96 ON THE SECONDARY AND TERTIARY FORMATIONS 



I collected at Murfreesboro', on the south side of the Meherrin 

 river. Some brooks have cut deep into the sand hills on which 

 the town stands, and have distinctly exposed the marl ; while from 

 the bed they have washed out a profusion of fossil shells, chiefly 

 Pectens and Ostrece. Not far above the marl is a stratum of stiff, 

 red clay, alternating with layers of sand. A bed of this character 

 I have noticed in a similar position throughout a great paft of the 

 southern States ; at Richmond, Va., it is very conspicuous near the 

 summits of the hills, as well as in the southern part of Sumter 

 district, S. C. ; and in many places in Georgia, near the Savan- 

 nah river, it is weU exposed. It is accompanied by white clay, 

 and sometimes by layers of gravel. From its position only on 

 high hills, and want of fossils, I consider it to belong to the dilu- 

 vium spread over the country after its elevation above the sea, 

 most of wliich has been subsequently washed and worn away 

 by long continued degradation. 



Near the Roanoke, some miles above Williamston, I observed 

 the marl by the road-side, and although it was hai'd frozen and 

 nearly covered with snow, I recognized in it many individuals of 

 our common recent shell, the Venus mercenaria. This is a very 

 poor part of North Carolina ; the land is quite flat and sandy, and 

 during the winter season one frequently rides for miles through 

 water several inches deep, by which the roads are flooded. 

 The principal growth is of pitch pine, from which a great deal 

 of tar and turpentine are made. The woods along the roads 

 present a singular appearance, every tree being half stripped of 

 its bai'k to the height of seven or eight feet, and the exposed 

 sm-face bleached by the white turpentine oozing out. A little 

 cavity is hollowed out at the base of the trunk, into which 

 most of the turpentine runs, and the remainder is scraped off 

 and put into barrels. The tree dies and becomes fat pine. This 

 is burned in pits, as wood is for charcoal, and the tar runs out 

 upon the carefully prepared clean floor. North Carolina tar is 

 inferior to that made in Norway, owing probably to less pains 

 being taken in the preparation. It is sent principally to the 

 north, where it sells for about a dollar and a half per barrel, but 



