

GEOLOGICAL REPORT. 



i 175 



that the stratification is exceedingly irregular, 

 but for the fact that they may at times be found 

 crossing the true stratification lines. The 

 dotted lines in the accompanying diagram exhibit 

 these stripes, b is two masses of gray sandy 

 clay vertically laminated, imbedded in regularly 

 stratified sand. 



In the same township (T. 10, R. - W.) lignite 

 has been struck in numerous wells (TT263). 



174. Outcrops similar to those exhibi- 

 ted in S. W Tippah and S. Lafayette 

 (s%e sections 19 and 20) arc of constant 

 occurrence in N. Calhoun. 



These strata are, of course, frequently struck 

 in wells, and are known under various names, 

 as black or blue "dirt" or "mud"; leaves referred 

 by the people to various living trees, also "palm 

 leaves" (S md even "acorns" and 



" hickory-nuts" have been often reported as 

 having been found. The wells at and near 

 Sarepta, especially, have furnished many ex- 

 amples of this kind ; no specimens of which, 

 unfortunately, have been preserved. In a well 

 on S. 28, T. LI, I;. 1 YV. (Mr. Hunters), there 

 was found, besides the leaf bearing stratum, a 

 trunk of a tree, round, but lignitized. 



175. I have not personally examined the 

 portion of Calhoun county lying S. of Loosha- 

 Scoona Ri»er, but according to all accounts, its 

 geological phenomena do not cHfier essentially 

 from those just described N. of the Scoona. 

 According to L. Harper, the lignite stratum 

 which crops out near the town of Pittsboro, has 

 there in some wells been found to be 30 feet 

 in thickness. — The most westerly range of 

 townships in Chickasaw 7 county, is occupied 

 almost entirely by the Flatwoods, with their 

 characteristic materials, described above. 



The E. portion of Choctaw county is in most 

 respects a copy of Calhoun and S. E. Lafayette, 

 though on the whole the Orange Sand ridges, 

 underlaid by the lignitic strata, are lower, and 

 the soil more fertile, pine being usually absent ; 

 here also, the line of the lignitic strata is 

 generally marked on the hillsides, by ferruginou - 

 nodules. Outcrops of dark colored, laminated 

 clays occur near Bellefontaine; also one of a bed 

 of lignite ; the same strata arc struck in wells 

 and in one of these, a round lignitized trunk 

 was found. Siliciticd wood is abundant in the 

 overlying Orange Sand strata. On the higher 

 ridges, such as that on which Greensboro' is 

 situated, wells 40 to 60 feet deep still remain 

 within the Orange Sand ; but S. of Greensboro', 

 on the Bank-ston road, and at the latter place 

 itself, the Lignitic strata, of the same fades as 

 those seen in N. Calhoun, are near the surface 

 and crop out in the branches, although I have not 



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