by E, Corneiius. 327 



1. A well was dug in the Choctaw nation, at the agency of 

 the United States, in the year 1812 or 1813, under the direc- 

 tion of Silas Dinsmore, Esq. the agent. The excavation was 

 continued to the depth of one hundred and seventy-two feet. 

 No water was found. At no great distance from the surface, 

 marine exuviae were found in abundance. The shells were 

 small, and imbedded in a soft clay, similar to marine earth. 

 This formation continued till the excavati«n ceased. Disper- 

 sed through it, were found lumps of selenite, or foliated gyp- 

 sum, some of which were half as large as a man's fist. Speci- 

 mens of the earth, the exuviae, and the selenite, have been 

 transmitted for your examination. This excavation was made 

 one hundred and twenty miles north northeast of Natchez. 

 The Pearl River is four miles to the east of the place, and is 

 the only considerable stream in this part of the country. 



2. In the Chickasaw nation, one hundred and seventy miles 

 north of the Choctaw agency, commence beds of oyster-shells, 

 which continue to be seen at intervals for twelve miles. Four 

 miles from the first bed, you come to what is called " Chicka- 

 saw Old Town," where they are observed in great abundance. 

 They are imbedded in low ridges of a white marl. They ap- 

 pear to be of two kinds. Specimens of each, and also of the 

 marl, you have received. " Chickasaw Old Town," is a name 

 now appropriated to a prairie, on a part of which there for- 

 merly stood a small village of Chickasaws. The prairie is 

 twenty miles long, and four wide. The shells occur in three 

 places as you cross it, and again, on two contiguous hills to the 

 east of it, at the distance of four miles. They do not cover 

 the surface merely. They form a constituent part of the hills 

 or plains in which they are found. Wherever the earth has 

 been washed so as to produce deep gutters, they are seen in 

 greatest abundance. Nor are they petrifactions, such as are 

 found in rocks. They have the same appearance as common 

 oyster-shells, they lie loose in the earth, and thus indicate a 

 comparatively recent origin. They occur three hundred miles 

 northeast of Natchez, and hut sixty miles south of the Dividing 

 Ridge. 



