VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. ii 



passing into marl, or containing so much argillaceous 

 earth as to burn into a very indifferent lime. Its 

 existence has been traced into part of the Missis- 

 sippi territory,* and again found along the coast of 

 Cape Florida, and the gulf of Mexico, by Mr. Ma- 

 clure. Along the banks of the Mississippi, and 

 towards the base of the hills of Fort Adams, it again 

 presents its usual characteristics, being of a whitish 

 color, of a soft and friable consistence, like calcareous 

 tufa, and also in connection with an undurated marl. 

 Ascending this river, without discovering its exist- 

 ence decisively in the alluvial hills of Natchez, we, 

 however, perceive its arenilitic overlay in the basis of 

 the cliffs known by the name of the Grand and Petit 

 Gulf, where the obstruction of this stratum suddenly 

 checks the meanders of the river, and produces two 

 very powerful and dangerous eddies. The last ap- 

 pearance of this stratum on the banks of the Missis- 

 sippi, as indicated by sand-stone, is in the bases of 

 what are called the Walnut- hills, but its concomitant 

 marigenous alluvium can be distinctly traced to the 

 ferruginous cliffs, called the Paint-hills, or Mine au 

 Fer, about 15 miles below the confluence of the Ohio; 

 indeed Henderson, or the Red Banks, and the town 

 ■ — — ■*— '■ " — ^ " ' 



* Marine shells, as Ostreas, &c. have been found at the 

 M Chickasaw Old Town," 300 miles north-east of Natchez, 

 as well as at the United States agency amongst the Choctaws, 

 120 miles north north-east of the same place, according to 

 Mr. JE. Cornelius, in Silliman's Journal. 



