^ 82 :"/:; s 



in height. The strata are nearly horizontal, and continue so far 

 as the bluff extends, which is about one mile in length, and of 

 nearly uniform height, sloping gradually at either extremity, and 

 in front invariably precipitous, with occasional narrow and pro- 

 found ravines. The alluvial land, which bounds it on the north 

 and south, is subject to inundations during the spring freshets, 

 and the river has been known, though rarely, to rise sixty feet 

 above low water mark. This action of the current on the friable 

 strata, uniting with atmospheric causes, is gradually wearing a-' 

 way the surface of the escarpment, and filling the channel of the 

 river with the detritus. As fresh water shells are very abundant 

 here, they are buried beneath this debris, and mingled indiscrim- 

 inately with the fossils of marine origin, which in case of another 

 upheave of the strata would exhibit a mixture of marine and fresh 

 water shells. 



The bluff is clothed with Magnolias, the cotton tree, walnut, 

 chestnut, locust, &c. and exhibits two distinct terraces occasioned 

 by strata more indurated than the others, and consequently re- 

 sisting in a greater degree the action of disintegrating causes. A 

 similar bluff of equal extent occurs on the Alabama, about three 

 miles south of Claiborne : alluvium intervenes, and then follows 

 a third bluff of much less elevation than the preceding. Here, 

 in the arenaceous stratum, vast numbers of ScuteUa Lyelli, (nob.) 

 are imbedded, and the whole mass is highly charged with oxide 

 of iron. 



At Claiborne are five very distinct strata, four of which are 

 more strikingly defined by the peculiarity of their.fossils than by 

 their mineral character. Beneath the superficial covering of sand 

 and gravel, we observe the strata to be arranged in the following 

 order : 



1. There is a stratum of argillaceous limestone, more or less 

 friable, which so much resembles the newer limestone of the cre- 

 taceous group, occurring in the vicinity, that without reference 

 to its organic remains, it might be considered of the same age as 

 the latter, which is far from being the fact ; it is more agillaceous 

 and consequently of less value as a building material, for it more- 

 rapidly disintegrates on exposure to the atmosphere. Several 

 springs flow over this rock which issue from the base of the stra- 

 tum above, and the water is considered purer than that of the 

 wells in the village. This limestone is abolit forty-five feet in 

 thicknes, and contains a few obscure casts of shells, referrible to 

 species occurring in the sand beueath. TheScutella Lyelli is the 



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