FLORA OF OLDER POTOMAC FORMATION. 391 



nodules. Next came a bed of dark-greenish clays 25 feet thick. There 

 was a stratified layer above this some 3 feet thick, and the uppermost 

 bed, 6 or 7 feet thick, consisted of coarse, gray or white arkose sand or 

 gravel, scarcely differing from the one below, but holding silicified wood. 

 These beds of arkose seemed to represent the Rappahannock freestone 

 and the interstratified clays to correspond to the clay lenses in the James 

 River deposits. 



I stopped at Weldon on April 6 and reexamined the exposure at 

 the north end of the railroad bridge, seen by our party in 1885. It was 

 in better condition and some 30 feet of the sands were visible. The lower 

 20 feet were especially clear and were cross-bedded. The upper 10 feet 

 were more regularly stratified and striped with shades of brown, the sand 

 finer and not cross-bedded. No clay inclusions were seen. It still 

 remains problematical. 



This place was again visited b}^ me in June of the same year, in 

 company with Prof. J. A. Holmes, State geologist of North Carohna, 

 and Professor Fontaine, but during the interval since my visit on April 6 

 there had been floods and the fine bank of sand had been washed and 

 undermined, covering all the lower part of the exposure with talus. 

 The same party made a somewhat thorough examination of a large area 

 in that State coastward of the Triassic outcrops, in the hope of finding 

 the Older Potomac. There seems no doulDt of its occurrence near 

 Moncure (Haywood). Rather typical arkose was found there. We 

 traveled from Sanford to Fayetteville in two hand cars, kindly lent 

 us by the railroad company, which enabled us to study the geology to 

 good advantage. All the upper beds are of Tuscaloosa age, but in the 

 bed of the lower Little River, at the railroad bridge, just above the water 

 and 20 feet below the tracks, there occur massive, green or bluish sandy 

 clays, which were believed to represent the Older Potomac. These rest 

 on the crystalline rocks. At Old Manchester, below an abandoned 

 factory, the river banks are 50 feet high, most of which consist of this 

 clay, which weathers red and purple. The upper 12 feet seem to be 

 Tuscaloosa resting on this clay. 



The party descended the Cape Fear from Faj^etteville to Wilmington, 

 stopping and examining the bluffs at numerous points. The section 

 seems to be complete from the Older Potomac through the marine 

 Cretaceous (Matawan), and the Later Tertiary beds overlie this last. 



