28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



iferous white marl, for which I assume a Pliocene age,* there rests a 

 stratum containing innumerable valves of the Venus canccllata (Post- 

 Pliocene). 



Mr. Thorpe conducted me to an outcrop of compact sand-rock in a 

 palm " hammak," just back of his sugar-mill, which had much the appear- 

 ance of the rock exposed at our last section on the river. Its absolute 

 stratigraphical relations with the beds exposed immediately on the river 

 front could not be established, but it is certainly very nearly the newest 

 of the series. 



The banks increase in height almost immediately after leaving Thorpe's, 

 but for a considerable distance there is a decided dearth of fossil remains. 

 Stray specimens of the oyster or Pecten appear here and there in the 

 beds, but for miles we found practically nothing. Before reaching 

 Daniels' a compact and highly fossiliferous rock forms the upper moiety 

 of the (right) bank, appearing at an elevation of from four to eight feet 

 above the water. Among the large number of molluscan casts occurring 

 here I recognized those of Venus canccllata and of species of Fulgur 

 (F. perversum ?), Turritella, Cardium, Area, etc., most of them undetermin- 

 able specifically. There can be no question, however, that they represent 

 the forms (Pliocene) which occur in such a beautiful state of preservation 

 a short distance further up the stream, and which, by their vast numbers 

 and large size, constitute probably one of the most remarkable exposures 

 of fossils to be seen anywhere. In the lower part of the bank above 

 described we found the large oyster associated with many fragments of 

 the scallops already referred to. We also obtained numerous Rangias 

 from the bed immediately underlying the top-sancls. 



A fine exposure of yellow and buff limestone, averaging about ten 

 feet in height, is presented above Daniels', the different strata of which it 

 is composed apparently dipping to the east ; the bottom bed is a compact 

 shell-rock, containing innumerable shell remains, largely fragmentary. I 

 feel confident that the dip observed here is purely local, a possible result 

 of sagging, and that it does not interfere with the general scheme of 

 horizontality that is presented both above and below this point. 



A short distance above this locality begin the highly fossiliferous 

 deposits to which reference has already been made, and which extend 

 practically without intermission to Fort Thompson, a distance along the 

 river of some ten to twelve miles. This is without question the most 

 remarkable fossiliferous deposit that has as yet been discovered in the 

 State, and from a purely paleontological standpoint, perhaps the most 

 significant in the entire United States east of the Mississippi River. The 

 fossils, which are about equally distributed between both banks, crop out 



* The same oyster and scallops are contained in the unequivocal Pliocene deposits 

 occurring further up the river, occupying approximately the same relative positions. 



