Feather stonhaugh^'s Geological Report. 59* 



country, in about latitude 47° north, a line which was more par- 

 ticularly noticed in my report of last year.* This lower division 

 of the cretaceous group for a great portion of this distance has 

 a common mineral character not much dissimilar to that of the 

 same deposites in Europe ; but the agreement in the fossil 

 bodies found in it is so strong as to leave no doubt whatever 

 of our having the equivalents of the green sand formation of 

 Europe in the United States. There are also satisfactory rea- 

 sons for believing that these beds are deposited for much the 

 greater part of that line, if not upon the whole of it, on the 

 lowest beds of the primary order, so that the line itself may 

 be considered as representing the shore of the ancient ocean 

 which deposited these beds. The localities of these beds in 

 the United States are New Jersey, some points on the left 

 bank of the Potomac river, Maryland, and near Coggin's point, 

 on the right bank of James river, Virginia, where they are 

 generally covered over by the tertiary. Further south the 

 coast lies so low that the inferior beds of the tertiary are be- 

 low the water level, but, scarce as natural sections are, the 

 beds sometimes re-appear as the country rises in the interior^ 

 and at Prairie bluff, on the Alabama river, and in the neigh- 

 boring country, are rich in the subcretaceous fossils. From 

 thence they may be traced at various points along this ancient 

 shore, on the west of the Tennessee river, in Arkansas, in 

 Hempstead and Sevier counties, w^estward, to the Kiamesha, 

 near Fort Towson, and so on up the False Washita, till the line 

 deflects to the north and runs up to the Black hills, termina= 

 ting probably south of the Mandan country.. 



The last three deposites of the column forming the tertiary 

 order have also their representatives in this country, their 

 mineral character, taking them in a mass, having a strong 

 general resemblance, which is completely established by their 

 organic contents, and their common position, so near the sur- 

 face, in the geological column ; but, in the numerous parts of 



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