SECOND ANNUAL REPORT—STRATIGRAPHIC GEOLOGY. 
123 
PLIOCENE. 
CALOOSAHATCHEE MARL. 
The existence of Pliocene beds in Florida was recognized as early 
as 1885, but the first published account is found in Heilprin’s report, 
which was issued in 1887. 1 This writer gave a description of the 
shell marls exposed along the Caloosahatchee River, and referred 
them to the Pliocene. 
It will thus be seen that the relation of recent to extinct species is as 48 
to 41, giving a very much higher percentage for living forms than obtains in 
any of the divisions of our recognized Miocene deposits, even the “Carolinian,” 
which holds a position nearly equivalent to the so-called Mio-Pliocene of Europe. 
It becomes manifest that this most extensive Floridian exposure represents the 
Pliocene age—a circumstance interesting, apart from the general bearing which 
its presence has upon the geology of the State in particular, from the fact that 
it gives us the first unequivocal indication of the existence of marine Pliocene 
deposits in the United States east of the Pacific slope . 2 
To these beds Heilprin 3 gave the name Floridian. The name Ca¬ 
loosahatchee marl was applied by Dali to the Pliocene beds along the 
Caloosahatchee River and the streams entering Charlotte Harbor. 4 
In 1887 the shell marls on the Caloosahatchee River was described by 
Dali, 5 who agreed with Heilprin in referring them to the Pliocene. 
In subsequent papers 6 by the same author these marls were called the 
Caloosahatchee beds, from the type locality on the river of that name. 
Thus, Dali's Caloosahatchee beds include the Floridian beds of Heil¬ 
prin. The name proposed by Dali is retained for the Pliocene beds of 
the Caloosahatchee River and neighboring streams, but since these 
beds are largely marl the formation is here called Caloosahatchee marl. 
The type locality of the “Arcadia marl” 7 is on Mare Branch, a 
tributary of Peace River, about six miles north of the town of Ar¬ 
cadia, and with this marl is included an oyster marl which Dali de¬ 
scribed from a locality about three miles north of the wagon bridge 
1 Heilprin, Angelo, Explorations on the west coast of Florida. Wag. Free 
Inst, of Sci. Trans., vol. i, 1887, pp. 26-33. 
2 L. C., p. 31. 
3 Heilprin, Angelo, Explorations on the west coast of Florida. Wag. Free 
Inst, of Sci. Trans., vol. i, 1887, p. 32. 
4 Dali, Wm. H., Notes on the Geology of Florida; Am. Jour. Sci., vol. xxxiv, 
1887, p. 169. 
5 Ibid. p. 161-170. 
6 Dali, Wm. H., The Neocene of North America, U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 
No. 84, 1892, pp. 140-149, and Wagner Free Inst. Sci. Trans., vol. iii, pt. vi, 1893, 
pp. 1603-05. 
7 Dali, Wm. H., The Neocene of North America, U. S. Geol. Survey Bull. 
No. 84, 1892, pp. 131-132. 
