•JIM, 188] GREENSAND DEPOSITS — ATTALA — HOLM. . 128 



the eye in the subsoil of tho "Noxubee Hills" in N. E. Winston, and, as an 

 intermediate point, at Mr. Coleman's (if 176). Tho peculiarly sharp, unpleas- 

 antly gritty sand which tho red clay of this formation contains, seems to be 

 rocognizablo at several points in the Noxnbso Hills ; as at Mr. Davis' mill on 

 the Noxubee River, where on a hillside we find, overlying the white laminated 

 clays of the Lignitic, a singular conglomerate, consisting of pebbles of the latter 

 clay, sometimes several feet in diameter imbedded in a dark orange colored, 

 gritty clay, resembling greatly that of the Shongalo strata. The conglomerate 

 as suck, I suppose to belong to tho Orange Sand Formation, under the head of 

 which, but for their intimate connection with the fossiliferous strata of N. 

 Attala, these phenomeua would more properly have been noticed. Tho pro- 

 clivity of the Orange Sand to appropriate the materials of other formations, I 

 have alread}' sufficiently exemplified. At the outcrop on Sowashee Creek, as 

 well as in other intermediate localities, a similar state of things obtains. It 

 would therefore seem, that the marine deposit of which we rind an outlier at 

 Vaiden, and the main body in N. Attala, originally covered a much greater area, 

 but has been greatly denuded during the Orange Sand period. 



187. I have not found any indications of this formation much S. of the S. 

 prong of Poukta Creek. At Kosciusko, the lignito-gypseous -lays alone are 

 struck in the wells (in one lately dug on Dr. C. B. Galloway's pfrce, 5 ms. from 

 the town, a bed of several inches ot white fibrous gypsum has penetrated), and 

 the surface material is of a pale hue. Nor do we find any trace of marine fossils 

 S. of the Poukta, until we reach, at Canton, the calcareous strata of the Jackson 

 Group. Whether or not any connection is traceable through S E. Attala, and 

 the adjoining portions of Winston and Leake, into the fossiliferous sandstones of 

 S. Neshoba (iflOO 2 ), still remains to be determined. 



I have been reliably informed that "red hills" similar to those of N. Attala, 

 exist in N. 13. Holmes. Moreover, I owe to C. G. Armistead, Esq., of Yallo- 

 busha, information concerning the existence of a ferruginous rock containing 

 marine fossils, on the waters of Wolf Creek, S. W. Choctaw county, which 

 will probably prove to be identical with the Shongalo rock. 



In the wells bored in S. Madison, by the Rev. Mr. Lambuth (H322), tho fos- 

 siliferous marine strata of the Jackson Group were passed through at about 90 

 feet, after which, "blue dirt," with selenite, several ledges of sandstone, and a 

 lignite bed of 40 feet thickness, were struck, but no more marine strata were 

 reached at a depth of 415 feet. At Jackson, however, at the Penitentiary well, 

 after passing through 32 feet of surface material and fossiliferous strata of the 

 Jackson age, Lignitic clays were, penetrated for 418 feet, after ^hich, a bed of 

 shells 20 feet thick, extremely rich in greensand, was passed through into water 

 bearing sand. The friable shells brought up by the auger are too much com- 

 minuted to allow of determination. — Whether this bed is a continuation of the 

 Shongalo deposit, or an independent basin or estuary: 'here c?n be little doubt 

 that it, also, is of the Claiborne ace. 



II. THE CLAIBORNE GROUP. 



A. THE SOiIOEOtrS CLAIBOBNK STRATA. 



188. The character of the rocks of this group has already been 

 mentioned in connection with the Northern Lignitic Group, of 

 which, in analogy to the deposits of N. Attala, it seems to form, 

 as it were, a subordinate member. Its fossiliferous, aluminous (but 

 rarely siliceous) sandstones, and claystones, do not impart any 

 peculiar feature to the surface of the country, which bears as a 

 general thing, the character of the Orange Sand Group. 



