100 THE OLDER MESOZOIC FLORA OF VIRGINIA. 



States, where the horizon as derived from the animal remains is Cretaceous 

 while the plants point to a Tertiary age. 



Emmons states that the bituminous slate group is succeeded by gray 

 and drab-colored thinly-bedded sandstones, which in some places attain a 

 considerable thickness. Near Egypt, in the Deep River belt, these rocks are 

 1,200 feet thick. They are poor in fossils, containing only a few fucoids. 

 This series is much concealed by the soil, and is exposed only to a very 

 limited extent. The beds contain common salt diffused through them in 

 small quantities. These rocks form the upper part of Emmons's Chatham 

 series, and at Egypt they become red below the upper conglomerate or, 

 No. 5. The change of color occurs sometimes lower down, and sometimes 

 higher up. Up to the conglomerate No. 5, Emmons considers that his Per- 

 mian strata or the Chatham series extend. As to the Permian age of these 

 beds, I will say that the plants indicate that they are of the same age as the 

 plant-bearing beds of the Virginia Mesozoic. The rocks overlying the 

 Chatham series begin with a conglomerate. Emmons considers them to be 

 of Triassic age. 



The so-called Trias of North Carolina has, according to Emmons, the 

 following order and character in its beds: 1. Conglomerate No. fi, alter- 

 nating with beds of gray sandstone and blue, non-bituminous slate. The 

 aggregate thickness on Deep River is about 40 feet. 2. Even-bedded gray 

 sandstone, which is .300 to 500 feet thick at Haywood and other places in the 

 Deep River belt. 3. Red, marly sandstone, which in some places is suffi- 

 ciently hard and durable to make a building stone. It is at least 1,000 feet 

 thick in the Deep River belt in Orange, Chatham, and Anson Counties. 

 Towards the top of the series, according to Emmons, conglomerates become 

 quite general. In Anson County there are heavy conglomerates near the 

 close of this period. 



This is the account given by Emmons of the strata above the upper 

 conglomerate No. 5. I presume the conglomerates last mentioned are those 

 to be found on the eastern side of the Deep River belt, and mentioned by 

 Kerr as being very coarse and unconsolidated, in Wake County. Emmons 

 states that the horizon yielding plants at Lockville and other points near by 



