The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-22
OUR hf4TERIAL INTERESTS.
THE MINES OF THE wANDo COMPANY.
Phosphate Diggings-What they Look
Like and How they arc Worked.

An afternoon drive to the mines OF the Wan
do Mining and Manufacturing Company will
repay even those most familiar with Charles
ton and South Carolina in the past and present;
but the time Of tho stranger, bent on gain or
Measure, could not be more pleasantly or pro-
fitably spent. A few jolts over the cobble
stones of Mectins-street and you are upon the
new she'll road, the boast Of tho present city
administration.
It is generally smooth, but it has some
hoies, so that your buggy now ghdes like
skiff upon the placid waters of lake-now
lurches violently like q ship in storm at sea.
With o good horse, however, this part OF the
trip is soon over; and just after you pass the
Six Mile House, you turn eff into tho old Dor
chester road, and in the three remaining miles
YOU traverse, through alternate sand and
water, piny swamp region, the theatre OF
many Of the most remarkable scenes in Mr..
Gilmore Simms' popular romances. The
spring, which wa5 the trysting place of Kato
Walton aal her lover, is but few feet from
the rond, and Porgey's portly figure, pros
trato upon log, advancing, serpeut-ike,
upon cooter, or his rubicund visage bent in
epicurean meditation upon his hominy pot,
would scarcely starile You in tho swamp or
pine thicket.
An hour and half is time enough for the
whole ride OF nine miles, aad then you come
upon what was once plantation, but Is no"
the phosphate Mines" The old wooden house
partly in ruins, half hidden among the branch
ing live oaks, with its startling repairs OF un-
painted boards, is fit bu rude awakcner from
the dreams of the past to the action of the
present. This is the headquarters OF the
ssmines." Here resides Mr.. Burns the super
iutendent Of the disgings, and here, on Satur-
day evening, the treasurer calls the pay roll
and settles with the hands. The miners are
all negroes, and it is somewhat amusing to no.
tice the promptitude with which jet black fcl-
lows, with kinky heads and ivory teeth, and
clothes beftting their condition, answer to the
names of VIM. Middleton, Bull Pringle, HenrTS-
PInckney, Thomas Lowndes, &C., &c. Pom
pey, Sambo, Cuff,e or Janr ary, would seem
far more appropriate.
The mines proper arc several hundred yards
from tho house. and consist Of series OF
ditches, from threo to six feet deep, across an
old rice field OF an crea Of eight acres, and ly-
Jug directly upon tho banks Of the Ashley
River. Here nearly one hundred men may be
seen busly employed with picks digging out
from the sides of the bitches Jumps of phos-
phate rock, varying in size from pigeons egg
to halt bushel, the average size being about
that of half brick or little larger. In wet
weather, and after heavy rains, the bitches fill
rapidly with water, which is baled out by
shovels or let off by narrow cuts. the work
never being interrupted by that Leans. The
rocks are thrown up on the top OF tho ground
and are taken by wheelbarows to the drying
ground near t.:s river, where they ale scatter
ed out and ,ft to be cleansed and dried by the
sun and rain. Several hundred tons may be
seen living there at one time. When the rocks
hav. become sufficiently clean and dry, they
are gathered into a pile near the wharf, and
thence loaded into the vessels OF the company,
which carry them either to the ills at the
foot of Hasel-street, or to the Northern ports
to fill orilers-this phosphate rock supplying
the material for much of the fancy manures
which our farmers, as we'll as those of the
North buy at very high prices.
The field Of eight acres, which has not been
quite exhausted, has already supplied about
six thousand tons Of phosphate rock. The
company own hundreds OF acras contiguous to
this field equally as rich in phosphate, anI
containing enough to supply the demand fer
wears to come. The enterprise is yet in its
infancy, and the daily p:pdc ,tion is nothing
to what it will be whe., tno company have put
up the washing machines sId built the rail-
roaG which tn ey nov have n contemplation.
The percentage OF phosphate in the rock
varies from forty to ninety per cent, the aver
age being about fifty per cent. Tue rock is,
therefore, not quite as rich as that found in
some other diggings, but, owing to its larger
size and the shallow depth at which it is found,
is fully as pror;able if not moro so.
The company owning its own diggings, ves-
sells and mills, and being managed by thor
oush practical Lu u,iness men and machinists,
is sure of success, and will probably, at no dis
taut date be one Of the wealthest corporations
in the State.
FROM TIE STITE C1PIT4IL.