LYELL ON THE EOCENE BEDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 429

Lunulites is also considered to be identical with the species found in Virginia. The Polyparia of the crag exhibit, therefore, a marked absence of the genera characteristic of high temperatures. The Touraine miocene strata contain, according to the fine series collected by Mr. Lyell, about nine species of Anthozoa and three of Lunulites, the former including an Anthophyllum, believed to be the species found in Virginia, two Turbinolicz and two Astre~e, the whole indicating a somewhat greater temperature than that of the crag. The Bordeaux and Dax deposits include, according to /~I. Michelin's work on the fossil corals of France, eleven lamelli- ferous Anthozoa and two Lunulites, the former comprising a Dendrophyllia, believed to be identical with a Touraine species ; six Astre~e, one Gemmipora, one Porites, and two Madrepor~, or an aggregate representative of a Red Sea list of polyparia. Lastly, the Turin polypidoms, for a knowledge of which :[ am wholly in- debted to M. Michelin's work, present no less than 73 species of lamelliferous Anthozoa, a tabulated list of which will bear a detailed comparison, as respects genera, with similar summaries of Red Sea, or tropical polypidoms. From these data it may perhaps be inferred, that the American deposit was accumulated in a climate superior to that of the crag, possibly equal to that of the faluns of Touraine, but inferior to that of Bordeaux."

2. Observations on the W H I T E LIMESTONE and other ]~OCENE o r

Older Tertiary Formations of VIRGINIA, SOUTH CAROLINA, and GEORGIA. By CHARLES LYELL, Esq., ~ .A. , F.R.S., &c.

THE tertiary deposits occupying a lower position than the Miocene strata described in the last paper, were first referred by Mr. Conrad to the Eocene period, in the " J o u r n a l of the Academy of :Natural Sciences" for 1830. Some of these strata have been observed by Mr. Conrad on the Potomac at Fort Washington in Maryland (" Fossil Tertiary Shells," p. 30.) ; but the most northern which I myself examined were in Virginia, at Richmorrd, at Petersburg, and at several points on the James River. The for- mation in this region consists in great part of greensan d and marl, containing green earth, so precisely like that which charac- terises the cretaceous strata of :New Jersey, that were it not for the distinctness of the fossil shells, it would be impossible in many places to separate these deposits by mere reference to their mineral composition.

Farther south, in :N. and S. Carolina, and in Georgia, the eocene formation acquires a larger development and a new mineral type, consisting of highly calcareous white marl and white lime- stone, and passing upwards, especially in Georgia, into red and white clays, ferruginous sands, with associated layers of burrstone and siliceous rock. This calcareous form of the eocene rocks on the Santee River and elsewhere, had led some geologists to con- sider the solid limestones as an upper secondary or newer cre-

VOL. I. G G

430 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

taceous formation, and as forming an intervening link between the secondary and tertiary formations ; but after a careful examination of several localities, presently to be described, I found the white limestone to contain exclusively tertiary fossils, without any inter- mixture of species belonging to the true and unquestionable cre- taceous rocks of New Jersey or Alabama. I t appeared to me that there was the same chasm between the cretaceous and tertiary r o c k s in that part of America which I visited, as has been observed in Europe generally, and those organic remains which have been supposed to be common to the two formations in the United States, have been almost all referred by mistake to the older group, in consequence of part of the white limestone of S. Carolina, which is tertiary, having been erroneously referred to the cretaceous epoch.

The largest number of eocene shells found in a good state of preservation, are those of Claiborne, Alabama, where a large collection was made by Mr. Conrad, and descriptions and figures of them were published in 1832.* At the same period, Mr. Lea, of Philadelphia, received from a friend a fine collection of the same fossils from Alabama, and referred them also to the period of the London clay of England, and calcaire grossier of Paris. In his work intitled " Contributions to Geology," he gave figures and descriptions of more than 200 species, but unfortunately, in con- sequence of these two eminent naturalists having laboured simul- taneously, and independently of each other, almost every shell received a distinct specific name. For a list of synonyms, I may refer the reader to the appendix to Dr. Morton's "Synopsis of Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Group, Philadelphia, 1834," drawn up by Mr. Conrad.

I shall now offer a few observations on several localities of the eocene strata which I visited, beginning with the most northern, in Virginia, and then proceeding southwards to :N. and S. Caro- lina and Georgia.

