66 GEOLOGICAL REPORT. [1105, 106 



105. I have not observed any outcrops in N. E. Itawamba except those men- 

 tioned on Mackay's Creek — Orange Sand strata occupy the surface altogether. 

 Gray or black laminated clays, however, with occasional hard ledges, and iron 

 pyrites, are struck in the wells at depths varying from 30 to 60 feet all over the 

 region. On Bull Mountain Creek, however, there are numerous outcrops of the 

 most characteristic kind, and on the dividing ridge between that creek and the 

 Tombigbee, S. E. of Van Buren, the bluish-gray laminated clay is common both 

 in outcrops and in wells. 



While in S. E. Itawamba the formation is pretty well and characteristically 

 developed, E. Monroe is almost entirely covered with Orange Sand strata ot 

 great thickness, in which the lignitic clay strata of the Eutaw Group appear only 

 in rare and small patches, while wells generally terminate in clays of the 

 Orange Sand character. The only outcrops I am acquainted with in Monroe 

 county, E. of the Tombigbee, lie between Weaver's Creek and the Little Sipsie, 

 Outcrops of black, fetid, lignitic clay appear on hillsides, and even on a few 

 hilltops, on SS. 23, 24, and L9, T. 12, R. 17 W., and are very generally struck in 

 wells in the region mentioned. In one of these, dug about 1 mile W. of the 

 Sipsie, in the last tier of sections of T. 12, a bed of lignite and iron pyrites was 

 struck, rendering the water offensive — as is mostly the case where these clays 

 come in contact with it. 



Along the channel of the Tombigbee, however, we can trace the Eutaw Group 

 in ©ccasional outcrops, into Lowndes county, and thence, through the bored 

 wells, into Alabama. 



106. At Coulter's Ferry, on Old Town Creek (near its confluence with the 

 Tombigbee), S. 34, T. 10, R. 7 E., Monroe county, there is a bluff about 120 

 feet high (from the water level), consisting of grayish-yellow, stratified, non- 

 effervescent sand, which has "caved off" in terraces down to the waters edge. 

 It is sharp, contains very little mica, but a great many black particles (tourmaline?), 

 and is occasionally cemented a little, by a ferruginous cement. Not unfrequent- 

 ly, small lenticular masses and thin layers of gray laminated clay occur in this 

 sand, which often impart to the latter a laminated structure discordant with the 

 stratification lines. On the whole of this fine exposure, however, not a trace 

 of fossil remains of any kind is to be seen. 



Passing on westward from the ferry, for a mile, to Mr. Lisby's, S. 33, we 

 find the continuation of the ridge which forms the Coulter's Ferry bluff, capped 

 with the Rotten Limestone of the prairies ; and in the ravines of a branch 

 tributary to Old Town Creek, we obtain the following section : 



