Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 46.djvu/91

Rh each, man passed, took his name and checked it in a time book. If a workman failed to have his name checked in this manner he forfeited his day's wages.

The early hours of the morning were devoted to an examination of the phosphate mine, under the guidance of Captain H. The path to the mine led us along the eastern slope of the island to the northern face of the main peak, where a wide and deep ravine separated us from the smaller peak. The distance from the house to the mine was about three fourths of a mile. The path was very steep in places as it ascended toward the summit in order to avoid a deep gorge, and sometimes so narrow that a misstep would give one a bad fall down the slope.

The phosphate occurred in the form of a cement filling the crevices among the masses of volcanic rock of which the island consists. In places it would be in sheets of the thickness of one's finger between the bowlders, and in others pockets would be filled with several tons. It could be seen cropping out all along the path, but the mining was at that time carried on at the north end for convenience in shipping.

The mining was done by negroes, and both men and boys were employed in the work. The men were engaged in blasting the overlying rock and breaking up the mass of phosphate underneath, while the boys cleaned the phosphate from the gangue and carried it in baskets upon their heads to a wire tramway, by which it was taken to the pile of dressed mineral awaiting shipment. Boys were also engaged in picking out the mineral from small surface pockets wherever a few pounds might be obtained.

The gangue was thrown down the gorge between the two peaks into the sea. While we were there a large bowlder was rolled over for our benefit. It went bounding from ledge to ledge, leaping a hundred feet at a bound, shot over a precipice and struck upon a rock with a loud report, finally splashing into the water. Great quantities of dust were formed by the blasting and digging, and caused much discomfort to the workmen by particles of it getting into their eyes.

The cleaned rock was piled at the head of a gorge which had been broken through the cliffs on the northwestern side of the island. Down this gorge and extending out about fifty yards into the sea was stretched another wire tramway, twelve hundred feet in length, by which the phosphate was loaded into lighters to be transferred from the shore to the ship. The usual anchorage was on the leeward or western side of the island, about four hundred yards from the shore, though deep water extended to within fifty yards of the cliffs.

The phosphate differed in its appearance from any other rock phosphate which I have ever seen. The prevailing color of a pile