>. 
GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF THE GULF OF MEXICO. 521 
> 
large as a boy’s head, more frequently of the size of the fist — very 
smooth on the surface, and often egg-shaped. It was a matter of curios- 
ity to him to inquire whence these rocks came and how they became 
these beds fr adalot o a“ Miss., to Batport, Tent , and 
along the edge of the Carboniferous to the The same beds h wW 
along the northern 1 From e high northern latitudes came 
t kes. t 
then the materials of what is called Drift in the Southern States by Dr. 
Hilgard, in his paper. Quartz, from its hardness, furnishes the largest 
pebbles and the sand grains. The coloring matter of the Red Clay which 
forms so much of the surface of the Gulf States comes from the iron 
beds of Lake Superior. 
Professor Perry, having recently made a somewhat detailed examina- 
tion of the principal geological formations in Mississippi, was happy to 
be able to say that he had not become acquainted with a fact which mili- 
ed by 
gar 
While all geologists are familiar with eel three series of Cretaceous 
formations in Alabama and Mississippi, it may be proper for me to men- 
tion that Cretaceous deposits of peculiar ionii have been recently dis- 
covered by Professor Kerr, at Snow Hill in North Carolina. Under his 
guidance, I had the pleasure of visiting the locality, last spring, shortly 
after t 
After a rather careful BT E of the Tertiary beds £ Mississippi, 
I have *found no occasion to take exception to the main conclusion 
reached by Dr. Hilgard and Bies in his Geological Report of the sek 
n aah to the existence of Mississippi Drift, the subject of more es- 
pecial interest at this time, I may say that I find no room for doubt. 
prominent features of this formation, as it occurs in Mississippi and Ala- 
bama, I had opportunity to study between the years 1847 and 1850. I 
then became acquainted with the phenomena, while their explanation has 
been only gradually reached by the continued studies of subsequent years. 
