209 



LiGNiTic Stage i7 



railroad cuts, gullies, and in nearly all exposures, it is gener- 

 ally a great stratified mass of yellow, orange, red or brown 

 and white sands, presenting occasionally an inter-stratified bed of 

 wdiite, gray, or varigated clay. * * * It is difficult to estimate 

 the thickness of the group. It doubtless dips, though at a slight 

 angle, to the west. Its thickness may be assumed to be about 

 600 feet. 



Three miles north of Sonierville he collecfled a series of fossil 

 leaves beautifully preserved in a thin sandstone in place. 

 These were named or described by Lesquereux in the Ameri- 

 can Journal of Science 2d ser., vol. 27, p. 363, 1859, as follows : 



r. Querais rnvrtif Ha ^iWd. ; 2. Prunus caroliniana Michx.; 

 3. Laurus caro'linensisf Michx. ; 4. Fagus ferruginea Michx. 

 (fruit); 5. Querciis crassinervisf Ung. ; 6. Quercus saffordi 

 Lesqx. '; 7. A7idromeda vaccmifolia affinis ; 8. Andromeda dubia 

 Lesqx. ; 9. Elceagnus iiiisqualis Lesqx. ; 10. Sapotadtes amer- 

 icanus Lesqx.*; 11. Salix densinervis Lesqx. Though Les- 

 quereux supposes these beds to be of Upper Miocene age, Saf- 

 ford very properly classes them as Eocene. 



Of the " Bluff lignite" Safford remarks that it is but a "provis- 

 ional group' ' generally well exposed below the gravel of the Missis- 

 sippi bluffs, but may thin out in an easterly diredtion. He gives a 

 seaion of those beds at Randolph, Tipton county, in which 

 lignitic sandy beds are 190 feet in thickness. 



Lesquereux's new species and a few others are figured in 

 Safford' s Geology of Tennessee, 7 ; and the general statements 

 regarding the Neozoic of western Tennessee as referred to 

 are reiterated in this State report. 



So far as we are aware no molluscan fossils have been found 

 in this State from the La Grange or Bluff sands— deposits that 

 presumably belong to the Lignitic stage. 



Mississippi. 



References .-—Anier. Jour. Set., vol. i, p. 324, 18 19, —Cornelius. 

 Prelim. Kept. Geol. Agr. Miss., 1837,— Harper. 

 Kept, on Geol. and Agr. Miss., 18 10, — Hilgai'd. 

 Proc. Amer. Asso. Adv. Sci., vol. xx, i87i,p. 222, 

 -maps, — Hilgard. Amer. Jour. Sci.. vol. Hip. 271, 

 187,1 — Hilgard. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 22, pp. 

 * This species is added to Lesquereux's list as published by Safford, 1864. 



