NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. SI 



FIG. 1. 



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i. The upper bed is the common marine sand spread wide- 

 ly over the county. 2. Beneath it there is a mass of brown 

 soil, or earth, which is probably more widely spread than any 

 other in the eastern part of the State. It is sometimes pebbly 

 towards the upper part, and at many places the pebbles are 

 cemented by oxide of iron. A pudding stone is thereby 

 formed, which is very firm, and has been employed as a rough 

 building material. In the vicinity of Fayetteville it is not 

 unfrequently used for the more ordinary kinds of construction. 

 From the vicinity of Raleigh eastward it may be seen by the 

 road-side where a cut has been extended through the super- 

 incumbent sand. This bed, which is at least twelve feet thick 

 at Fayetteville, originated in the decomposition of primary 

 rocks, the debris of which becomes red, or reddish brown, by 

 exposure to the atmosphere. If any thing, it is more persist- 

 ent towards the belt where these rocks formed the surface 

 materials. How this stratum has been spread out so evenly 

 and widely through the whole width of the State from south 

 to north is not satisfactorily accounted for. Along the wes- 

 tern margin referred to it rests on the rocks from which it is 

 derived. Eastward, however, where recent beds of different 

 kinds take their proper places, this brown earth formation is 

 found near the surface, but with ; several marine strata be- 

 neath and upon which it reposes. J.t always maintains the 

 position I have given it, or its relations are never altered ; 

 and hence, though it may be regarded as a soil, still it must 

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