jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 7:49:33 GMT -5
After being confined to the boat and steep banks I stretched my legs on this shoal. Raked a path for the water to run down a channel to collect botryoidal plates from broken coral psuedomorphs. In an hour's time Upper left is a 3 cavity psuedomorph that has been broken by the forces of nature. The two below it to the left side of photo are hollow. The chips look like knappings and rind removals by native man. Stained by the whiskey colored river water. Many chips. And maybe a half dozen small psuedomorphs not in photo. Chips have color. Never have tumbled them. Inclinometer off a bit, as is focus. Dissected a psuedomorph. More inclinometer/focus issues. Note the trees have been clear cut in the background. The clearing is about 3/4 of a mile along the river. The entire clearing is littered w/heat treated chips 100-200 feet out from river bank. Heavy native population over a large area. View of the gravel. Lots of chips and small corals, coral fragments. Difficult to tell which of the many corals are hollow. Did a similar sluice on the large rapid a mile upstream years ago. It must have been a spot for butchering. Many scrapers on that shoal. River polished scraper To supply fuel young peanuts. These are soft and tender, eat the shell too. A southern delicacy, and hard to find. Will be taking a crowd to this area early August. Maybe I can coax them into making a botryoidal sluice. The more the merrier, and I can go thru their tailings and steal all the psuedomorphs that get pulled to the side. Hopefully they have a knack for spotting them. It is a challenge. I could take them up to the big shoal but casualties may be high. Will check w/spouses to see if any have life insurance policies.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2014 7:56:45 GMT -5
You are a pretty damn good hoer James but you must have eaten all the peanuts before you took the photo of them. hahaha Nice haul and that is the kind of water I would not mind playing in. Some of the muck you roll around in would be way off limits to me. Jim
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 19, 2014 7:57:53 GMT -5
When I posted you had added the peanut pick. Not nice because you ruined my joke. lol Jim
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jul 19, 2014 7:59:49 GMT -5
Wow, nice coral bits. Looks like a great location! The bottom of that entire river is coral pieces?
But don't think I'd want to eat the shell.
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Sabre52
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Me and my gal, Rosie
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 19, 2014 8:04:17 GMT -5
Beautiful water and beautiful coral! Hard to conceive your streams are literally lined with good agatized coral. All your wonderful coral posts are just pissing me off that here in Texas our nice clear streams don't have any coral at all. Or for that matter, not much of anything polishable except tons of chert with the occasional shell * grump*.....Mel
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 8:24:58 GMT -5
When I posted you had added the peanut pick. Not nice because you ruined my joke. lol Jim Was trying to trip you up Jim. You've been tripped before ?? Yes, the shoals are critter free and no need for concern. I was snorkling in the deeper water downstream and that makes me nervous. The river has cut under a lot of the tree roots and made dark cavities under the banks. The coral gets caught in the roots. That makes me uncomfortable to collect that way.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 8:29:08 GMT -5
Wow, nice coral bits. Looks like a great location! The bottom of that entire river is coral pieces? But don't think I'd want to eat the shell. Young peanuts are hard to find. It is more of a hobby crop for lazy people that do not want to remove the shells. Not much money in them because of small yields. The shell is delicious when soft. Hardly any fiber Jean. This is peanut country and about the only place you will find them harvested young.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 8:47:36 GMT -5
Beautiful water and beautiful coral! Hard to conceive your streams are literally lined with good agatized coral. All your wonderful coral posts are just pissing me off that here in Texas our nice clear streams don't have any coral at all. Or for that matter, not much of anything polishable except tons of chert with the occasional shell * grump*.....Mel I dissected this large coral yesterday Mel. It is a monster. It is in the blue clay layer that sits on the solid limestone bedrock that the acid water in the river dissolved a channel thru. Often called 'shelf coral' because it sits up on the limestone bluffs that the river cut and falls into the river. So the wide shoal is laden with the coral that was left behind as the sand on top and the limestone beneath was carried away. The pools have coral in them too but may have sand/silt on top of them. Large coral(posted in fossils/artifacts)
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Fossilman
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Post by Fossilman on Jul 19, 2014 9:16:53 GMT -5
Some of those look like carnelian agate,like we find here...The other stuff is way cool.............Having fun,doing what you love,that's the ticket....Thumbs up
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Post by rockpickerforever on Jul 19, 2014 9:30:53 GMT -5
Young peanuts are hard to find. It is more of a hobby crop for lazy people that do not want to remove the shells. Not much money in them because of small yields. The shell is delicious when soft. Hardly any fiber Jean. This is peanut country and about the only place you will find them harvested young. A savourer of young peanuts may want to grow a crop themselves. Although young peanuts may have small yields, the downside to that is that like all things readily available, one tends to eat too much of them, ha! Of course, it makes one very popular with one's neighbors!
