EASTERN AND SOUTHERN UNITED STATES. 
139 
by the famous bluff exposed on the Alabama Elver near Claiborne, which has yielded 
the fossils known to geologists and paleontologists as those characteristic of the “Clai- 
borne Group.” Probably the most trustworthy section of this hluff is that given by 
Tuomey,* * * § as follows : — 
9 
Red sand, loam, and pebbles. 
Feet. 
30 
f 
Mottled clay. 
8 
e 
Limestone, with grains of greensand. 
54 
d 
Ferruginous sand ; numerous fossils. 
c 
Whitish limestone. 
62 
^ 1 
Bed of clay 15 feet thick, with seam of limestone on top. 
15 
Note. Tuomey does not give the thickness of bed “d,” but it appears from the concurrent statements of 
different observers to be about 17 feet. The total height of the bluff above the Alabama River would therefore 
appear to be in the neighborhood of 190 feet. 
The measurements and descriptions of Conrad, f Hale,f and LyeU,§ do not differ 
very materially from the data given by Tuomey. The arenaceous bed “ d," about 80 
feet above water-level, has yielded the vast majority of fossils for which the locality 
is famous, and is that which has been identified as the equivalent of the “ Calcaire 
Grossier” (Upper Eocene of France = Bruxellian of Belgium). Although formerly 
considered to be near the base of the system, there are now very strong grounds for 
concluding that these beds are underlaid by older Eocene strata, having a thickness 
at least 300 feet, and, possibly considerably more. The age of the limestone bed “ e,” 
although perhaps the character of its contained fossils does not permit of absolute deter- 
mination, is doubtless at least in part Jacksonian, and will be found to correspond with 
a portion of the bluff exposed at St. Stephen’s on the Tombigbee Kiver, about thirty 
miles almost due west of Claiborne. At any rate, a portion of the white limestone west 
of Claiborne lias been found to contain several of the characteristic fossils of the Jackson 
group, and these associated with the remains of Zeuglodon; there is, tlierefore, no 
doubt as to the age of at least this portion of the white limestone, nor can there be 
* First “Biennial Report of the Geology of Alabama,” 1850, p. 152. 
t “Fossil shells of the Tertiary Formations,” 1833, p. 32 ; Pioc. of the Nat. Institute, 1841, p. 174. 
t “Geology of South Alabama.” Am. Jour, of Science, new ser., vi, p. 354. 
§ Q. J. Geol. Soc., iv, p. 10, et. ieq. 
