336 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Nov. 



Alabama State Geologist, whose kind recognition of the 

 utility of the microscope to the practical geologist has 

 enabled me to be of some assistance in the survey of this 

 state. He has published a synopsis of most of the micro- 

 scopical studies of the rocks, clays, etc., of several of the 

 formations in Alabama, and from time to time has sent 

 samples for determination out of which very useful re- 

 sults were obtained. . More particularly has light been 

 cast on the problem of the occurrence of a true cretaceous 

 chalk in Alabama. A single casual outcome from the in- 

 troduction from the word "Chalk" into the terminology 

 of the Alabama formations has led to a prediction from 

 an Ohio cement expert that Alabama in his opinion is 

 destined to produce annually ^5,000,000 worth of 

 cement from her chalk resources. 



As one approaches Enterprise, Miss., from the north, 

 at a point where two separate lines of railroads parallel 

 each other, there may be seen a ])eautiful illustration of 

 the stratification series of the Radioliarian-bearing 

 rocks. The trains run through deep, but very wide cuts 

 at intervals for several miles, when the observer will note 

 the chalky whiteness of the almost perpendicular walls of 

 the cuts, and the nearly horizontal layers succeeding each 

 other with a regularity as if done by human agencies. 

 As cut after cut is passed, the effect of erosion may be 

 noted. The cuts present arched contours where the 

 planes of the walls cut the hill surface, while the horizon- 

 tal planes of the stratification do not exhibit any deviation 

 from straight lines in their trend from north to south nor 

 indications of the synclinal or anticlinal folds of the rocks 

 of the carboniferous period. All of these thousands of 

 thin layers represent a slow rain of Protozoan and other 

 life during the aeons of the Eocene of Geology. They 

 have been crystallized or molded, particle by particle, 

 speck by speck, to form a part of our terrestrial globe. 

 This rain still persists in the great oceans of to-day. It 



