108 
The American Geologist. 
February, 18: 6 
Potomac beds was exhibited, the section being Lafayette reddish clay, 
15 feet; the Potomac formation, consisting successively of sand, 55 feet, 
“chalk ” (a mixture of fine white sand and kaolin), 30 feet, and sand 
and soft sandstone, with some clay, 335 feet, reaching to a total depth 
of 165 feet, where the boring passed into granite. In a deep well at 
Florence, the Newark sandstone was reached, far south of its previously 
known areas. 
Resume of general stratigraphic relations in the Atlantic coastal 
plain from New Jersey to South Carolina. N. H. Darton. A series 
of five cross sections was displayed, illustrating the larger stratigraphic 
features. Deep well borings at many points have been the most impor¬ 
tant sources of new information, and of these Mr. Darton has made a 
special study for a report now in course of publication. His field studies 
in South Carolina, described in the previous paper, indicate some of the 
relations of the lower Coastal Plain formations where formerly there was 
much obscurity; and the recent investigations by Dr. W. B. Clark have 
added much to knowledge of the Upper Cretaceous in New Jersey and 
eastern Maryland. 
The relationship of the Potomac, marine Cretaceous, and Eocene for¬ 
mations in South Carolina is due to an overlap of the Eocene southward 
bevond the edge of the marine Cretaceous strata. The Cretaceous marl 
and clay marl series of New Jersey has been so uplifted and eroded in 
post-Cretaceous times that in the present outcrops its upper members 
drop out one by one in its extension into Maryland, and only the lowest 
member reaches the surface in the latitude of Washington. The series 
is overlain by the Miocene to the westward, notably in central southern 
New Jersey and opposite to Washington: but in the greater part of the 
Maryland region, and apparently also in southeastern New Jersey (as 
shown by well borings), it is overlain by the Pamunkey formation 
■ (Eocene). 
The Magothy formation, although a thin and very arenaceous mem¬ 
ber of the Coastal Plain series, has been found to be widespread in east¬ 
ern Maryland, and to extend far northward into New Jersey, where it 
appears to be represented by water-bearing gravels and sands that are 
revealed by many well borings in the western side of the southern por¬ 
tion of the state. It lies between the Raritan (Potomac) clays and the 
base of the clay marls or Matawan formation of Dr. Clark. 
Abundant new data have been received, mainly from well borings, 
bearing on the thickness, character, and extent of the Chesapeake 
(Miocene) formation in Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, and New Jersey. 
The Natchez formation. T. C. Chamberlin, Chicago, Ill. (Read by 
title.) Alternating stages of deposition and erosion of the Pleistocene 
stratified gravel, sand, and fine silt of the immediate valley of the 
Mississippi river in the vicinity of Natchez, Mississippi, are described 
from observations during the year 1895, with examination of well ex¬ 
posed sections. The Natchez formation and associated deposits and 
stages of erosion are of especial interest on account of their probable 
