1895.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 95 



careous clayey Bands of the Neocene beds and the underlying 

 Fayette sands appear to justify the inference that they form a con- 

 tinuous belt of deposits, somewhat irregular in width and thickness, 

 from west to east and have a general tendency to decrease in areal 

 extent and thickness as we go east. 



Fayette Sands. 



The gray sandstones as described by Buckley and Loughridge 

 admit of a threefold division and possibly a fourth may be added 

 upon farther examination and investigation, each being represented 

 by beds differing widely from each other, both in lithological struc- 

 ture and fauual character. The uppermost division comprises a series 

 of highly calcareous sands, sandstones and clays containing many 

 water-worn cretaceous shells throughout the sandy portions, but carry- 

 ing no indigenous invertebrate fauna. 16 Fossil bones have occasion- 

 ally been reported from these beds and some have been described by 

 Leidy 17 from Washington County and farther west. This division, 

 however, belongs to the Neocene Tertiary. The middle portion, or 

 Frio clays, have already been described, and the Fayette sands proper 

 form the basal portion and probably include the hard silicious sand- 

 stones mentioned by Buckley. 



The prevailing characteristics of these Fayette sands, as here 

 restricted, are gray sandstones, white and gray clays, and gray sands. 

 The sandstones are irregularly deposited and lie in beds from a few 

 inches to ten, fifteen or twenty feet in thickness. In Jasper 

 County, on the eastern side of the State, these sandstones range 

 from four to ten feet in thickness and at Rockland, in Tyler County, 

 the section shows : 18 



1. Gray sand 4 feet. 



2. Coarse grained, gray sandstone 5 " 



3. Hard blue sandstone 15 " 



Along McManus' Creek, near Stryker, in. Polk County, these 

 sandstones form an escarpment for nearly a mile in length and pre- 

 sent a solid face of over ten feet, and at Hitchcock's quarry; about a 



16 Fourth Annual Report (leol. Survey of Texas, 1893, pp. 9-14 as Navasota 

 Beds. 



17 U. S. G. Survey of the Territories, Vol. I. Extinct Vertebra ta, by J. Leidy, 

 p. 246 et seq. 



18 Third Annual Report Geol. Survey of Texas, 1891, p. 120. 



