NORTH-CAROLINA GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 101 





CHAPTEK VIII. 



Eocene or white marl Quantity or per centage of lime variable, but 

 greater usually than in the other varieties. The "Wads worth beds. 

 His letter and remarks. Beds upon the Neuse. Haughton's marl. 

 Composition, etc. 



71. In the ascending order, the next series of marls be- 

 long to that division of the formation which is known as terti- 

 ary, and that part of it which is called the eocene. This part 

 is the oldest section of the division, and hence, reposes upon 

 some part of the cretaceous system ; either the green sand, 

 which has been already considered, or else upon the chalk, 

 as is the case in Europe. 



Considered as a marl, it is readily distinguished from the 

 green sand, even where its relations are concealed. The 

 color is white, or else a light drab, or cream colored, and is 

 very frequently made up of grains, which, when examined 

 under the microscope, are found to be fragments of organic re- 

 mains, such as corals, shells and echinoderms. Some beds, 

 ten feet or more thick, are a mass of small fragments of 

 fossils, mixed with sand. Some have a chalky whiteness, 

 others take a brownish tinge. These beds are frequently 

 soft, and may be loaded into a cart like dirt. In other cases, 

 consolidation has taken place in part, and the mass is known 

 as stone marl. This variety of marl is more calcareous than 

 the green sand below, or the shell marl above, and when the 

 mass is consolidated it makes a tolerable lime for agricultural 

 purposes. But sand, which is a constant part of all forma- 

 tions in the eastern counties, exists in large proportions in 

 some beds, and usually exceeds fifty per cent. But some 

 beds have seventy or eighty per cent of lime, and when thus 

 charged, the lime is well fitted for mortar, or whitewashing, 

 as well as for agriculture. 



72. The eocene marl occupies a narrow but an ill-defined 

 zone, stretching across several of the eastern counties, from 

 the lower waters of the Cape Fear, in Hanover county, 



