"V29'l, 282J MARLS OP HINDS AND MADISON. lb£ 



given above (1T-2H.) Most of the marl is of a quality .similar to 

 that of stratum No. I at the ferry ; some portions I as for instance, 

 No. 3) are more sandy, and contain very large and numerous grains 

 of greensand. 



The marl could not of course be profitably obtained here unless in quarrying 

 the rock ; but other bluffs containing no rock are said to occur above, and may 

 be looked for all the way between Byram and Jackson, on the river banks. 1 

 have not as yet specially examined that portion of the river. No marl is found, 

 however, more than three miles below Byram. 



The great abundance and line quality of the Byram marl, 

 together with its easy accessibility both by water and rail, render 

 these beds of much more than local importance. 



281. We now turn to the marls of N. Hinds, and Madison, 

 which differ considerably, both in their aspect and chemical com- 

 position, from those just described. 



The materials mentioned above (ir202 and if.) as occurring in the cuts near 

 Canton and Calhoun Station, represent pretty correctly all those I have seen N. 

 of Jackson. They are generally very clayey — so much so, that they are com- 

 monly styled "soapstone" by the people. In many instances, these clays would 

 hardly be distinguished by the eye alone, from the fat, blue or yellowish, lamina- 

 ted clays, or "blue dirt,*-' of the Lignitic. formation, further N. ; yet generally, 

 whitish specks, either of carbonate or sulphate of lime, or both, can be detected 

 in them, and where they touch the surface loam, its peculiar greenish, waxen tint 

 betrays the limy nature of the material. Besides, a drop of strong vinegar, or 

 muriatic acid, will always cause more or less effervescence or "boiling," the 

 greater or less violence of which serves to indicate, in some degree, the amount 

 of lime present. 



The massy ("joint") clays with only occasional calcareous veins, 

 which generally are nearest the surlace and contain no fossils (in 

 cuts N. of Canton, and No. 2 of Sec. 26, "i 203), would rarely be 

 applicable to any useful purpose in agriculture. Not so, however, 

 with those which, though otherwise often greatly resembling the 

 others, possess a laminated structure or cleavage ("come off in 

 flakes"), and contain fossils ; such as. for instance, No. 1 of Sec. 

 26, near Calhoun Station, in which the large bones were found ; 

 and the material occurring in the washes by the roadside, between 

 Hanging Moss Creek and Jackson, in which numerous oyster? 

 occur. 



The material is exceedingly variable ; at times it is a hard gray clay, difficult 

 to cut with the knife when dry, but exceedingly tenacious when wet ; when 

 this is the case, oysters are the only shells to be found in it, and it could serve 

 for agricultural purposes only in exceptional cases, though by no means difficult 

 to pulverize. On the contrary, if a piece be exposed to the sun while wet, it 

 speedily shrinks and cracks in all directions, and is soon reduced to a pile of 

 small crumbs, which the next rain melts down into a plastic mass ; and if this 

 happen to take place on a slant, a strong rain brings down torrents of mud. It 

 is in this manner that many of the 11. R. cuts between Canton and Jackson give 

 continual trouble, and are rapidly widening (1J203). 



282. From these stiff calcareous clays, containing from twelve to 

 20 per cent, of carbonate of lime, there is every degree of transi- 

 tion into the yellowish marlstone of the McNutt Hills, with 60 to 

 80 per cent, of the carbonate; the intermediate stages being soft. 



