75 



Resting upon these, is another bed of clayey marl, without 

 fossils. 



" Overlaying the last, is another bed of the large 

 saddle- shaped oyster, which appears to have lived on the 

 spot. The height of the two last strata is seventeen feet. 



" The next stratum varies from fifteen to twenty feet 

 in height, and consists of fine loose quartzose sand, with 

 sharp angles, intermixed with ferruginous matter. In this 

 deposit are to be found nearly all the varieties of fossils the 

 bluff contains, in great abundance, amounting to nearly 

 three hundred species. 



'■ Next succeed several strata of carbonate of lime, with 

 a few species of shells like the preceding, ten feet high. 



" Above these, is a stratum of silicious sand and marl, 

 with a large portion of hydrate of iron, containing Echinae 

 and Pectens. 



"Alternating above the latter, are several strata of 

 common and shell limestone, intermixed with green sand, 

 remarkable for a new species of Turbinolia ; their height 

 varies from fifteen to twenty feet. Then succeed various 

 strata of red clay, gravel and shingle, to the upper surface 

 of the escarpment. 



" These strata may easily be identified, both by their 

 mineral properties and fossil contents, along the eastern 

 bank of the Alabama, for the space of a mile. I have, 

 indeed, found them persistent in almost every direction 

 from this point, as may be seen in many places on Limes- 

 stone Creek, also, in the interior of the countiy, and more 

 especially on the river, at Mr. Barefield's plantation, five 

 miles below Claiborne, where there is a similar deposit, as 

 regards both its mineral properties and organic remains. 



"In Clark County, ten miles west of Claiborne, the same 

 strata appear again, approaching even to the limits of the 

 chalk formation. This is on the plantation of my friend 

 Mr. F. Bettis, in a valley at the bottom of a brook, perhaps 

 one hundred and fifty feet below the horizontal level of a 

 cretaceous deposit, half a mile distant. Other places may 

 possibly be found here, where the peculiarities of both sys- 

 tems may be studied to advantage, in the immediate vicinity 

 of each other. 



" It is highly probable that these older strata of the tertiary 

 system, underlying the more recent deposits, extend through- 

 out the southern section of the State, retaining, with but 

 little variation, the same normal characteristic they exhibit 

 at Claiborne. This opinion is corroborated by the dis- 



