221] E. W. Berry 23 



The Tuscaloosa sands grade seaward into the glauconitic 

 sands and thinly laminated clays of the Eutaw formation 

 which contains a sparing representation of the marine life 

 of the time,, which must have been in part at least contem- 

 poraneous with the Tuscaloosa. A few plants in the near 

 shore transgressing phase have been collected from near 

 Havana in Hale County, Alabama. The upper Eutaw, or 

 Tombigbee sand member I regard as a transgressing deposit 

 and in conformity with this interpretation it contains a much 

 better marine fauna than the earlier Eutaw deposits. Over- 

 lying the Eutaw formation is the Selma chalk an argilla- 

 ceous limestone or calcareous clay which reaches its maximum 

 thickness in the same region as does the Tuscaloosa sands, 

 namely southwest of the axis of the Appalachian land mass. 

 In this area the Selma chalk continues upward to the Eocene 

 contact. Its outcrop as shown on the accompanying sketch 

 map is almost perfectly lunate, and at its horns both to the 

 east and the north it passes over into sands. The Selma, as 

 shown by its abundance of Ostracea and other Mollusca is a 

 shallow water deposit. So far as my observation goes it is 

 entirely destitute of drift wood, lignite or any considerable 

 sandy beds in the area of its greatest thickness and the point 

 that I wish to make is that the southwestern drainage that 

 explains the character of the Tuscaloosa sediments must have 

 been reduced to a minimum or become practically non-exist- 

 ant before the deposition of the Selma chalk. The prevailing 

 direction of the drainage during Selma time must have been 

 to the southeast and northwest in order to explain the Eipley 

 sands in those regions and the absence of any except the 

 finest terrigenous materials in the main body of the Selma 

 chalk. 



Inferentially if the Cretaceous Tennessee River was a fac- 

 tor in the building of the Tuscaloosa delta, local warping 

 must have broken its continuity with the Warrior drainage 

 and started it toward the northwest before the deposition of 

 the Selma chalk. It is possible that this may have been 

 accomplished without local warping by the simple clogging 