Now avocados, tomatoes and figs, one can't buy good ones at the store, so must grow your own. But that's for a different reason (not economic, based on yield). Those agricultural products cannot be allowed to ripen on the plant and shipped because they'll turn to mush. So much fruit and vegetables are harvested unripe so they will survive shipping to the stores. The end result is flavorless produce.
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Post by kap on Jul 19, 2014 10:47:42 GMT -5
James you are killing me! I am dreaming about finding Coral already with out you posting these awesome pictures! Cant wait for the next couple of weeks to be over! I hope this rain we are getting now is the end for awhile!
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Thunder69
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Post by Thunder69 on Jul 19, 2014 11:51:33 GMT -5
What else to say but Damn fine ....John
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Sabre52
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Post by Sabre52 on Jul 19, 2014 13:11:28 GMT -5
Wonderful coral James! That gold color rocks! Strange that we have fossil shells here that are totally replaced with silica and even have tiny quartz crystals inside and we have chert in huge veins and nodules all over but no silicified cuttable fossils except a tiny bit of pet wood. Guess the lower Cretaceous lacked corals, because you'd sure think conditions that would make the chert would make agatized coral too.....Mel
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bcrockhound
spending too much on rocks
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Post by bcrockhound on Jul 19, 2014 14:37:12 GMT -5
I love your coral finds! I too dream about stumbling on such a source. Hounding the water there looks like so much fun.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 18:37:32 GMT -5
I love your coral finds! I too dream about stumbling on such a source. Hounding the water there looks like so much fun. The sun was baking flesh bcrockhound. Water about 82F and clear. It is nice.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 18:46:08 GMT -5
James you are killing me! I am dreaming about finding Coral already with out you posting these awesome pictures! Cant wait for the next couple of weeks to be over! I hope this rain we are getting now is the end for awhile! You guys will have a good time. The gravel is addictive. lots of coral variety in shape and form. You guys will have to tell me what you want to collect. The gravel is a good start since it has a wide variety and is clean so you can see the mix.
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 19, 2014 20:22:54 GMT -5
Wonderful coral James! That gold color rocks! Strange that we have fossil shells here that are totally replaced with silica and even have tiny quartz crystals inside and we have chert in huge veins and nodules all over but no silicified cuttable fossils except a tiny bit of pet wood. Guess the lower Cretaceous lacked corals, because you'd sure think conditions that would make the chert would make agatized coral too.....Mel Not many shells around the coral Mel. An occasional oyster. And I am guessing that oysters all do shallow water as does the type of coral I find. Where many shells survive in deeper water. I find the coral at 85-95 feet above sea level if that helps. Or it has rolled off adjacent hills into the river from hills at that altitude. I don't think the scientists think that it lived at that level, as they think the ancient sea was 200' ASL. But I am just a lowly coral hunter, what do I know. I will walk up creeks at 90' and find it in places that are not reported as far as I know.
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Post by fantastic5 on Jul 19, 2014 21:44:20 GMT -5
I just can't wait to go on this trip with you! Such an amazing opportunity! Hard to even imagine at this point what I will want to collect. My first thought will be a little bit of everything then I can learn more about each behaves as I work with them.
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quartz
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Post by quartz on Jul 20, 2014 0:38:47 GMT -5
Thanks for taking us on the trip, a bunch of very nice finds you have. Larry
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jamesp
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Post by jamesp on Jul 20, 2014 7:23:04 GMT -5
I just can't wait to go on this trip with you! Such an amazing opportunity! Hard to even imagine at this point what I will want to collect. My first thought will be a little bit of everything then I can learn more about each behaves as I work with them. We should start out at the shoal in this thread Ann. It has a bit of everything. It is a half mile down from the boat ramp. The first shoal is about 200 yards down from the boat ramp and is full of poorly silicified coral. This 1/2 mile shoal has fine coral, both solids and hollows. If everyone sits along the sluice they can work a spot. The hollows come in several categories. A few have crystal cavities. Many have pithy insides, but often have a pretty silicified rind. Many look great on the outside and are pithy all the way thru. Unfortunately, it takes a hammer to break them open to find out. And much of the coral at the shoal has been broken up already, so hammering is not required so much. I rarely find artifacts there so we will be legal. Technically we are not supposed to possess them. If anyone asks, we are rock hunting and not artifact hunting. Georgia rarely enforces the artifact laws in random river finds. On the deep side of the shoal is large corals in the deeper rapids. So large ones are at this spot too. On the upstream side of the shoal large hollow corals can be found. But that is hit or miss. They are the source for the broken pieces of botryoidal pieces in the sluice/shoal. And unfortunately the virgin ones are under the gravel impregnated in the clay. So you have to remove the gravel to get to the clay layer below. Anyway, that shoal would be a good start for a couple of hours. Bring boat cushions or low fold up stools for comfort.
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