The Opelousas courier., 1885-09-05
DIGGING UP MASTODONS,
For Fertilization, Not in the
Interest of Science.
Big Chunks Found in Southern Rivers,
and Grou~d into Bits.

"doSh! a good! a cneeFlui
gentleman in a downtown Office re-
marked whenever a breeze sdrayed in
at the door and went out at a window
that had been left open for the pur-
pose. He threw his feet upon his
desk, explaining that they were his
feet. and he could throw them just
where he liked, and ruffling his Whls.
kers with his fingers so that the.breeze
might work its way through them,
said: "It's hot, but it isn't as bad as it
was in South Carolina last Sunday.
1 was down there three days last week
for mastodons in the bottom of the
Ashley river. What do you think of
that?' picking up a gigantic molar
that weighed about eight pounds, and
was grayish black in color and half
petrifed.
allow would you like to w tooth
like that, and have it ache? If they
did ache when they belonged to the
m~astodons, there must have been a
fine bowling down there in the
swamps, for I've seen whole bushels
of just such teeth taken out OF the
rivers, and there are tons of them
there still"
"Are many persons engaged in
these mines?"
II should say SO. There are four or
five big companies, and ever so many
little ones"
"All digging up mastodons?"
Eyes, sir; not for the sake of the
mastodons, but for the phosphate that
the mastodons are mixed upin. Bless
you, they don't stop to pick out mas
todons and piece them together. They
throw the whole product into crush
ers and smash it up, and when it is
ground it sells for from six to fifteen
dollars a ton for fertilization. Many
a farmer is spreading desiccated mas
todons and archaopteryxes around his
eornfield and potato patch-mastodons
and archaopteryxes that were-ah!
sleeping the stony sleep of centuries"
"WhenP'
"Until quite recently. This phos-
phate business is a new thing, but it
is a big one. Why, sir, there are-let
mt see," and he pointed his nose at
the middle of the ceiling and shut his
eyes until he remembered that there
care 100000 tons of those South Caro-
lima phosphates Jug up every year.
The supply seems to be inexhaustible.
At least they al go on at the present
rate for twenty-five years more. Do
you see that photograph? That's the
gun that is used in catching masto-
dons."
The photograph showed s~mething
that looked like a Wilted iron tulip,
dangling from the end of a stem of
rods and chains. A man stood beside
the tulip to show that its six iron pet
ais were as long as he, and that before
it was full blown he could easily have
sat inside the bud had there been any
way of getting in.
"That's a Topographic. These
phosphate beds stretch along the coast
of North and South Carolina, and some
of them are found in Alabama and
Florida. They cover miles of low
country, AMI are technically divided
into land and river rock. The land
rock is found on shore, and is mined
by colored men with picks and wheel
barrows, assisted by diprer dredges.
The river rock is a crust of phos-
phate, from six to twelve inches
thick, which forms the bottom of
a number of streams. It is espec-
tally rich in the Beaufort, stonto, and
Ashly rivers. Sometimes there are two
strata of phosphate, with a thick layer
of mud or clay between. This phos-
phate, you understand, is almost who'll
ly composed of organic remains-the
bones, flesh and waste of nobody
knows how many animals. Whether
this was a big feeding ground of theirs,
whether they were ndfred in swamps
there, whether-well, the fact is, no
body knows how they came there.
The phosphate, when it comes out of
the river, is a gray, porous, water-worn
rock, and looks like rotten sandstone.
The smell Of it is vile, but the worse
1t smells the richer it is.
'sThat drop grapple has pointed
blades. e weighs IA tons. and when
it is dropped On the river bottom it
knocks a hole In the phosphate. Then
a l5O-horse power engine FUCKERS it
up. so that it takes a globular shape,
the blades folding up together and
holding the phosphate that it has loos-
ened. It is raised. swung oyer a boat,
and emptied into the boat. There the
phosphate is washed. to take out the
sand, and it is sometimes loaded
aboard ship, chiefly for export to Eng
land, but it is more commonly turned
$-%. 49, = 5&@4