PLAXT-BEARIXG OUTCROPS. 



51 



WICKI.IFFE, HAI.I.AT;!) COX'NTY. 



Apparently there is no trace of the hgnitic 

 materials and <'lay lenses of the pn^ceding 



section, which is less than 4 miles (Ustant. Fossil plants were discovered at WicldifTe 



These clay lenses shed an interesting light on 1)V R. II. Loughi'idge, atid in his report on the 



the local conditions of sedimentation during 

 Wilcox time and show that after a considerai)le 

 thickness of littoral sands were dc^posited (lie 

 waters became wholly or ])artly pond(Hl, form- 

 ing a lagoon where clays were deposite-d. 



Jackson's I'urchasc region, published in 18SS, 

 12 species were recorded on the authority of 

 Lesquereux. The geology was discussed at 

 considerable^ lengtii. Tlie plants occur in a 

 clay stone in low exposures in branch bottoms 



Swamp vegetation cliaracterized (Ik^ upward in the soutliern ]iart of the town, and the sec- 

 fluctuation of level and is nuirked by (be car- tion is so tiiin that it has no significance in the 

 bonaceous beds of the section, whic^h show five present connection. Tlic cuts along the Illi- 

 slight npward movements separated by five nois Central Railroad, however, furnish more 

 shght subsidences and followed by a sixth up- extensive exposures of deposits of Wilcox age 

 ward movement, marking a retransgression of in this region. In tlie east side of the cut 

 Uttoral sands. The area has been above water that is south of tlie town and immediately 

 since early Eocene time, excejit for the Pleisto- nortii of niilepost 371-59 the following section 

 cene depressions, and has bciui greatly eroded, is exposed: 



Section of he<ls exposed in Illinois Central l!(iilro(ul ent near Wielrliffe, Kij. 



Feet. 



1. 



Heavy gra\'el of all Av.iia. prevailingly coar.-fo, peblilos averaging 1 inch in diameter, in maO'ix 

 of coarse ferruginous sand canying a few bowlders, the whoU; more or less lifhified; alxiul . 10 



2. Fine to coarse yellowish or reddish ferniginoiis sand, tlie upi)er 8 feet forming a lens of fine 



and very argillaceous sand, underlain by buckshot sand more or less lithified into sandstone 



bowlders 8-13 



Iron crusts and water-bearing horizon. 



3. Graj' plastic clay with scattered lignite 12 



4. Compact brown argillaceous Ugiiite with scattered and mostly undeterminable plant remains; 



Leguminositcs irieldiffcnsis Berry occurs at this level; aliout 4 



5. Concealed to track level 7 



Basal beds pass horizontally into reddish-stained gray clay and from that into a fine, almost 



white loose sand. 



One htmdred yards north of the preceding 

 section the following section is exposed: 



Section KM) yards north of \ircceding section. 



Feet . 



1. Mostly concealed, probably entirely loamy loess; 



about L'5 



2. Gravel and sand as in preceding .section; about... 20 



3. Bed of argillaceous lignite; about 4 



4. Clay or sand 8 



pears that the beds of Wilcox age are abont 

 4oO feet thick at WicklifTe. Tlieh' upper sur- 

 face is about 1, ().')() feet above the crystalline 

 floor of the embapnent. 



Tlie lignite beds are doubtless to be corre- 

 lated with those exposed near Mayfield, Ky. 

 According to Loughridge'' they occur 7 miles 

 east of Wicldilfe, at Blandville, and on Pan- 



5. Lignite bed of preceding section; about 4 ther Creek, 6 miles east of Ma\'field, which 



indicates the extensive oscillations of level at 



tlie liead of the embayment during the early 

 Eocene. 



From the collections nnide from the low 

 exposin'(> of day stone I have determined the 



6. Clay or sand; about 10 



Louglxridge ' discussed sections in tliis same 

 ridge which were situated somewhat west of 

 those just given. At that time the railroad 

 ran along the river bank, which is now ntuch 

 washed and overgrown. The new right of way following species: 

 skh-ts the eastern instead of the western edge Anacardites metopif.dia. 

 of the ridge, (ilenn - gives well records (quoted Banisteria pseudolaurifolia. 

 from drillers' recollections) from which it up- Bani.stotia wikoxiana. 

 Banlcsia saffordi. 



Banksia tenuifolia. 



Carapa eoUgnitica. 



* Louehridge, R. H., Report on the geological and economic features of 

 the Jackson's purchase region: Kentucky Geol. Sui-vey, pp. 4T, 48, 233, 

 IgSS. 



2U. S. Geol. Survey Waler-Supply Taper 1(14, pp. I2o-12«, 1900. 



2 Op. cit., p. 42. 



