112 



GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 



[,1169 



(Sec. 16.) 

 SECTION OF THE LIGNITIC STRATA, AT D. REEVE'S, N. TIPPAH. 



The precise thickness of Nos. 3 and 4 could not be ascertained, from the 

 overlying detritus. No. 4 is precisely similar to the fossiliferous shale at 

 Hurley's schoolhouse (Ifl70, Sec. 17, No. 2), but like the underlying clay, of 

 which it is probably a metamorphosis (1T41), is without fossils. The same rock, 

 as No. 2 of the preceding section, occurs on a ridge on the E. side of Muddy Creek, 

 on SS. 16 and 17, T. 2, R. 4 E. Here a ledge quite similar to that at Revees' 

 but with only here and there an imperfect fossil, appears on the summit of the 

 ridge, jutting out in an abrupt hillock at its northern end, whence it dips south- 

 ward and crops out on the hillside for a mile, disappearing about 30 feet below 

 the summit of the ridge, which consists of Orange Sand. A lower ridge, inter- 

 vening between the one just mentioned, and Muddy Creek, shows bald hilltops 

 consisting of a tough gray clay soil, underlaid by gray laminated clay. 



169. In the country on the heads of Muddy Creek, Wolf River and Tippah 

 Creek, in TT. 2 and 3, RR. 2 and 3 E., outcrops of the gray nodular " Flat- 

 woods Clay" arc very common on the hillsides, which often appear quite similar, 

 at first sight, to the " bald prairie spots" of the Rotten Limestone country. Several 

 outcrops of this kind occur on the Ripley and Salem roads, and they are com- 

 mon in the bluffs of streams. On S. 29, T. 3, R. 3 E., (Squire Street's) there is a 

 bed of lignite — which, however, I had no opportunity of observing personally. 

 In townships 4, 5 and 6, ranges 1 and 2 E. (S.W. Tippah), we generally find 

 the clays laminated rather than nodular, frequently interstratified with sand, and 

 rarely destitute of vegetable remains — which, however, as a general thing, are 

 poorly preserved. Characteristic outcrops of this kind occur on Ocklimita Creek. 

 Thus on S. 33, T. 5, R. 1 E., near Hickory Flat, there is a bluff about 70 feet 

 high, which consists of alternating strata, from }i i ncn to 2 f" eet ' n thickness, of 

 gray and brown clay, sand, and sandy clay ; the whole overlaid by a few feet of 

 Orange Sand. The strata here show a slight westward dip ; in a small outcrop 

 on S. 35, the dip is 15 deg. W. b S. — which is probably, however, owing to £ 

 local fault — Higher up on the Ocklimita, above the crossing of the Hickory Flat 

 and Ripley road (about S. 8. T. 5, R. '■'< E.) the bluffs exhibit the following section : 



