18 EXPEDITION ON HAND-CAR. [CHAP. XX. 



cuttings, and examining the rocks and fossils on the way. I 

 was desirous of making these explorations, because this line of 

 road traverses the entire area occupied by the tertiary strata be 

 tween the sea and the borders of the granitic region, which com 

 mences at Macon, and the section was parallel to that previously 

 examined by me on the Savannah river in 1842. When I 

 came to low swampy grounds, or pine-barrens, where there were 

 no objects of geological interest, my black companions propelled 

 me onward at the rate of ten or twelve miles an hour, by turning 

 a handle connected with the axis of the wheels. Their motions 

 were like those of men drawing water from a well. Through 

 out the greater part of the route, an intelligent engineer accom 

 panied me. As there Avas only one line of rail, and many 

 curves, and as the negroes can not be relied on for caution, he 

 was anxious for my safety, while I was wholly occupied with 

 my geology. I saw him frequently looking at his watch, and 

 often kneeling down, like &quot;Fine-ear&quot; in the fairy tale, so as to 

 place his ear in contact with the iron rails to ascertain whether 

 a passenger or luggage-train w r ere within a mile or two. We 

 went by Parramore s Hill, where the sandstone rocks detained 

 me some time, and, at the ninety-fifth mile station from Savan 

 nah, I collected fossils, consisting of marine shells and corals. 

 These were silicified in the burr-stone, of which mill-stones are 

 manufactured. Near Sandersville I saw a limestone from which 

 Eocene shells and corals are procured, as well as the teeth of 

 sharks and the bones of the huge extinct cetacean called Zeug- 

 lodon. Here I had ample opportunities of confirming the opin 

 ion I had previously announced as the result of my labors in 

 1842, that this burr-stone, with its red, yellow, and white sands, 

 and its associated porcelain clays or kaolin, constitutes one of the 

 members of the Eocene group, overlying the great body of cal 

 careous rock, once supposed by some to be cretaceous, but which 

 really belongs to the same tertiary period.^ Although the sum 

 mit level of the railway attains an elevation of about 500 feet, 

 descending afterward somewhat abruptly to Macon, which is 

 only 300 feet above the sea, it is surprising how we stole imper 

 ceptibly up this ascent, as if on a perfectly level plain, every 

 * See Quarterly Journ. of Geol. Society, 1845, p. 563. 



