130 T/ui American GeologUt. Aut^ust, isoi 
close rosomblcnco in general aspect; and in tlie mere reconnoissanco 
then made by Safford of the region, were by liini pntsunied to be of 
identical age. In a subsequent report (18G!t) Safford recognized the fact 
that a portion of the beds included by him in the above designation b(!- 
longed to the Cretaceous; and he accordingly defines tlie "Orange Sand 
or Lagrange group " as being of Tertiary (probably Eocene) age. 
Meanwhile I had, in IS'iG, examined the portion of Mississippi adja- 
cent to the Tennessee line, and in subst^iucnt years up to ISIW) the 
rt'iiKiinder of the state. I had found what I presumed to bo Safford's 
Orange sand more widely developed in Mississipi)i tlien even in Ten- 
nessee, and found it ovisrlying the latest recognized Tertiary beds — the 
Grand (lulf rocks. Accordingly I adopted Safford's name in my Missis- 
sippi report of I860, in which the features of the formation are de- 
scribed in considerable detail: and for reasons there given the "Orange 
sand " is assigned to the early Quaternary. 
The intervention of the war prevented any early conference between 
Safford and myself en tin; subject; and it wasonly in 1869 that I learned 
that Safford assigned his "Orange sand " and " Lagrange," as a unit, 
to the Eocene age. 
During our subsequent correspondence it was developed that lignitif- 
erous beds of unquestionably Eocene age, exposed not far from La- 
grange, Tenn., were included by Safford within his group. I therefore 
suggested to him that the latter name should be retained for the yellow 
and gray lignitiferous sands of the Eocene that immediately overlie the 
"Flatwoods" or "Porter's Creek" beds, which themselves overlie di- 
rectly, and almost conformably, the uppermost Cretaceous. The name 
of "Orange sand,'' on the other hand, it was agreed should designate 
the higher scries, to which it is peculiarly appropriate. To this agree- 
ment we have since adhered, and have therein been followed by other 
western geologists. 
As stated in ray Mississippi report of 1860, I had concluded from the 
descriptions of Tuomey and others, that the Orange sand extended with 
more or less similarity of character at least to South Carolina, and prob- 
ably along the Atlantic coast plain as far north as Washington. 
The excellent work carried out for some years past by McGee, along 
the coastal plain of the Atlantic slope, while restricting somewhat the 
supposed northward extension of the formation, has shed much new 
light upon its general relations and regional modifications: and while 
the identity of the whole is unquestionable and hence the prior designa- 
tion (Orange sand) should stand in place of the name Appomattox applied 
by McGee to the Atlantic portion of the formation, yet the deviation of 
the former name from the accepted rule of forming such names from 
type localities, as well as a certain degree of confusion that has oc- 
curred in its actual use, seems to render a change advisable. 
At a late conference on the whole subject, participated in by ]Messrs. 
McGee, .loseph Do Conte. Ltuighridge and myself, it was suggested that 
in view of the various objections to all the later names, that of " Lafay- 
ette," which the formation had borne for several years in my early field 
notes (from the type localities in Lafayette county, Miss., where I first 
