Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1889-12-20
PHOSPHATE BEDS.
South Cardinals Curious Depos-
its of Life-giying Rock.
Methods of Mining the Most
Valuable Fertilizer Known.

Tho phosphate beds of Charleston,
S. c., have proved of great value to the
place, and they have moro than COM
pensased for the gradual loss of tho cot
ton trade which has gone largely to the
cities north or to Savannah on tho south.
These beds and the great "Ashlcy fish
BASIN are the most wonderful and mex
plicable formations known to biologists.
The deposits consist of nodulcs of phos-
plate of lime, thickly iuterspcrscd with
the huge bones and teeth Of antctliluvian
mammalian and marine mammoths of gi-
gantlc proportions. The mastodons,
giant balloons, prodigious gorillas, liz
ards thirty-threc feet long, and other
huge graminivorous and carnivorous
quadrupcds have been found lying in
the same bed with briny lcviathans, vom-
cious marine vulturcs and other monsters
of the deep. The beds have been
styled by Agassiz us the "grcatcst curl
osity of the world, and they constitute
by far the most valuable fertilizer known
to man since the exhaustion of the PERU
Wan guano deposits. That they are an
almost incXhaustiblc source of wealth to
the whole state may well be Judged, and
thousands of people are engaged in get
ting the fertilizers to market The
amount of trade in phosphate rock in
Charleston amounts to several million
dollars year, and it is increasing stead
lily year by year as the demand for the
fertilizers becomes more general through
out the world. The deposits underlic
vast region of the country, thirty miles
wide and seventy miles i'll length.
Scientists differ AS to the origin of this
great deposit and in their estimation of
the quantities of rock contained i'll the
deposit. The rock forms the bed of
many rivers leading to the ocean, and
crops out of the land at many points
The river deposits are mined with crow
bar, pick and drcdgcs. The land rock
is cxcavatcd with pick and shovel and is
found in a seam ranging in thickness
from three to thirty inches, at IL depth of
about ten feet below the surface of the
ground. The country in which the rock
is found is generally level, and the soil is
soft and moist. The rock is sounded
for by long, sharp pointed steel rod.
When rock is struck from six to ten feet
below the surface Il test pit is sunk to
ascertain the thickness of the stratum
and to find il the rock will annlyzc up TO
the standard
From the mines the rocks are hauled
in dumping cars to the washers. The
rock is here crushed into pieces of uni
form size. 1t then falls into trounhs or
tubs resting on IN incline. In each of
these tubs an octagonal shaft, c,scd in
iron and set with blades or dukes, re-
wolves, which turns the rock around and
forces it out of the tubs upon screens.
While in the tubs il is subjected To II
continuous and powerful stream of water
which cleans it Of all foreign matter.
There are sixteen companies now en-
gagged in mining the land rock, with
joint capital of about SO, 900, 600. The
production of these mines averages about
800, 600 tons of rock ycar This in
dustry has been The bcd-r of Charles
ton lifc for many years, and now ii seems
I'LL along the coast the perennial fruits of
the earth, which in themselves are things
of beauty, will become rs valuable in
commercial sense rs the lifc-giving rock
which has been vitalizcd by the dccayins
bones OF antediluvian mon
scrs. Side by side with the
rivers and fields which furnish
forth phosphate rock are the broad sa-
vannas and lowlying islands where mel
ons, calhagcs, asparagus, potatoes and
strawberries flourish abundantly. Large
quantities of these products are shipped
north every year. Commercial Advcr-
tiscr.
Expedition of a C0ssack ZenIot.
The Gar of Russia has forbidden the
AShinOfT pynpt1itiOn IN ct,rt for J,,e.;