— 4 
1%. * “ p 
_ by E. Gandia 327 
x 1. Be well was dg | in tle Choctaw nation, at the agency of 
the United, States, the year 1812 or 1813, under the direc- 
* tion of Silas Dinsmore, , Esq. the agent. The excavation was 
continued t6 the»dépth of one hundred and seyenty-two feet. 
No water was found. “At no great distance aos the surface, 
marine exuviz were found in abundance. The shells were 
small, and imbedded in a soft clay, similar to marine earth, 
This formation continued till the excavation ceased. Disper- 
sed through it, were found lumps of selenite, or foliated gyp- 
sum, some of which were half as large as a man’s fist. péci- 
mens of the earth, the exuvie, and the selenite, have been 
transmitted for your examination. ‘This excavation was made 
one hundred and twenty miles north northeast of Natchez. 
The Pearl River is four miles to the east of the place, and is 
the only considerable stream in this part of the country. 
2. In the Chickasaw nation, one hundred and seventy miles 
north of the Choctaw agency, commence beds of oysten-shellgs 
which continue to be seen at intervals for twelve miles. Four 
miles from the first bed, you come to what is called “ Chicka- 
saw Old Town,” where they are observed in great abundance. 
They are imbedded in low ridges of a white marl. They ap- 
pear to be of two kinds. Specimens of each, and also of the 
marl, you have received. ‘Chickasaw Old Town,” is a name 
now appropriated to a prairie, ona -part of which there for- 
merly stood a small village of Chickasaws. The prairie is 
twenty miles long, and four wide. The shells occur in three 
Places as you cross it, and again, on two contiguous hills to the 
east of it, at the distance of four miles. They do not cover 
the surface merely. ‘They form a constituent part of the hills 
or plains in which they are found. Wherever the earth has 
been washed so as to produce deep gutters, they are seen in 
greatest abundance. Nor are they petrifactions, such as are 
found in rocks. ‘They have the same appearance as common 
oyster-shells, they lie loose in the earth, and thus indicate a 
comparatively recent origin. They occur three hundred miles 
northeast of Natchez, and but sixty miles south of the Dividing 
Ridge. 
