1835.] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



147 



nine hundred feet, until it was covered with the su- 

 perficial soil. Unusual as is the magnitude of the 

 superficial cubic contents of this vein, yet it must 

 be insignificant to the subterranean quantity. This 

 extraordinary phenomenon filled me with admira- 

 tion. Here was a single locality of iron offering 

 all the resources of Sweden, and of which it was 

 impossible to estimate the value by any other 

 terms than those adequate to all a nation's wants.* 

 Upon a more minute investigation of the country, 

 1 found other similar metallic beds, though not of 

 an equal extent, and all upon the public lands. 



Extract from Fealherstouliaugh's Geological Report. 



NOTICE OF THE PRAIRIES WEST OF THE MIS- 

 SISSIPPI THEORY OF THEIR FORMATION. 



From the Caddo to Tournois creek, the distance 

 is about fifteen miles, always upon good level soil. 

 Part of the country, however, was sandy, with 

 heavy beds of a bluish green arenaceous clay, con- 

 taining a trace of lime. I found no fossils or im- 

 pressions in it, but was induced to believe it was 

 the equivalent of some tertiary beds I had seen 

 nearShirly, on James river, Virginia. The whole 

 of this part of the country almost seems to be un- 

 derlaid with rotten limestone, derived from broken 

 down marine shells. The country hence for seve- 

 ral miles, consists of good bottom land, full of hol- 

 ly and laurel, with occasional hills of old red sand- 

 stone of moderate size, with their usual pine 

 trees. Having gone about twenty miles, the coun- 

 try tell again to the south, and I soon came tc an 

 important stream which rises to the north west, 

 and empties into the Washita, called the Little 

 Missouri, from its waters being of a dusky red, 

 muddy color. On crossing this stream, I enter- 

 ed upon a dense low bottom of the richest soil, 

 covered with cane, holly, laurel, and swamp 

 timber, intersected by numerous bayous; this lasted 

 for three miles, when the country began to rise a 

 little again; and, after advancing a Tew mifes, I 

 came upon a singularly black waxy soil of a car- 

 bonaceous color, entirely different from any thing 

 I had yet observed, except the surface of the tra- 

 vertin, at the Hot Springs, which, as I have before 

 observed, was not dissimilar to this, agreeing 

 further in the profusion of helices and other land 

 shells with which it abounded. The country here ap- 

 peared to consist of achain of prairies running west- 

 ward, and parallel with Red River for a very great 

 distance. Some of these prairies were mere bald 

 spots, of half an acre and upwards, surrounded 

 by plants, whilst others were said to contain seve- 

 ral hundred acres. In every instance they were 

 surrounded with a belt of timber and plants pecu- 

 liar to the country. I was informed by Judge 

 Cross, a gentleman well acquainted with the coun- 

 try, and to whose intelligence and hospitality I 

 owe many obligations, that these prairies extend 

 probably many hundred miles to the west, and 

 that it is an opinion deserving of being entertained, 

 that plants are encroaching upon the prairies gen- 

 erally. It was with sincere pleasure I found my- 

 self upon geological grounds, with which I was 



* It yields about sixty-five per cent, of fine iron, but 

 is found not to weld easily, which I attribute to an ex- 

 cess of sulphur. 



well acquainted. The prairies were covered with the 

 fossils which, as I have before observed, charac- 

 terize the New Jersey green sand formations,* 

 but the superficial soil was uniformly of a deep 

 black color, resembling charred wood, and in wet 

 weatherisof awax} r , plasticconsistency, that makes 

 it extremely disagreeable to move amongst. lis 

 fertility is remarkable, and renders it eminently 

 fitted for cotton, which, as I had many opportuni- 

 ties of observing, succeeds well. The black soil, 

 which is substantially calcareous, contains, as I 

 found from slight experiments, a proportion of car- 

 bon. 



This was one of the most lovely countries I had 

 seen, a gentle rolling surface and fine woods, in 

 which is an abundance of the indigenous crab ap- 

 ple,! with the beautiful bow wood, J or D °i s d'arc, 

 as it is usually called. On examining where the 

 streams had abraded the lower parts of the land, 

 and digging in various places, I found that all 

 these portions of the country, which consisted of 

 prairie land, were bottomed upon immense beds 

 of rotten limestone, derived from the testaceous 

 remains of the mollusca I have named, entire 

 shells of which in a soft state are still imbedded 

 in the broken down masses once composed of 

 shells. The zone of black land here does not ap- 

 pear to have a breadth of more than five miles; 

 wherever it is, the same fossils are found, with the 

 undervalves profusely scattered around on the sur- 

 face. Sometimes the black earth gave place to a 

 deep red marl of great fertility, but in this marl 

 I found no shells; they seemed peculiar to the black 

 prairie land. It was evident I was here upon an 

 ancient floor of the ocean, from which we may in- 

 fer it had retired with comparative tranquillity, the 

 surface being so little disturbed. The broken down 

 marine shelly matter had accumulated into local 

 beds and extensive hill deposites, after the manner 

 in which we know some existing species accumu- 

 late, and the general irregularity of the surface 

 was not dissimilar to that which is presented by 

 the various soundings of marine coasts, where re- 

 cent surfaces are forming. These accumulations 

 are more or less covered with a vegeto-animal de- 

 posite, that, by the constantly acting power of the 

 elements, is partially removed, and carried by rains 

 towards the streams; hence this covering is dimin- 

 ished in some places, and thickened in others. In 

 some situations the black soil is two or three feet 

 deep, whilst in others it is only a few inches thick, 

 in which latter situations the tender roots of plants, 

 having in extreme dry weather, to contend with 

 a caustic calcareous bed, are liable to perish; the 

 Indian corn for this reason, is sometimes what is 

 called fired, its leaves drying up and wasting 

 away. These characteristics of the prairie coun- 

 try, as far as this particular zone of prairies is con- 

 cerned, is common to a vast extent of country to 

 the west of the points I examined. To the east 

 the zone extends from north latitude 33° 40' to 

 north latitude 32° 30', in the state of Alabama§, 



* Gryphaee convexa, exogyra costata, &c. &c. 



f Malus coronaria, twenty feet high, ten inches in 

 diameter. 



f Maclura aurantiaca. 



§ Wells, five hundred feet deep, have been dug 

 through rotten limestone, into slate with quartz. 



