ORIGIN. 197 



noted at a locality three miles south of Del Rio, Cocke county, where it 

 occurs above the limestone in the Wilhite slate. 



One of the best localities to study the relations of the Hmestones and 

 conglomerates is on the north side of the entrace to the narrows of the 

 Little Tennessee river, in Blount county. Here the bedded limestones in 

 the Wilhite slates are beautifully exhibited, and above them the limestone 

 conglomerate is strongly marked, and bowlders of the limestone over six 

 feet in diameter occur in the lower portion of the Citico conglomerate. 

 Another peculiarity at this locality is that the limestones within the Wil- 

 hite slate w^ere broken up and many of the fragments rounded to form a bed 

 of conglomerate just above the horizon of the limestone beds from which, 

 elsewhere, they were derived, and that the same process was repeated 

 with the bed of conglomerate. We found, in an upper bed of conglom- 

 erate, bowlders formed of masses of conglomerate of the same character 

 as in the stratum some distance below in the section. In this upper 

 conglomerate numerous quartz pebbles of the same character as those of 

 the Citico conglomerate are embedded in the limestone matrix. Special 

 effort was made by both Mr Keith and myself to discover evidences 

 of the presence of limestones of a different character from those found 

 conformably bedded in the Wilhite slate, but without success. The 

 limestones of the Wilhite slate are so marked in their lithologic char- 

 acters and the bowlders in the conglomerates have lithologic characters 

 so similar that we did not hesitate to refer the source of the material 

 of the latter conglomerate to the limestone beds within the Wilhite 

 formation. At one locality, two miles south 10° west of Sweetwater, 

 Cocke county, a sandstone rests unconformably upon the Knox lime- 

 stone and contains rounded pebbles of the limestone carrying the 

 characteristic fossils which are embedded in the limestone beneath the 

 sandstone. This sandstone occurs in the isolated outcrop, and is not 

 known to be of Ocoee age. 



Origin. — The relation of the bedded limestones to the superjacent con- 

 glomerates proves that the calcareous mud which was subsequently 

 consolidated into the limestones solidified soon after deposition. This 

 is shown by the presence in the conglomerate of rounded pebbles and 

 angular fragments of limestone with sharp clear cut edges. The presence 

 of the conglomerates above the limestone beds, from some portion of 

 which they were derived, leads me to believe that the sea-bed was raised 

 in ridges or domes above the sealevel and thus subjected to the action 

 of the seashore ice, if present, and the aerial agents of erosion. From 

 the fact that the limestones upon which the conglomerates rest rarely if 

 ever show traces of erosion where the conglomerates come into contact 

 with them, the inference is that the debris worn from the ridges was 



