32 GEOLOGY AND MINERAL RESOURCES OF MISSISSIPPI. 
In the railroad cut at Hoffman, Holmes County (PI. IV, B), the following section of the 
Tallahatta buhrstone was obtained: 
Section of Tallahatta buhrstone at Hoffman. 
Ft. In. 
8. Yellow loam, with Lafayette wanting 7 
7. Hard quartzitic sandstone, gray with bluish tints 2 2 
6. Compact, stratified sand, with brownish and yellowish tints 3 6 
5. Ledge of white stratified sandstone, not so hard as No. 7 3 6 
1. ( 'hocolate-colored clay, highly micaceous 3 
3. Ledge of indurated chocolate-colored clay i . 1 2 
2. Earthy lignite, passing into No. 1 . 1 
1. Chocolate-colored clayey sand, highly micaceous, containing small iron concretions; bottom 
of cut 6 
The Tallahatta buhrstone comes to the surface in the hills on the west side of the creek 
which empties into Yokahockany River at Ethel, in eastern Attala County. The principal 
outcrops occur in sees. 33, 30, 29, 28, and 21, T. 15 N., R. 8 E. In each of these places the 
rock is a gray, soft, micaceous sandstone, containing more or less iron oxide. It is found 
well up on the hillsides 30 to 40 feet above the stream. Its relation to the underlying and 
overlying strata is not known, owing to the large amount of detritus on the hillsides. 
However, as this is the easternmost outcrqp known in this latitude, the sandstone must 
represent something like the base of the formation. The elevation of Ethel is 435 feet 
above sea level. 
The Ethel and Kosciusko sections offer an opportunity for determining the dip of the 
formation. The hard quartzitic layer just above the fossiliferous marl bed in the well at 
Kosciusko has been considered above (p. 29) to be the base of the Tallahatta buhrstone. 
The altitude of this quartzitic horizon is 380 feet above tide. Considering the base of the 
formation to come to the surface near Ethel at an altitude of 475 feet, and the distance 
between Ethel and Kosciusko to be 9 miles, we thus get a southwesterly dip of 10} feet to 
the mile. 
A comparison based on railroad elevations of the Hoffman and Kosciusko sections leads 
inevitably to one of two conclusions — (1) that the fossiliferous marl bed 65 feet beneath the 
surface in the Kosciusko well is not Wilcox, but a part of the Tallahatta buhrstone, or (2) 
that there is considerable warping of the strata which has never been taken into consider- 
ation. 
The elevation of the marl bed in the Kosciusko well is approximately 380 feet above tide. 
At Hoffman, 12 miles west of Kosciusko, what has been considered the base of the forma- 
tion outcrops in the railroad cut at an elevation of 293 feet above tide, or 87 feet lower than 
the buhrstone bed at Kosciusko. If the quartzite at Hoffman were at the base of the Talla- 
hatta buhrstone, there would be a strong dip of 1\ feet per mile to the west. But the buhr- 
stone outcrops at Ethel, 9 miles east-northeast of Kosciusko, and again 6 miles east of 
Winona. It is therefore impossible to get the base of the formation at Hoffman unless there 
is a strong folding of the strata in this region. Such folding has never been detected by any- 
one, and we are thus forced to the conclusion that the fossiliferous marl bed in the Kos- 
ciusko well is in the Tallahatta buhrstone and that the formation is much thicker than esti- 
mated above (p. 30), or else the quartzitic ledge is not the base of the formation. 
In the hills 6 miles east of Winona a gray sandstone occurs having the same character as 
that found near Kosciusko, Hoffman, and other places farther south, showing both the hard 
quartzitic layer and the softer aluminous sandstone containing mica and highly colored with 
iron oxides. 
The northernmost place in Mississippi where the Tallahatta buhrstone has been found is on 
the poorhouse farm 4 miles west of Grenada, Grenada County. Here the blue to pink-tinted 
quartzite occurs in large, rough bowlders on the highest hills. If the old shore line repre- 
senting the eastern edge of the Tallahatta buhrstone continued its northwest course north 
of Yalobusha River, as it does from the Alabama line to Grenada, the Claiborne north of 
this point has been removed by the same agency which carved out the Yazoo bottom. 
