46 



EXTENT AND COMMODIOUS POSITION OF THE EOCENE ON THE RIVERS. 



One of the most interesting facts presented in the foregoing de- 

 scription of the Eocene on the Pamunkey and James rivers, is the 

 great depth and extent of those strata, which, from the nature of 

 their contents, may be applied to profitable use in agriculture. Beds 

 of such materials, preserving an average thickness of twenty feet, 

 extend along the banks of the Pamunkey with occasional interrup- 

 tions for more than twenty miles. 



Their position on the river shore makes them of most convenient 

 access, and gives additional facilities to the conveyance of the ferti- 

 lizing materials they furnish to various distant points, while from the 

 peculiar character of the strata themselves, they are almost exempt 

 from the usual destructive agencies of the freshets, being of a texture 

 to withstand with scarcely any loss the most violent assaults of the 

 sweeping currents by which the banks of the river are so often 

 overflowed. To this cause we are to ascribe the steep declivity of 

 the shores in many narrow parts of the river, where the abrading 

 action of the water, instead of rapidly carrying off the materials of 

 these strata, has merely served to wear them into smooth and almost 

 perpendicular precipices rising immediately from the margin of the 

 stream. 



EXISTENCE OF THE EOCENE BENEATH THE HIGHLANDS, AND THROUGHOUT 

 THE WHOLE BREADTH OF THE STATE. 



The general position and direction of the Eocene beds suggests 

 another view of great practical importance to this and the neighbour- 

 ing districts of the state. I allude to the probable, perhaps I may 

 say certain, continuation of these strata over a wide area, on a level 

 corresponding to the general depth at which they are found upon 

 the rivers. In confirmation of this view it may be remarked, that 

 since the publication of a communication on this subject in the Far- 

 mer's Register, the existence of a similar depositc throughout an ex- 

 tensive district of Maryland, lying in the general direction of our 

 Eocene formation, has been brought to light, and there is reason for 

 believing that within the borders of North Carolina, near to the Vir- 

 ginia line, the same strata are displayed in the banks of several of 

 the streams. In the belief then that all this extensive band of coun- 

 try, stretching in a meridional direction entirely across the state, 



