178 
PROCEEDINGS OF 
1 have here given a view of all the strata known above the white limestone which 
prevails so extensively in Southern Alabama and Georgia, and which is evidently a 
link in the widely distributed cretaceous series. The lower tertiary in the Southern 
States is generally in limited basins or depressions in this limestone. Although at 
Claiborne the actual junction or relative position of the two formations is not ex¬ 
hibited, yet the latter rock can be traced, as well as identified by its fossils, from a 
spot six miles west of Claiborne to St. Stephens on the Tombeckbce river, where it 
is seen to underlie the lower tertiary strata, a short distance north of the village. 
The following section, though constructed from recollection after a lapse of seven 
years, will convey an idea of the cliff at St. Stephens. 
St. Stephens. 
B. Alluvium. 
C. Eocene. 
I have already indicated those fossils which are common to both formations, but 
it is not unlikely than another of great importance will yet be added to the number. 
This is the Zeuglodon, or the gigantic Basilosaurus, found on the Washita river, 
in Louisiana, completely enveloped in eocene fossilliferous “marl.” It is yet, 
however, uncertain whether this envelope may not have fallen from the cliff above 
upon the exposed remains, though their tertiary origin is more probable. In the 
limestone, specimens of the jaws and teeth, and many vertebras have been discovered. 
I received some years since, from Alabama, some of these remains, and the vertebrae 
were reported to have laid upon the ground when first discovered, in so regular a 
line, as to suggest the idea of their having been undisturbed from the time of the 
animal’s death. Judging from the extent of this line of vertebrae, the Zeuglodon 
was supposed to have been one hundred and fifty feet in length, which is doubtless 
a great exaggeration. Portions of nine individuals, it is said, have been found in 
Alabama. 
The following fossils, most of them described by Dr. Morton, constitute the group 
by which this formation is recognised : Nummulites Mantelli , Pecten perplanus, P. 
Poulsoni , Plagiostoma dumosum, Ostrea panda, O. cretacea , Modiola cretacea , Gy. 
phcea vomer , Nautilus alabamensis , Scutella Roger si. 
The rock is finely developed, and the fossils very numerous, between Claiborne 
and St. Stephen’s, in Alabama, particularly at the latter locality, where myriads of 
the Nummulites Mantelli , (Morton,) cover the surface of the decomposing rock. 
Geographical range of Lower Tertiary. —The most northern locality I have seen 
is near Long Branch, in New-Jersey, where the fossils, though generally casts in marl, 
with a chalky coating, are very readily identified with the Claiborne species. The 
localities in Maryland have already been indicated. In Virginia, the formation 
occurs on the Rappahannock, below Fredericksburg, on the Pamunkey river, and 
