ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 83 



superficial deposits iu the southern half of the eastern region of 

 North Carolina, and probably of the Atlantic slope southward, are 

 generally eocene and not quaternary, will necessitate the re-writing 

 of the quaternary as well as the eocene geological history of this 

 region. The unquestioned quaternary deposits of North Carolina 

 are now confined to a few counties in the northeast region of the 

 State, especially in the vicinity of Weldon, (Halifax county), on the 

 Raleigh & Gaston Railroad, at an elevation of less than 100 feet, 

 and along the coast region where the quaternary merges into the 

 modern deposits. And these quaternary gravel beds of the Weldon 

 region are underlaid by fossiliferous miocene deposits. Admitting 

 that the superficial deposits of clay, sand, gravel and shingle cap- 

 ping the hills as ab'^ut Carthage, in Moore county, Rockingham, in 

 Richmond, and Wadesboro, in Anson county, some of which have 

 an elevation of from 300 to 500 feet above tide water are eocene, it 

 is clear that during this epoch there was a submergence of that 

 region, so that the eocene seas extended inland from 100 to 150 

 miles west of the present coast line, and covered many of the hills 

 along the eastern margin of what we now call the hill country or 

 middle section of the State. And taese eocene deposits covered up 

 during this time the underlying cretaceous, a considerable part of 

 the triassic, and a broad area of archrean rocks. But the absence of 

 quaternary deposits from this region leaves us wanting in evidence 

 that there was any re-submergence of this region during the cham plain 

 e^-och, or at any time subsequent to the eocene. However, the 

 quaternary gravels in the Weldon region, of an elevation of some 

 thing less than 100 feet above tide water, show a depression there 

 during some part of that period ; and the existence of quaternary 

 shell deposits in the present seacoast region, a few feet above tide 

 water, as on the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers, shows, of course, a 

 subsidence of this region while these deposits were being made. 

 There is also evidence of past eocene submergence of that region of 

 the State nearer the coast in the fact that the eocene limestone rock 

 at both Rocky Point, near the present banks of the Northeast Cape 

 Fear river, and at Magnolia quarry, on the Cape Fear river, about 

 12 miles above Wihoington, has its surface extensively and irregu- 

 larly eroded. Pot-holes in the surface of these deposits are numerous 

 and large. But there is no evidence that this submergence extended ,' 

 very far west in the southern portion of the State. • 



Following the extended eocene submergence of the South Atlantic 

 slope, was a gradual re-elevation. The numerous exposures from 

 the extreme western margin eastward for a considerable distance 



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