1137, 138] PONTOTOC RIDGE. 91 



sink-holes, which lead down into the subterranean channel probably of the same 

 stratum.* 



Similarly, on S. 36, T. 6, R. 4 E., near Parson Montgomery's place, there is a 

 natural tunnel, about 25 yards long by 4 to 5 feet high and 3 to 7 yards wide ; 

 under a ridge. Several small caves and sink-holes exist in the neighborhood. 

 Near the tunnel there is a fine outcrop of blue marl interstratified with indurate 

 ledges; among the fossils found here is Trigonia thoracicu ; an Ostrea resembling 

 0. falcatu in shape, but 6 inches long; Ammonites placenta, and nuclei of a 

 very large Cacullaca (0. JHaconensis, Con ?). 



137. Phenomena similar to these, and those already mentioned as occurring 

 in Tippah county, on the territory of this formation, characterize, more or less, 

 the whole of the Pontotoc Ridge, save where (as for instance, in a large portion 

 of T. 9, R. 3 E., and also of T. 11, R. 4 E.) the Orange Sand overlies so thickly 

 as to allow of traces only of the cretaceous formation being observed, in the deep 

 hollows, and in springs with limy water at the foot of the ridges — there being 

 also, freestone wells 40 to 50 feet deep. The bored limestone which crops out on 

 the hillsides E. of Redland, in S. Pontotoc, and that seen E. of Houlka P. 0., 

 in N. Chickasaw (e. g. on SS. 4 and 35, T. 12, R. 3 E.) is undistinguishable in 

 all respects from that of S. Tippah. The face of the country, timber, etc., is also 

 strikingly similar, the chief differences being caused by the more frequent 

 recurrence of bald hilltops, exhibiting the white calcareous sand mentioned 

 above (1[135), and of ridges characterized by an excessively heavy soil bearing 

 the Black Jack Oak, and popularly termed "beeswax hommocks." These 

 hilltops are usually caused by the gray calcareous clay which, as has been 

 stated, frequently overlies the limestone (as well as, of course, its representative, 

 the whitish calcareous sand) in Pontotoc and Chickasaw ; and on them we 

 generally find strewn about, numerous dark colored, hard, smooth nuclei of 

 shells of the Ripley group, together with white concretions of carbonate of 

 lime. The position of the gray clay stratum (also found near Stubbs' ; IT 133, 

 No. 5 of Sec. 15) may be observed c. cj. at an outcrop about a mile S. of the 

 town of Pontotoc, on the Houston road, where a stratum of about 3 feet of this 

 clay, teeming with black nuclei, overlies an outcrop of the <: horsebone limestone" 

 filled with Exogyra costata and Oryphaea mutabllis. The same material is seen 

 on S. 34, T. 12, R. 3 E., Chickasaw county ; it is here overlaid by a thin sheet of 

 soft gray laminated limestone, and is poor in fossils. 



138. Ammonites placenta, about a foot in diameter, together with a Cassidulus (?) 

 is very common in some portions of the Ridge, where hard limestone crops out : 

 as on the heads of Okonatyhatchie, and of King's Creek. On the S. bluff* of the 

 latter stratum, there are fine localities for fossils ; as at the place of John 

 Herring, Esq., S. 17, T. 8. R. 2 E., and a few miles above, on S. 29, T. 7, R. 3 E. 

 In both these localities, most of the fossils of the Owl Creek marl are found, 

 imbedded in a loose, peroxidized glauconitic limestone ; the claws of Callianassa, 



*Close to this spot was the residence of the king of the Chickasaws, whence 

 *t is known »* " The Kings Place." 



