420 Scientific Intelligence. 
Baldwin Co. is a part of that alluvial region lying along the Atlantic 
Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico. It extends from the Gulf along the east 
side of Mobile Bay, Tensaw and Mobile rivers, about 100 miles, and is 
about 50 wide in its broadest part. Its general surface is nearly level, 
covered with a continuous forest of the long-leaved-pine, with the ex- 
ception of here and there savannahs, which are wet and miry, produc- 
ing tall rank grass. On the edge of one of these, a large quantity of 
clear water boils up with much force, through a bed. of quicksand. 
There are also numerous small ponds... Wherever the recent action of 
water has worn away the earth for several feet, beds of clay are ex- 
posed. This surface is about 200 feet above the Tensaw River; at 
about two miles distant from the river, it begins to slope down to 
it, and is cut into deep ravines, from the sides of which and upon 
the sloping surface, the sandstone is exposed. First, nearly on the 
height of land, are found tubes like those mentioned by Mr. Buckley, 
with this difference, those contained yellow ochre, these contain fine or 
coarse sand varying in color from the purest white through the shades of 
yellow to almost a red; the sand «is stratified, generally lengthwise 
the tubes, sometimes transversely. In some localities these tubes con- 
tain silicified wood; the wood is found, in small fragments, in. great 
abundance. Ihave dug out tubes from four to six feet long. About 
60 feet below these, three quarters of a mile distant, are three or four 
small masses of the sandstone jutting from the sloping surface, which 
contain abundant but very obscure impressions of ‘shells, apparently all 
bivalves. There are evidently several genera; the outlines of some 
‘are quite regular, and in two or three a part of the hinge is discernible. 
Still lower 40 or 50 feet, a quarter of a mile distant, the sandstone is 
exposed several feet thick, but I could not find any Pe sania 
The impressions of shells contained yellow ochre. 
eAt the highest point, where the tubes are found, there are several 
ledges of the sandstone, over which fragments are scattered, bearing 
N. E. and 8. W., appearing to have been washed by currents of water 
from the north. ‘The strata vary in thickness from one half an inch to 
two inches ; are inclined at an angle of 15°, 25°, and 30°, according to 
the locality, generally about 30° ; and dip to a. point a little S. of E. 
as if deposited from the W: or N. W. They are very much fractured, 
the faults perpendicular, yet the sandstone appears to be in its original 
position. The evidence for this is the fact, that the tubes are nearly 
all found horizontal, which would be their proper position if formed 
around sunken wood, as I suppose they were. The strata are every 
where at an angle of about 30° to the tubes; these are imbedded in» 
Sandstone ; they are nearly as hard again as-the strata, the proportion 
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