366 
TALLADEGA SLATES OF ALABAMA 
Mountain belong to the “Millstone Grit” of the Coal Measures, 
and that the rocks of the Talladega (Ocoee) formation to the 
east of Talladega Mountain are, with the exception of a few 
small infaulted areas, of Mid Carbonic age. The Early Carbonic 
rocks immediately beneath and to the west of Talladega Mountain 
extend a considerable portion of the distance toward the west¬ 
ward edge of the Talladega belt, but just how far cannot be 
definitely told. 
It is believed that the western side of the Talladega belt, in 
this locality, is Cambric in age, as it seems to be farther to the 
southwest, near Calera, at which point Cambric rocks are traca- 
ble into the area occupied by the Talladega formation. 
In light of the recently acquired facts it appears that the 
Talladega (Ocoee) formation of Alabama is really made up of 
a sequence of metamorphosed Paleozoic rocks representing at least 
three different periodic ages: the Cambric, the Early Carbonic, 
and the Mid Carbonic periods. 
East of the wide Talladega outcrop, in Alabama, there are 
several belts of rocks, associated with mica-schists and gneisses 
which in every way appear to belong to the Talladega formation. 
These occupy their present position through folding and faulting. 
In crossing the eastern portion of the Ocoee belt, in Tennessee, 
over the newly graded road leading from Chattanooga to Duck- 
town, the author was forcibly impressed with the Coal Measures 
aspect of these rocks, and it seemed to him then that the age char¬ 
acteristics of the Talladega formation of Alabama can be largely 
applied to the typical Ocoee locality. A persistant search for 
fossils in the black slates, now so well exposed along this newly 
graded road, might be well worth while; but there, as in Alabama, 
the fossils are likely to be found only in the siliceous lenses where 
dynamic forces were unable to totally destroy the evidences of 
their organic nature. 
