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the point where I measured it, about one hundred and sixty feet 

 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 away the 

 surface of the escarpment, and filling the channel of the river with 

 the detritus. 



The bluff exhibits two distinct terraces occasioned by strata more 

 indurated than the others, and consequently resisting in a greater 

 degree the action of disintegrating causes. A similar bluff of equal 

 extent occurs on the Alabama, about three miles south of Clai- 

 borne ; alluvium intervenes, and then follows a third bluff of much 

 less elevation than the preceding. Here, the arenaceous stratum, 

 which is highly ferruginous, contains vast numbers of Scutella 

 Lyelli, (nob.) 



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 the 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 creta- 

 ceous group occurring in the vicinity, that without reference to its 

 organic remains; it might be considered of the same age as the^lat- 

 ter, which is far from being the fact ; it is of less value as a build-- 

 ing material, for it more rapiflly disintegrates on exposure to the 

 atmosphere. Several springs flow over this rock which issue from 

 the base of the stratum above, and the water is considered purer 

 than that of the wells in the village. This limestone is about forty- 

 five feet in thickness, and contains a few obscure casts of shells, 

 referrible to species occurring in the sand beneath. The Scutella 

 Lyelli is the most frequent fossil, but it also occurs in great abun- 

 dance in the sand whenever that is sufficiently coherent to preserve 

 its form. 



2. Immediately beneath is a terrace of sandstone, from three to 

 six feet thick, being the upper portion of the arenaceous stratum 

 which has furnished nearly all our Eocene testacea. Over this ter- 



[88] 



