f>l>4 « GEOLOGICAL RECONKOISSANCE 



its marly shales, is generally black and quite productive for all kinds of 

 small grain. Characteristic soils of the latter land were collected from a 

 farm belonging to Judge Billingsly. 



The principal growth of timber on the limestone and chert ridges is 

 blackjack, blackoak, postoak and hickory, and where the sandstone pre 

 vails yellow pine. In the prairie-like valleys, besides the tall barren- 

 grass', there is an abundant growth of « Rosin weed," Camphorosma^ rest- 

 nosa (Gray). 



MARION COUNTY. 



In the eastern part of Marion county, there is an alternation of the 

 ma-nesian or lead-bearing rocks of the lower silurian period, with sand- 

 stones, and the tops of the highest hills are covered with chert belonging 

 to the subcarboniferous rocks, as proved by the characteristic fossils which 

 it contains; these- are, however, in most instances only casts. A number 

 of fine specimens of fossils, found in this chert, were presented to he 

 survey by Mr. William Flipping, among which are several crinoides, 

 belon-ino- to the genera platycrinus and actinocrinus, also Syirifer stria- 

 tes and a large undescribed nautilus. The light impure limestone 

 - white rock," with its associate greenish marly shale, is seen over a great 

 portion of this county, and forms the substratum to the gently undulating 

 tracts of land, known by the name of « Barrens." The principal of these 

 are the Flipping, Rapp, and Talbot barrens. Characteristic soils have 

 been collected from the latter, which will give a fair average of this kind 

 of la .d. It is very black, and in addition to barren grass, supports a luxu- 

 riant o-rowth of "Rosin weed," Camphorosma resinosa {Gray). 



On "the immediate bank of White river, in section 28, township 20 north, 

 range 15 west, in what is called the Horseshoe bend of the river, a mag- 

 nesia.! limestone, alternating with sandstone, forms a conspicuous bluff;, 

 in all some two hundred and fifty feet thick. A number of rock-house 

 caves have been formed by the disintegration of the magnesian member 

 of this series, in which large quantities of nitre earth have been formed 



The principal of these caves is known generally as the Bean cave, and 

 seems to have been worked in early times, as an old decayed leaching- 

 hopper has been found in it. A story is related by some of the first set- 

 tlers in the country, that a man of the name of Bean once made nitre at 

 this place in partnership with another man, who he is said to have killed 

 in a quarrel. This circumstance, it is believed, caused the enterprise to 

 be abandoned; and to this day, the cave is known under the name of the 



