the reach of the plows; it underIies many
square miles of surface continuously, at q
depth ranging from six inches to twelve or
more feet, and exists in such quantities that in
some localities from five hundred to thousand
tons or more underlie each acre. In fact, it
seems that there are no rocks in this section
which are not phosphates
HOW THE DISCOVERY WAS MADE.
While engaged, as above mentioned, from
May to August, 1857, in locating my proposed
works, and searching for material suitable Tor
my purposes, Oh or about the 1st of August,
while examining samples OF foreign euano, in
the laboratory OF DR.. st. Julian kavenel (who