90 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



In central Alabama, the Jackson formation occupies the prairie 

 region in Choctaw, Clark, Monroe, and Conecuh counties, but the 

 exposures are often restricted to narrow belts by the overlapping of 

 more recent formations. Although most of the territory, which was 

 settled by the early pioneers, was at that time covered with coniferous 

 and deciduous woods, there were small treeless tracts here and there 

 which were called " prairies." These open spaces were the first to be 

 farmed and upon them flourished fields of cotton, which were culti- 

 vated with the assistance of slaves. In time the natural fertility of 

 the soil was greatly depleted and many of these prairie fields were 

 allowed to revert to their natural condition. Others became impos- 

 sible to cultivate because in plowing the furrows were thrown in such 

 a way that the fields were subjected to severe erosion during long con- 

 tinued rains. Each drainage path in time became a deep gully and 

 ultimately the field was so cut up that further cultivation was impos- 

 sible. For years the destructive action of erosion has been allowed to 

 continue without any serious effort being made to check its ravages 

 until now many of these fields are criss-crossed in every direction by 

 deep gullies. In some places the " Zeuglodon " horizon was so close 

 to the surface that the skeletons were thrown out by the plow. These 

 bones were gathered up by the negroes and dumped along the edges 

 of the fields where occasionally they may now be found partially 

 buried in the accumulated debris. Some twenty occurrences of remains 

 of the gigantic zeuglodont that had been destroyed either by the plow 

 or by erosion and weathering were observed in Choctaw County dur- 

 ing the period of our visit. It is in these so-called " washed-out " 

 prairie fields that one finds today numerous exposures of the " Zeu- 

 glodon " horizon. In such fields were found a number of more or less 

 complete skeletons of the small zeuglodont, Zygorhiza, and various 

 portions of the skeleton of the gigantic Basilosaurus. In one instance 

 various fragments of a skeleton of Zygorhiza were found scattered 

 along an abandoned logging road. This skeleton has been exposed by 

 the iron-rimmed wheels of lumber trucks and subsequently destroyed 

 by the same agency. At another place a skeleton of another individual 

 lay in a cow-path where it had been trampled on for many years 

 by the feet of innumerable cattle. 



