24 Bulletin 9 316 



some places indurated, clay. The surface of the beds of rock is 

 often covered with silicified shells, much broken up, but often 

 capable of being determined. I io\xx).dL\^^x^ Cardita planicosta, 

 and Petcunculus idoneus. I traced these beds to Tallahatta 

 springs, where, on the top of a hill, this rock had been quarried 

 for millstones. The hills capped with this white silicious claj', 

 conspicuous throughout this region, are known between the 

 Springs and the Corner, as chalk hills. It was easy to recognize 

 these beds so characfteristic of the Buhr-stone formation of Geor- 

 gia and South Carolina. Still. I am in doubt as to the position 

 of this fossiliferous formation, in relation to the fossiliferous beds 

 of Choctaw Corner. 



"The countr}^ is here really hill}-' and broken, and a ridge ex- 

 tends across to the west side of the Tombigbee, where, 13 or 14 

 miles north of Barry town, it overlooks the valley of the river. 

 Taken altogether, the Buhr-stone formation gives rise to the most 

 rugged and hilly region of the lower part of the State^ and it is 

 equally remarkable for sterility of soil. 



"On a stream, called in the neighborhood Etishlakare, about 15 

 miles north of Barry town, beds of marl occur similar to those on 

 Bashi creek, and this is the farthest north that I have been able 

 to trace them, and at this locality the order of super-position is 

 equally uncertain." 



From this it appears that Tuomey had not yet realized the true 

 stratigraphic position of the Lignitic beds about Bashi creek. 

 The ' ' VoliLta sayana ' ' referred to by Tuomey was afterwards, 

 1853, described by Conrad as Athleta tiiomeyi. Conrad adds : 

 Mr. Tuomey says the group of fossils in this locality [ Bashi 

 creek, Clark county,] are very distindl from those of Claiborne, 

 and I have no doubt the deposit will prove to be an upper bed of 

 the Eocene which may, when the fo.ssils are all colle(5led, be 

 found to contain some of the species of the Older Miocene as it 

 occurs at Vicksburg, Miss. "The Athleta tuomeyi, though a 

 very distindt shell, is related to a Miocene fossil of Dax {^A. 

 rarispina ) , w^hich is an abundant species. ' ' 



In 1864 Conrad described Turritella prcBcinda ; in 1857 he 

 described Calyptraphoriis trinodiferus ' ' from the Eocene of Ala- 

 bama, Dr. Showalter." 



In 1856 Prof. A. Winchell read before the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science some ' ' Notes on the Geol- 

 ogy of Middle and Southern Alabama." He recognized certain 



