EOCENE STRATA, UNITED STATES. 
279 
Ian tic, which increases in breadth and importance as it is 
traced southward from Delaware and Maryland to Georgia 
and Alabama. They also occur in Louisiana and other States 
both east and west of the valley of the Mississippi. At Clai¬ 
borne, in Alabama, no less than 400 species of marine shells, 
Avith many echinoderms and teeth of fish, characterize one 
member of this system. Among the shells, the Cardita pla~ 
nicosta^ before mentioned (Fig. 191, p. 260), is in abundance; 
and this fossil and some others identical with European spe¬ 
cies, or very nearly allied to them, make it highly probable 
that the Claiborne beds agree in age with the central or 
Bracklesham group of England, and with the calcaire gros- 
siere of Paris.* 
Higher in the series is a remarkable calcareous rock, for¬ 
merly called “the nummulite limestone,” from the great 
number of discoid bodies resembling nummulites which it 
contains, fossils now referred by A. D’Orbigny to the genus 
Orhitoides^ which has been demonstrated by Dr. Carpenter 
to belong to the foraminifera.f That naturalist, moreover, 
is of opinion that the Orbitoides alluded to ( 0. Mantelli) is 
of the same species as one found in Cutch, in the Middle 
Eocene or nummulitic formation of India. 
Above the orbitoidal limestone is a white limestone, some¬ 
times soft and argillaceous, but in parts very compact and 
calcareous. It contains several peculiar corals, and a large 
Nautilus allied to N. ziezac; also in its upper bed a gigantic 
cetacean, called Zeuglodon by Owen.J 
The colossal bones of this cetacean are so plentiful in the 
interior of Clarke County, Alabama, as to be characteristic 
of the formation. The A^ertebral column of one skeleton 
found by Dr. Buckley at a spot visited by me, extended to 
the length of nearly seventy feet, and not far off part of an¬ 
other backbone nearly fifty feet long was dug up. I ob¬ 
tained evidence, during a short excursion, of so many locali¬ 
ties of this fossil animal within a distance of ten miles, as to 
lead me to conclude that they must have belonged to at least 
forty distinct individuals. 
Prof Owen first pointed out that this huge animal Avas not 
reptilian, since each tooth was furnished with double roots 
(Fig. 224), implanted in corresponding double sockets; and 
his opinion of the cetacean nature of the fossil Avas afterwards 
* See paper by the Author, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. iv., p. 12; and 
Second Visit to the United States, a^oI. ii., p. 59. 
t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., a’oI. au., p. 32. 
t See Memoir by R. W. Gibbes, Journ. of Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad., a’oI, i, 
1847. 
