104 GEOLOGICAL REPORT. ['1154, 155 



154. BUILDING Ston.es. — The Eutaiv Group furnishes none : all 

 the rocks found on its territory belong to the Orange Sand Group, 

 which see (1 57). Very nearly the same holds true of the Tomhgbee 

 Sand Group ; tlie soft micaceous sandstones occasionally found are 

 of little value and easily destroyed by frost. 



The Rotten Limestone is generally too soft to resist the action of 

 the atmosphere ; in sheltered situations, it sometimes stands well, 

 and is easily cut into shape. At Palo Alto, and at other localities, 

 fireplaces, and the sheltered portions of chimneys, have been built of 

 it. It will not resist many alternations of wet and dry above 

 ground, without scaling off'; although different localities differ 

 greatly in this respect. 



The limestones of the Ripley Group, where they are solid and 

 uniform in their mass, resist the action of the atmosphere remarka- 

 bly well, and are suited to every common purpose in building. 

 There are few localities, however, in which large solid blocks can 

 be obtained ; the best I know of occur on the Labatubby, and at 

 Daggett's (see above, under Limestone). Usually the solid ledges 

 are thin (seldom exceeding 15 inches, and frequently broken up into 

 blocks which require only the peck and crow-bar to quarry them. 

 Little reliance is to be placed in the continuity of a stratum with 

 the same character of material ; a solid ledge on one ridge may 

 be a bed of loose calcareous sand on the next. — For localities 

 where rock is found, see under the head of Limestone. 



155. Waters op the Cretaceous Formation. — Specialities 

 concerning the depths and character of wells in the various districts 

 of the cretaceous territory, will be found under the head of "The 

 Northeastern Prairie Region," in the agricultural portion of the 

 present Report. A few general remarks, however, must find their 

 place here. 



Water-bearing strata are abundant in both the Eutaw and the 

 Tombigbee Sand Group, but especially in the former, which fur- 

 nishes the source of by far the greater number of artesian wells in 

 the State, in Lowndes and Monroe counties. It is between the 

 solid, blue and reddish clays of this group, in the intervening gray 

 sands, that the head of water which enables the latter to run out 

 at the mouth of the bores, is collected. While, however, there is 

 considerable consistency in the depths of the wells, in the direction 

 of the dip, there is much less regularity observed in the direction 

 of the strike ; the strata evidently running out sometimes on the 

 large scale, as they commonly do on the small. Almost all the 

 waters of artesian and bored wells are more or less limy, and lew 

 if any -are free from iron in some form; sulphuretted hydrogen, too, 

 is usually present. The springs flowing from the strata of the 

 Eutaw Group in Tishomingo and Itawamba, are all more or less 

 chalybeate and usually magnesian, but contain mostly chlorides and 

 carbonates, and very little lime ; and the same is the case with 

 those bored, and especially artesian wells, which touch little or 