Virginia.-- Below Richmond, near Coggin's Point on the James River, the Ostrea sellwformis occurs in one of the uppermost of the eocene beds ; and this fossil I afterwards found to be widely cha- racteristic of the formation in S. Carolina and Georgia. At the same place, Cardita planieosta, so common in the London clay and Paris basin, is also found. I t cannot be distinguished from one of the common varieties of the European shell, and is accom- panied by an oyster very nearly allied to O. bellovacina. Profes- sors W. B. and H. D. Rogers, have described and figured several of these fossils in the fifth and sixth volumes of the American Phil. Trans. for the years 1835 and 1839. :Near Evergreen, on the right bank of the James River, twenty miles below Richmond, I found, in the eocene marl, a large piece of wood in a state of lignite, 7 feet long, and about 1 foot broad, bored by teredo.

For some account of the Claiborne strata, see Conrad's '-" Tertiary Fossil Shells," 1842.

LYELL ON THE EOCENE BEDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 431

At Petersburg, 30 miles south of Richmond, I saw the eocene strata, containing several characteristic fossils, dist inctly overlaid by a large mass of miocene shell-marl. A t no other point is the older ter t iary formation more remarkable for its lithological re- semblance to the greensand of the cretaceous series.

Nor th Carolina. - - V e r y different is the aspect of the rocks near Wilmington, N. Carolina, where they consist in great part of a limestone containing siliceous pebbles, and casts of shells and corals, wi th many fishes' teeth. This limestone is less whi te and more compact than the white limestone of S. Carol ina; on the shore at the town of Wilmington it is 12 feet thick, covered with a shelly miocene deposit 6 feet thick. I t is quarried in the neigh- bourhood of the town, and burnt for lime. I obtained, besides cSrals, 31 species of shells, exclusive of balani, from this rock, almost all in the state of casts, and many of them, therefore, only capable of being named generically. Those in italics in the fol- lowing list have been identified with species found elsewhere in eocene localities : - -

Lis t o f Eocene Shells f r o m the Limestone o f Wilmington, _h r. Carolina.

Cypr~a, identical with a cast from Shell Bluff, Georgia

Cypr~a, two other species Oliva .4labamensis Oliva, allied to O. Laumontiana Lain.

(fig. a) Oliva Voluta, two species Conus Strombus Fusus Bueeinum, three species Paludina, allied to P. Desnoyeril

Desh. (fig. c). l~ratica ~tites Turritella, two species

Vermetus Infundib'ulum trocMforme Crassatella, agreeing with a cast from

Eutaw Corbula Lucina pandata Cardium," agreeing with one from

SheU Bluff" Cardita rotunda Cucullvea Arca, two species Nucula magniJlca Peclen membranaeeus Mort. Terebratula Wilmingtonensis sp. n.

( Lyell ~ G. Sowerby) (fig. b) ~

a. Oliva, (cast,) Eocene llmestone, Wilmlngton , N. Carolina. b. Terebratula Wilmingtonensis Lyell 8; G. Sowerby. c. Paludlna, (cast,) Wilmington, N. Carolina.]

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432 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

The two last-mentioned species of the above list, Pecten mem- branaceus and Terebratula ?/Vilmingtonensis, alone preserve their shells, all the others being in the state of casts. The small 01iva (fig. a.), resembles in general form 0. laumontiana Lain., or 0. nitidula Lam., but is more slender than either. .ks it is only the cast of the inside, it cannot be fully described. I t appears to have only two small folds in the columella, of which the anterior is the larger. The Paludina (fig. c.) is like 10. Desnoyerii Desh. (a fossil of the white marl in the midst of the calcaire grossier), but it has six volutions, whereas the P. Desnoyerii has barely four and a half. In the Wilmington fossil, the spine is more acuminated and the volutions more distant, so that the suture must have been more distinct.

Terebratula Wilmingtonensis (Lyell and G. B. Sowerby), Wil- mington, :North Carolina. This shell resembles most nearly in general form T. uva Brod. (recent from the Gulf of Tehuantepec), and also approaches T. bisinuata Lava., a fossil of the Paris basin. The following are its characters : - -

Terebratula, with an oblong, smooth shell, posteriorly acuminated, anterior margin nearly even, dorsal valve large, and posteriorly prominent.

I was informed that a species of Nautilus had been found in the Wilmington limestone. Among the Polyparia which I collected there, Mr. Lonsdale has observed the following species : - -

1. Lunulites sexangula Lons. 6. uDendropllyllla l~evls Lons., also at 2. Lunulites Shell Bluff 3. L. dlstans Lons., also at Wantoot ? 7. Caryophyllla 7 subdlchotoma Lons., also 4. L. contigua Lons. at Shell Bluff 5. Flabellum 7 cuneiforme Ant]iophyllurn 8. Eschara tubulata Lons.

of Conrad, also found at Eutaw and Cave Hall

AS four out of these eight corals, those in italics, and ten out oi the thir ty-one shells, occur elsewhere in eocene localities, I con- sider the age of the Wilmington limestone, on which some doubts have been entertained, as set at rest. Among the teeth of sharks in the same rock I found, together with the usual eocene forms, a species of Galeus. The claws of crabs are also numerous.

