LYELt ON THE EOCENE BEDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 



431 



At Petersburg, 30 miles south of Richmond, I saw the eocene 

 strata, containing several characteristic fossils, distinctly overlaid 

 by a large mass of miocene shell-marl. At no other point is the 

 older tertiary formation more remarkable for its lithological re- 

 semblance to the greensand of the cretaceous series. 



North Carolina. — Yery different is the aspect of the rocks near 

 Wilmington, N. Carolina, where they consist in great part of a 

 limestone containing siliceous pebbles, and casts of shells and 

 corals, with many fishes' teeth. This limestone is less white and 

 more compact than the white limestone of S. Carolina; on the 

 shore at the town of Wilmington it is 12 feet thick, covered with 

 a shelly miocene deposit 6 feet thick. It is quarried in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the town, and burnt for lime. I obtained, besides 

 corals, 31 species of shells, exclusive of balani, from this rock, 

 almost all in the state of casts, and many of them, therefore, only 

 capable of being named generically. Those in italics in the fol- 

 lowing list have been identified with species found elsewhere in 

 eocene localities : — 



List of Eocene Shells from the Limestone of Wilmington, 



N. Carolina. 



Cyprosa, identical with a cast from Shell 



Bluff, Georgia 

 Cyprcea, two other species 

 Pliva Alabamensis 

 Oliva, allied to O. Laumontiana Lam. 



(fig. a) 

 Oliva 



Voluta, two species 

 Conus 

 Strombus 

 Fusus 



Buccinum, three species 

 Paludina, allied to P. Desnoyerii 



Desk. (fig. c). 

 Natica (Btites 

 Turritella, two species 



Vermetus 



Infundibulum trockiforme 



Crassatella, agreeing with a cast from 



Eutaw 

 Corbula 

 Lucina pandata 

 Cardium, agreeing with one from 



Shell Bluff 

 Cardita rotunda 

 Cuculla^a 

 Area, two species 

 Nucula magnifica 

 Pecten membranaceus Mort. 

 Terebratula Wilmingtonensis sp. n. 



{Lyell §■ G. Sowerby) (fig. b)] 



a. Oliva, (cast,) Eocene limestone, Wilmington, N. Carolina. 



b. Terebratula Wilmingtonensis Lyell §• G. Sowerby. 



c. Paludina, (cast,) Wilmington, N. Carolina.) 



G G 2 



