Malott: The "American Bottoms'' Region 13 



8 to 24 feet, and a typical thickness of 12 feet. In the region 

 considered in this discussion it attains its maximum thick- 

 ness of 24 feet, as seen in the Ray's Cave section (Fig. 1). 

 Thruout the region of the ''American Bottoms" it must have 

 a thickness of 20 feet or more, and in places may possibly 

 exceed its thickness in the Ray's Cave section. Everywhere 

 thruout the state from Owen County south to the Ohio River, 

 where the Beech Creek limestone is exposed in weathered 

 outcrops, it presents a ragged face made up of cubical chunks 

 of limestone. It is a gray, compact to sub-oolitic, and often 

 semi-crystalline limestone, frequently locally quite completely 

 oolitic, and contains large numbers of brachiopods, especially 

 of the genus Prodttctus. Of the succession of Chester lime- 

 stones, none contains such a number of large, well-preserved 

 crinoid stems standing out prominently on the weathered 

 faces as the Beech Creek. This feature along with the hackly, 

 cubical weathering gives it such distinguishing characteristics 

 that it can be easily told from any of the other Chester lime- 

 stones in the state. In the ''American Bottoms" region, there 

 is an added thickness at the top. This added thickness con- 

 sists of coarse, crinoidal ledges with a considerable admixture 

 of sand and clay. These upper ledges weather a distinct 

 yellow. It would appear that the area may have been a 

 local basin, or have led into one of considerable dimensions 

 to the west. These upper yellow ledges contain a number of 

 species of Archimedes. 



The Beech Creek limestone is quite persistent thruout the 

 outcrop of the Chester in Indiana. Only locally is it absent 

 where the strata are sufficiently high for its occurrence. 

 Across the Ohio River it thins out and farther south is absent. 

 At Sample, Ky., in the shale some ten feet above the Reels- 

 ville limestone is a thin ledge of limestone about 4 inches 

 thick that probably represents the Beech Creek. Likewise, 

 in a railroad cut some two miles east of Garfield in Breckin- 

 •ridge County there is a ledge 6 inches thick which is its 

 probable representative. A short distance away from this 

 latter place the overlying massive Cypress sandstone comes 

 down considerably below the horizon of the Beech Creek. It 

 may be added that toward the eastern outcrop of the Chester 

 in southern Indiana there is conclusive evidence that the 

 upper Chester formations overlap the lower ones, and this 



