1249, 250] 



COAST PLIOCENE? — SAUCIER'S BLUFF. 



155 



Wells in tho neighborhood strike this clay at the depth of a few feet; tho water 

 being altogether undrinkable. 



249. According to information given me by Mr. II. Taylor, of Pass Christian, 

 shells appear imbedded in both banks of Wolf River, about 20 miles (by wator) 

 above the Pas-;. This locality I have not visited. 



Lower down, at Mr. J. Suicier's, S. 20, T. 7. R. 12 W., on Wolf River, there 

 is a bluffaboLit 30 feet high, affording the following section : 



(Sec. 37.) 



SECTION OP NEWER TERTIARY ? AT SAUCIER'S, ON WOLF RIVER, 



HARRISON COUNTY. 



The whole of stratum No. 1 cannot be better described than as the soil of a 

 cypress swamp, with its muck, fallen trunks, knees, stumps, etc. Of these 

 there are evidently several generations, separated by more clayey layers of muck. 

 The fibrous bark of the cypress is perfectly preserved ; the wood is yellowish 

 and soft, but by no means lignitized (cutting very nearly like that of the Tupelo 

 tree), and its structure and shape perfect. 



A few hundred yards below this spot, we find a similar deposit, 'n which, 

 instead of the cypress, the wood, burrs and decayed leaves, apparei tly of the 

 Short-leaf Pine, prevail. It is said that similar outcrop-; occur further upon 

 Wolf River. Moreover, Col. J. J. McCaughan, of Rosalie, as well as Mr. H. 

 Taylor, above mentioned, state that similar deposits have been found in numerous 

 wells along the coast ; and that about 3 miles E. of the Pass the black clay, with 

 cypress knees, crops out on the sea-s! ore. It is possible that some of the 

 stumps and roots observed on the sea-beach, and attributed to the living trees of 

 the beech, belong to this deposit, especially if, as is stated, many of them should 

 turn out to belong to the Cypress, which at present is not found within many 

 miles of the coast of Mississippi, however abundant on that of Louisiana. In 

 several blulfs of Wolf River and Bayou Delisle, we see layers of dark colored 

 sand, possessing a li<_initic odor, which seem to indicate, whenever they 

 occur, the •proximity of the black clay formation. 



250. At West Pascagonla, in the well at Mrs. McPae's residence, the following 

 section was obtained : Ten or fifteen feet of sand, then about ten feet of blue 

 clay with yellow streaks, then ten feet of sky-blue clay ; then a bed of gray, 

 calcareous, water- Hearing sand, containing abundance of shells. Of these, th3 

 few I saw were identical with species now living on the Coast, and their state of 

 preservation scarcely other than that of the shells imbedded in the sea-beach 



