FAYETTE COUNTY, 443 



ties of iron, particularly if it should be found to serve likewise as a flux. 

 The fossils in the upper beds are better preserved than in the lower, but 

 good cabinet specimens are difficult to obtain. That locality alluded to 

 before as Grubb's quarry, in the southern part of the county, abounds in 

 fossils, and I recommend it as a promising field for palgeontological re- 

 search. It was but little opened at the time of my visit, but as the stone 

 obtained seemed to answer well for building purposes, it will doubtless 

 be further developed and furnish many fossils, and possibly some that 

 are new to science. 



FBET. 



Highly fossiliferoua courses 12 



Massive courses, hard and gritty, showing crinoidal stems ou weathered 



surface 10 



Strata alternating with clay 5 



Ferruginous clay, separating the limestone from the hlue clay below 3 



THE NIAGARA FORMATION. 



This designation, as well as many others in our geology, including the 

 subject of the last paragraph — the Clinton — are derived from the account 

 of the geology of the State of New York published some years since, and 

 are taken from the occurrence of these strata in well known localities in 

 that State. 



The Niagara formation is not exposed very extensively in Clinton 

 county, and dips far under the surface in Fayette. It lies immediately 

 on the iron-stone or ore just referred to at Babb's quarry, on Todd's Fork. 

 Here, proceeding from the upper strata of Clinton in the bed of the creek, 

 near Babb's quarry, we find, commencing at the Clinton, thence upward: 



Blue clay with purple tint 4 inches. 



Blue clay 4 " 



Stone stratum - 1 inch. 



Purple or red clay, unctuous feeling 4 inches. 



Blue clay 4 " 



The best Niagara building stone in the county — smooth, fine-grained, even-bedded 

 limestone— approaching in quality some sorts of marble. 



The supply of this building stone, however, is limited and much be- 

 low the demand. In the inferior strata no trace of organic remains were 

 found, their fine, even texture suggesting that they may have been da- 

 posited as calcareous mud in quiet water. In no part of the twelve or 

 fifteen feet here exposed were organic remains found, except in the most 

 meager quantity, here and there occurring a small mass of coral which 

 is completely incorporated in the substance of the s.tone, being unbroken 



