301] B. Wade 103 



cal Survey showed that remnants of the Tuscaloosa gravel 

 occur in place on the Highland Rim of Tennessee as far 

 north as the northern Lewis County. 3 Farther north, during 

 the past summer, the writer encountered undescribed occur- 

 rences of the Tuscaloosa formation which show that the sedi- 

 ments of this transgressive phase of the Upper Cretaceous 

 exist in a chain of local outlying areas across the State of 

 Tennessee and as far^ north as the ridge west of Canton, 

 Kentucky. 



An important link in this chain are the gravels which 

 occur locally along the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis 

 Eailroad between McEwen and Tennessee City and capping 

 the higher hills in this part of Dickson County, Tennessee. 

 A cut on the railroad about two miles east of McEwen shows, 

 resting on chert of the St. Louis formation, about 30 feet 

 of very compact hard white chert gravel which is very typical 

 of the Tuscaloosa belt across the State. No paleontological 

 evidence has been obtained from the gravels about McEwen 

 to determine the age of these deposits, but after a study of 

 the lithology a swell as the geographic and topographic rela- 

 tions, the Tuscalocsa age of the McEwen gravels can hardly 

 be doubted. These gravels are made up of well rounded water 

 worn pebbles, most of which are one inch or less in diameter, 

 although many are larger, often ranging up to cobbles six 

 inches in diameter. Many individuals approach a sphere 

 in outline and in this respect they differ from the river 

 gravels which are common in terraces along the Western 

 Tennessee Valley. In the river gravels of this region the 

 individuals are often flat, elongated, and subangular. Small 

 discoidal quartzite pebbles are often conspicuous in the ter- 

 race conglomerates. The .Tuscaloosa conglomerates consist 

 for the most part of pebbles and boulders derived from 

 the Lower Carboniferous cherts which are common in this 

 part of the Mississippi basin. Water worn sandstone and 



3 Wade, Bruce, " Geology of Perry County and Vicinity." Resources 

 of Tennessee, 1914, vol. iv, no. 4, p. 173. 



