The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-01-22
OUR MATERIAL INTERESTS.
THE MINES OF THE wANDo COMPANY.
Phosphate Diggangs-What they Look
Liko and How they are 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 tt me of the stranger, bent on gain or
pleasure, could not be more pleasantly or pro-
titably spent. few jolts over the cobble
stones of Meeting-street and you ore upon the
new shell road, the boast Of the present city
administration.
1t is generally smooth, but it has some
holes, SO that your buggy now gIdes like q
skiff upon the placid waters Of Iake--now
lurches violently like ship in storm ct sea.
With good horse, however, this part Of the
trip is soon over; and just after you pass the
Six Mile House, you turn off into the old Dor
chester road, and in the three rem Aining miles
you traverse, through alternate sand and
water, a piny swamp region, the theatre of
many Of the mosS renarkeble scpnes iii Mf.
Gilmore Simms popular romances. The
spring, which was the trysting place of Kate
Walton and her lover, is but few feet from
the road, and Porgoy's portly figure, pros
trato upon log, advancing, serpent-like,
upon cooter, or his rubicund visage bent in
epicurean meditation upon his hominy pot
would scarcely startle you in the swamp or
pine thicket.
An hour and half is time enough for the
whole ride OF nine mics, aud then you come
upon what was once plantation, but is now
the phosphate Mines" Tho old wooden house
partly in ruins, half hidden among the branch
ing live oaks. with its startling repairs of un-
painted boards, is fit but rude awakener from
the dreams of the past to the action of the
present. This is the headquarters OF the
''mines." Here resides Mr.. Burns, the super
intendent Of the diggings, 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 fol-
lows, with kinby heads ana ivory teeth, and
clothes beilting their condition, answer to the
names of VIM. Middleton, Bull Pringle Henry
Pnckney, Thomas Lowndes, &C., &c. Pom
pey, Sambo, Cuffee or January, would seem
far more appropriate.
The minss proper are several hundred wards
from the house, and consist of series OF
ditcl es, from three to six feet deep, across an
old ri,e field Of an area Of eight acres, and w.
ing directly upon the banks of the Ashley
River. Here nearly one hundred men may be
seen busily employed with picks digging out
from the sides of the bitches Jumps of phos-
phate rock, varying in size from q pigeons egg
TO half bushel, the average size being about
that Of half brick, or q little larger. In wet
weather, and after heavy rains, tho bitches fill
rapidly with water, which is baled out by
shovels or let off by narrow cuts the work
never being interrupted by that means. The
rocks are thrown up on the top Of the ground
and are taken by wheelbnrrows to the drying
ground near the river, where they are scatter
ed out and sft to be cleansod and dried by the
sun and rain. Several hundred tons may be
seen lying there at one time. When, the rocks
havs become sufficiently clean and dry, they
are gathered into pile near the wharf, and
thence loaded into the vessels Of the company,
which carry them either to the mills at the
foot Of Hasel-street, or to the Northern ports
to fill orders-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 Ugh 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 acres contiguous to
this field equally as rich in phosphate, and
containing enough to supply the demand for
years to come. The enterprise is yet in it's
infancy, and the daily production is nothing
to what it will be when the company have put
up the washing machines and built the rail
road which tn ey now have in contemplation.
The percentage of phosphate in the rock
varies from forty to ninety per cent, the aver
age being about fifty per cent. The rock is,
therefore, not quite as rich as that found in
some other diggings, but, owing to it's larger
size and the shallow depth at which it is found,
is fully as profitable if not more so.
The company owning it's own diggings, YES.
sells and mills, and boing managed by thor
ough practical bu siness men and machinists,
is sure of success, and will probably, at no dis
tant date, be one OF the wealthiest corporations
in the State.
FROM TIE STATE C-APITAL.
A Good Word for AbbevllIe-FIigh .Jinks
I'm COlumbfa-The Bank or tho state
Cnae-The Cha rr aofOv, Fcvnctaorr Ua~S~-