Maeyland Geological Survey 97 



north through the transgression of younger formations, the continuity of 

 the beds is assumed from the similarity of the flora with its many identi- 

 cal species, as well as from the characteristic lithology. 



Deposits formerly called by the name of the Cape Fear formation, but 

 evidently a continuation southward of the Patuxent formation of Vir- 

 ginia, are found in North Carolina. Here again the transgression of 

 the Tertiary and the Quaternary formations interferes with the con- 

 tinuity of the outcrop, although there is no reason to doubt that the 

 deposits are continuous beneath the later strata. Ko fossils have thus 

 far been discovered in the deposits of North Carolina, but the strata 

 occupy the same stratigraphic position here at the base of the Coastal 

 Plain series as farther north, and are unconformably overlain by Upper 

 Cretaceous formations. The deposits are also strikingly similar to 

 those of the Patuxent formation in Virginia and Maryland, and it seems 

 to be a reasonable assumption that they constitute part of the same 

 formation. 



To the south of North Carolina similar deposits have been long known 

 to extend through South Carolina and Georgia into eastern Alabama.^ 

 The more southern occurrences have been erroneously associated with the 

 Tuscaloosa deposits farther westward in Alabama and Mississippi, from 

 which, however, they are entirely distinct, both in stratigraphic position 

 and lithologic character, while they are separable everywhere by marked 

 unconformities from the overlying Upper Cretaceous deposits, as shown 

 by the broader structural relations of the district. They are unquestion- 

 ably to be associated with the Patuxent beds farther north whether the 

 same formational name is employed throughout the entire district or not. 

 Not'withstanding the evidence in favor of a single formational unit 

 being found at the base of the Coastal Plain series all the way from 

 Maryland to Alabama, it must be admitted that a transgressing sea 



^ Dr. L. "W. Stephenson and Mr. E. W. Berry under the direction of Dr. T. 

 Wayland Vaughan, have greatly enlarged our knowledge of the stratigraphy 

 and paleontology of the South Atlantic and Gulf States, and the results of 

 their work have been available for the comparisons with the southern district 

 south of North Carolina. 



