248 A. F. Foerste — Chipola Miocene of 



the Grand Gulf group and to correlate its members with the 

 marine Miocene deposits farther east. 



Mr. Lawrence C. Johnson, to whom the writer is indebted 

 for the most of the following information,* has been enabled 

 to divide the Grand Gulf group into four phases : A basal 

 quartzitic phase called the Bayou Pierre phase developed 

 chiefly towards the Mississippi river; a second, called the Fort 

 Adams or Ellisville phase which has been traced eastward into 

 Alabama ; an upper or Hattiesburg phase, abounding in phy- 

 togene remains which has also been traced into Alabama ; and 

 a fourth or Pascagoula phase which in its eastward extension 

 has. been found only in borings in Mobile County at the south- 

 western corner of Alabama. 



The Hattiesburg or phytogene phase is well developed in 

 Mississippi at Pawl's Springs and the shoals of Bouie river 

 near Hattiesburg ; at Coal Bluff, near Augusta, on Leaf river ; 

 at Powe's Bluff on the Chickasawhay river, above Lakeville ; at 

 Shell Landing, below Roberts' Bluff, four miles southwest of 

 Yernal ; extending thence into Alabama, occupying the south- 

 ern part of Washington County, occurring, for instance, on the 

 southern branches of Bassett's creek, where crossed by the St. 

 Stephens and State Line road ; thence across northern Balti- 

 more into Escambia County where the Conecuh river and its 

 tributaries expose this phytogene phase near Castleberry on 

 Murder creek ; at Coal Bluff, seven miles south ; at Silas Bluff, 

 on the Conecuh, six miles east ; and at Roberts' on Silas creek, 

 not far eastward. 



At the last locality, Roberts, occurs an exposure which seems 

 to be of considerable importance for purposes of correlation. 

 Here " the bluff washed out by the waste- way of the mill is 

 filled with the casts of fossils." Mr. Johnson informs me by 

 letter that Mr. Dall thinks these fossils indicate the lowest or 

 oldest Miocene. u The wood and lignitic matter " or Hatties- 

 burg phase, occurs " in the upper part of this wash-out bluff." 

 The most northern outcrops of the Chesapeake in this 

 vicinity seem to be at " the low shell landing on the Yellow 

 River at Oak Grove, six miles south of the Alabama line."* 



In a general way it seems to be possible therefore to estab- 

 lish a correlation between the Miocene of the Appalachicola 

 embayment region, and that of the eastern margin of the 

 Grand Gulf Group. Correlating the phytogene or Hattiesburg 

 phase of the Grand Gulf at Roberts with the leaf-bearing 

 sands at the top of the Chipola at Alum Bluff, the Ellisville 

 and lower horizons of the Grand Gulf Group of this vicinity 

 should correspond to the marine Chipola and the Chattahoo- 



* Science, Feb. 17, '93, and personal correspondence. 



