.480 THE AZOIC SYSTEM AND ITS SUBDIVISIONS. 



Mountain series, appear, from the incidental observations to be found in 

 Lieber's reports, to belong to a higher group than the chloritic and serpentine 

 series, and to dip at comparatively moderate angles," 



We have not been able to find in Mr. Lieber's reports any evidence 

 that the gneissic rocks of Abbeville and Anderson districts were con- 

 sidered by him as newer than the chloritic and serpentine series. On 

 the contrary, the granites and gneisses are again and again stated to 

 be the oldest rocks in the State. 



GEORGIA. 



In Georgia, according to Dr. George Little, the State Geologist, there 

 are no Azoic rocks ; but Dr. Hunt on lithological grounds referred some 

 gneisses (granites) to the Montalban, and some slates probably to the 

 Taconian. 



TEXAS. 



Mr. S. B. Buckley, State Geologist, in his various reports, describes 

 various forms of eruptive, crystalline, and metamorphic rocks as occur- 

 ring in that State. In his First Annual Report he defines the Azoio 

 as follows : — 



" The Azoic are igneous rocks, destitute of animal and vegetable matter, 

 thrown up from below, or rocks altered by contact with such melted matter. 

 .... Some of the Azoic rocks are the oldest known, and others not, for there 

 are granites in Texas, .... which have been thrown up during the forma- 

 tion of the rocks of the older Silurian." (I. c, pp. 15, 16, 76.) 



In his Second Report, Mr. Buckley recognizes two distinct ages — 

 the Azoic and the Eozoic — as forming " Archaean time." In the Azoic 

 he includes the granites and their associated rocks destitute of fossils ; 

 viz. shales, mica schists, gneiss, hornblende, porphyries, etc. There are 

 said to have been two or more periods of the upheaval of the granites, 

 one probably later than the Cretaceous. 



Since it is so evident that Mr. Buckley under the head of Azoic 

 includes rocks of very different ages, it will not be necessary for us to 



