1184 



S OUTH TIPrAH PONTOTOC. 



8# 



(Sec. 15.) 



SECTION OF AN ISOLATED CRETACEOUS HILL NEAR THE 



MEETING-HOUSE ON S. 23, T. 5, R. E., TIPPAH COUNTY. 



Here, as in Pontotoc and Chickasaw, gray calcareous clay takes the place of 

 the black micaceous sand which usually overlies the limestone in Tippah (If 123) 



134. While in Pontotoc county, as has been mentioned, the rocks of the Ripley 

 Group reach the western border of the Rotten Limestone, the same is not the 

 case in Tippah, except in the extreme S. E., on the Pontotoc line. Two fossili- 

 ferous outcrops only are known to me, on the E. fork of Hatchie ; and it is 

 doubtful whether these do not assimilate more closely to the Rotten Limestone 

 than to the Ripley Group. In N. Tippah, the calcareous strata occupy only a 

 a narrow belt (3 to 4 miles), W. of the line between ranges 4 and 5, E., while on 

 the W. fork, and main Hatchie below the junction, a black, fetid lignitic clay, 

 interstratified with gray and greenish sand, forms the bluffs ; and also the base 

 of the hills, which are very high and thickly capped with Orange Sand, and 

 largely timbered with pine, which is wanting on the territory of the calcareous 

 strata. — Outcrops of this black clay, interstratified with sand, and greatly 

 resembling, at times, the materials of the Eutaw Group, appear on the main 

 Hatchie in S. 5, T. 2, R. 5 E., and in other localities lower down ; on S 31, T. 

 2, R. 5 E., near Walker's mill ; on a branch of Hatchie on S. 16, T. 5, R. 5 E., 

 and other points in this region, where it is very generally struck in welb. 

 These prove, however, that its surface also has suffered great denudation before 

 ihe deposition of the Orange Sand, for frequently, wells 70 to 80 feet deep do 

 aot reach the black clay, when on adjoining farms, at the same level, it is near 

 the surface. 



Near a bridge on E. Hatchie, in N. E. }i, T. 3, R. 5 E., there is an outcrop 

 •xhibiting a black, very micaceous, sandy clay, non-effervescent, and with indis- 



