54 GEOLOGICAL REPORT. [193 



Paris, and becomes very hard. An analysis of a portion of the 

 specimens showing these properties, which readily cleaves into 

 thin lenticular plates, is black on the fresh fracture and gray or 

 whitish on the weathered surfaces, gave the following result : 



HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE FROM BILLING'S MILL. 



Insoluble Matter 54.201 



Potash 0.473 



Lime 23.247 



Magnesia 0.788 



Peroxide of Iron 0.903 



Alumina 1.064 



Phosphoric Acid trace 



Carbonic Acid 15.572 



Organic Matter, Water, and Loss 3.752 



100.000 

 From the aspect of the outcrop, the quality of this rock does 

 not seem to vary for 18 or 20 feet at least. No rock is seen in 

 the bed of Yellow Creek at the point in question : but farther 

 below, near its mouth, impure cherty limestone, in layers from one 

 to several inches in thickness, appears near the water level. It is 

 doubtful whether this rock would answer the purpose of hydraulic- 

 limestone, whose best quality always seems to be announced, in 

 this region, by its splitting easily into thin plates. It is quite- 

 likely, however, that rock of equal quality with that on the hill- 

 tops near Billing's mill, might be found at a lower level also, and 

 nearer the creek. 



The rock which near Scruggs' bridge, on SS. 16 and 9, T. 2, R. 

 10 E., crops out in several bluffs on Yellow Creek, with a thick- 

 ness of some 30 feet, coincides most closely with that occurring at 

 Bastport, and no doubt possesses a similar composition, and prop- 

 erties (see below). Many similar bluffs exist, no doubt, between 

 Scruggs' bridge and Billing's mill. 



93. At Eastport the rock is found, as has been stated (ji81), in 

 the bed of the creek which empties into Big Bear just S. of the 

 town ; in the bed of the latter stream itself ; and on the slope, 

 towards the Tennessee River, of the hill on which the Female 

 Academy is situated. An analysis of a specimen from the latter 

 locality, little different in aspect from that at Billing's mill, gave 

 the following result : 



