184 PROCEBDINaS OF THE NATIONAL MVF^EVM. vol.41. 



to the Burlington. These beds are undoubtedly equivalent to some 

 part of the Knobs series, and some of the species occurring there will 

 be referred to in the list which is to follow. 



The locality of Whites Creek is an extremely interesting one. It 

 was referred to by SaJfford in his Geology of Tennessee, 1860, page 

 342, as a good representative of his Lower, or Protean, member of the 

 Lower Carboniferous. He gave a list of the fossils occurring there, 

 of which he said: "Most of the above species occurring outside of 

 Tennessee are Keokuk forms." And from that day to this every 

 fossil collected at Whites Creek above the Niagara beds has been 

 labeled "Keokuk," if the local name, Tullahoma, was not employed. 

 As before stated, the section in the vicinity extends from the Niagara 

 to the Warsaw. According to Bassler's section, a bed of green Kinder- 

 hook shale overlies the Black Slate, followed by about 35 feet of 

 rather light gray limestone, which is massive on first exposure, but 

 upon weathermg produces material similar to that in the talus of the 

 middle or upper layers in the Knobs. This limestone is highly fos- 

 siliferous, and contains numerous crinoid remains. Above it is a 

 heavy bed of siliceous Keokuk Limestone, containing crinoids simi- 

 lar to those of Barren County, Kentucky, and of the typical Keokuk. 

 This weathers to a reddish, or dirty yellow, clay, which imparts its 

 color to objects embedded in it. 



The country is rough, with many hills, ridges, or small mountains, 

 separated by numerous ravines and gullies leading to level fields 

 below. Erosion has been great, and the gullies and fields contain 

 the washings from the entire slopes of the ridges and mountains, 

 often deposited in thick and very ancient clay beds. The reddish 

 Keokuk Limestone caps the hills, while the gray limestone overly- 

 ing the shales is in the slopes below it. 



Now, fossils found in place at the top of the hills can be depended 

 upon as Keokuk; they are usually reddish or dirty yellow in color, 

 like the rock containing them, highly siliceous, and often geodized — 

 a frequent occurrence in the Keokuk. Those found in place in the 

 gray limestone are a dirty bluish or gray, sometimes geodized, but 

 more often entirely replaced by silica as solid as flint. But these 

 same fossils, when transported by erosion down the slopes, and buried 

 under soil washed from the beds above, take on a reddish or reddish- 

 brown color; and as the fossils of both beds are highly siliceous, it 

 is impossible to distinguish such specimens with certainty by their 

 physical appearance. Again, the fossils from the upper beds, when 

 long embedded in the clays derived from the gray limestone, or from 

 the shales below it, have lost their reddish color and have come to 

 resemble those of the lower limestone. It is evident, therefore, that 

 specimens found in the washes, gullies, slopes, or fields below the 

 top of the hills may be from either the Keokuk or the gray limestone; 



