294 T. O. MABRY 



Lafayette gravel, No. ( 2 ) of the preceding section being- 

 absent. 



B. The relations of the Loess and the Brown Loam along the 

 " bluffs " of southwest Tate and northwest Panola counties.- — In this 

 region the bluff is much higher, though far less precipitous than 

 at Memphis, where it is being continuously washed at its base. 

 The estimated height of the rampart at Askew's Bluff, north- 

 west Panola, is 200 feet. But thence it diminishes in altitude 

 both northward and southward. Concretions and fossils are 

 generally to be found in abundance within a few hundred yards 

 eastward from the present base of the rampart in this region, 

 but no clear cut section showed in any one place the character- 

 istics and the relations of the Loess from the top down to the 

 Lafayette. However, a continuous, descending section from 

 the summit of Askew's Bluff passes over several feet of gravels, 

 similar to those at Memphis and southward, about two-thirds of 

 the way down. Further down, the blue clays of the Lignitic are 

 struck and something like 40 or 50 feet are exposed ; and one- 

 quarter mile north, in a ravine, there is found a seam of cheesy 

 lignite one or two feet thick. Traced eastward from this point the 

 loess passes insensibly into the surface loam. The main body 

 of the Loess here, as elsewhere, is as a rule, less disintegrated 

 than the Yellow Loam ; but the formation is apt to be more 

 loam-like at the top, where most exposed to atmospheric action. 



Traced northward the Loess seems to maintain its typical 

 character as far as studied, i. e., to the road running west from 

 Senatobia. Proceeding eastward along this road from the bluff, 

 here quite low, the shells soon disappear from the Loess, but 

 limestone concretions were found as far as four or five miles from 

 the foot of the bluff, at a point one mile east of Strayhorn. 

 Between these two places the Loess frequently alternates with 

 loam, and at one place, about one and one-half miles west of 

 Strayhorn, limestone concretions and ferruginous " buckshot '" 

 were found associated together in a sort of loess-loam, which 

 became more loamy at the top. Here, as frequently, the lime- 

 stone concretions assume dendritic forms, caused evidently by 



