90 North American Eastern Tertiary — Meyer. 
and designated as the Grand Gulf formation. The relation of 
this Grand Gulf to the Tertiary affords the following two pos- 
sihilities. [1.] The Grand Gulf formation is younger than 
the marine Tertiary north of it and overlaps it. [2.] The 
Grand Gulf is older than the marine Tertiar}' and underlies it. 
In connection herewith stands the stratification of the marine 
Tertiar}' itself. In the first^ case all the strata in general would 
slope down towards the gulf; in the second case the stratifica- 
tion of the Tertiary would be that of a trough. We may con- 
sider a special case. It is generally accepted that Vicksburgian 
strata occur south of Jackson, Miss. In the first case apparently 
these strata would be younger; in the second case we may con- 
clude them to be older than the Jackson beds. It must not be 
overlooked, however, that if the Grand Gulf is older than the 
Tertiary, we have to expect a trough shape of the Tertiary only 
there, where the Grand Gulf exists. In eastern Alabama where 
no Grand Gulf is known to occur, a trough shaped stratification 
of the Tertiary can hardly be anticipated in any case. 
From the foregoing we see that the foundation of the strati- 
graphy of the Gulf states is the relation of the Grand Gulf to 
the Tertiary. Until a few years ago, when the writer disputed 
the validity of the existing theories, geologists did not think of 
the possibility of the Grand Gulf being older than the Tertiary, 
as the contrary was considered to be proved beyond a doubt by 
Hilgard. And only at a recent date Hilgard again repeated the 
statement, that the Grand Gulf sandstone is found overlying 
the Vicksburg strata, "as verified innumerable times." [Science, 
Jan., 1886, p. II.] But as for this I can only repeat, that I 
have been unable to find in the whole known literature a single 
place described, where the Grand Gulf strata can be seen in di- 
rect superposition to the Tertiarv. I would therefore, lU'gently 
request any one v\dio has information of it to give me a single 
locality where the Grand Gulf can be seen actually overlying 
the Tertiary. 
Although I found a number of interesting objects in Mississ- 
ippi, I was not successful in finding a contact of the two for- 
mations. I tlescribed two localities where strata, which look 
like Grand Gulf strata are overlaid by marine Tertiary, but 
unfortunately they only have this appearance, and it cannot be 
