TALLADEGA SLATES OF ALABAMA 
365 
conformity of Safford’s Ocoee formation with fossiliferous 
Cambric strata and therefore classified it as Cambric, thus agree¬ 
ing with Safford. Eckel ^ considered that the Ocoee formation 
of the Georgean Dahlonega, district, and the more highly meta¬ 
morphosed rocks east of them were probably of Paleozoic age. 
The author ® suggested Paleozoic age for portions of both the 
semi-crystalline and the crystalline areas in Alabama. 
The discovery of fossils, Lepidodendrids (pi. xxiii) Calamites 
and Artisias by Mr. Franklin and Dr. Smith ^ in black slates near 
Erin, Alabama, immediately east of Talladega Mountain, in 
Clay County, and their identification by David White, proved 
without question the late Paleozoic and probable Carbonic age of 
a small area of rocks in the Talladega (Ocoee) belt. The question 
then arose as to the relation of this small fossiliferous area to 
the rest of the Ocoee rocks. The solution of this problem natur¬ 
ally fell to the author when recently he took up the investigation 
of the geology of Clay County. 
The structural conditions (see fig. 22) show the relation of 
the fossiliferous area to the rocks for some distance on either 
side of Talladega Mountain. Although the area about Erin 
(the fossiliferous area) is considerably faulted, it is quite evident 
that the fossil-bearing Carbonic rocks overlie conformably and 
are but little younger than the conglomerates of Talladega Moun¬ 
tain. It is also evident from recent field-work that the strata for 
some distance to the northwest of Talladega are conformable 
with these conglomerates. 
The black-slate horizon in which the fossils occur at Erin is to 
be seen in a number of other places in the county. In the 
vicinity of Millerville the Talladega beds have an outcropping 
width of not less than 5 miles across the strike and stratigraphic- 
ally above the fossil-bearing horizon. In this area two other 
black-slate horizons, higher in the geological column, are known. 
In neither of these, however, are fossils found. 
From a critical comparison of the general sequence of the 
strata in the Coosa Coal Field, which lies a short distance to the 
west of Clay County, I am led inevitably to the conclusion that 
the conglomerate belts of Talladega Mountain and of Cedar 
7 Kng. and Min. Jour., Feb. 7, l^O^. 
8 Bull. Geol. Soc. America, Vol. xxx, pp. 113, 114, 1919. 
9 Science, N. S., Vol. xviii, pp. 242-246, 1903. 