T observed the same formation, and some of the same shells and corals, at Rocky Point, which is about twenty miles from Wil- mington, on the :N. E. branch of the Cape Fear River, where a similar conglomerate occurs, with green pebbles. At some points the rock is partly siliceous, and strikes fire with steel.

South Carolina.

From the low country near the level of the sea, at the mouth of Cooper River, to the junct ion of the Santee Canal, and from that point to Vance's Fer ry on t h e Santee River, a cal- careous formation of the eocene period occurs. A t the first point where I saw it, in Dr. Ravenel 's plantation called " t h e

LYELL ON T HE EOCENE BEDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 433

Grove," near the mouth of the river, it aplJears in the form of a soft pulverulent limestone, in which two species of Scutella, (S. ma- crophora Ravenel, and another,) are very abundant. The soft limestone had been cut through to the depth of five feet in digging a canal, situated near "the Grove," about seventeen miles north of Charleston; its thickness here is unknown. I found in it Pecten I, yelli Lea, a Claiborne shell, and the upper valve of an oyster, which seems undistinguishable from O. 5ellovacina ; also a species of Lucina, and a large t)ecten allied to P. pleuronectes; also a species of Spatangus common to the limestone of the Santee canal.

At the Rock Landing, near the Grove, the white limestone is composed of triturated shells, and assumes a very hard and solid form. I t contains fragments of Echinoderms, casts of shells, and corals (Lunulite ?): it sometimes passes into an imperfect oolite.

Between the Grove and Vance's Ferry on the Santee River, a distance of about forty miles, is a continuous formation of white limestone, which I examined in company with Dr. Ravenel, first at Strawberry Ferry and Mulberry Landing, then on the banks Of the Santee Canal, and afterwards at Wantoot and Eutaw. I then followed it in a north-westerly direction for twelve miles, by Cave Hall and Streeble's Mill, to near Halfway Swamp. On reaching Stoudenmire or Stout Creek, a tributary of the Santee, we found the limestone and marl to disappear beneath a newer deposit, also referable to the eocene period, of which I shall afterwards speak as the burrstone formation.

The soft limestone varies in hardness, passing frequently into a white marl, and resembling in texture some of the craie tufau of the Loire in France. I t consists almost entirely of comminuted shells or corals, but it rarely exhibits any laminae of deposition, and even where it attains a thickness of" twenty or thirty feet, there would be a difficulty in determining whether it were hori- zontal, if a bed of oysters, O. sell~formis, like that at Vance's Ferry, did not occasionally occur. ~otwithstanding its slight elevation above the sea, the Santee limestone cannot be less than 120 feet thick at Strawberry Ferry, being vertically exposed to the extent of 70 feet on the low banks and bottom of Cooper River, and to the height of 50 feet above these banks in the neighbouring hills. Its upper surface is very irregular, and is usually covered with sand, in which no shells have been found.

At Eutaw and other points, corals of the genera ldmonea, Den- drophyllia, Flabellum, Tubulipora, Hippothoa, Farcimea, ~Zincu- laria, JEschara, and others, occur, with a species of Scalaria, and other shells. These fossils, and the rock containing them, reminded me so much of the straw-coloured limestone of the cretaceous formation which I had seen on the banks of Timber Creek in New Jersey, that I do not wonder that some error has arisen in con- founding the tertiary and secondary deposits of the Atlantic border. The species, however, prove, on closer inspection, to be different. This lithological resemblance led t o the admission into

G ~ 3

434 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

Dr. Morton's otherwise most accurate list of the cretaceous fossils of New Jersey, of the six following species, viz. Balanus pere- grinus, Pecten calvatus, P. membranosus, Terebratula lachryma, Conus gyratus, Scutella Lyelli, and Echinus inflatus (,see pl. 10., Morton's Synopsis), which came from the eocene beds of South Carolina, now under con§ideration, and led to a belief of the exist- ence of a deposit intermediate between the chalk and tertiary strata, and containing fossils common to both.

One of the characteristic features of the region of tertiary white marl and limestone in South Carolina and Georgia, is the frequent occurrence of lime-sinks, or funnel-shaped cavities, arising from natural tunnels in the subjacent limestone, through some of which subterranean rivers flow. At Wantoot, there is one of these sinks in the limestone, and a spring issues from the rock so much above the temperature of the air during a frost as to send off clouds of steam.

At Cave Hall, two miles south of the Santee River, there is a cavern about twelve feet high at its opening, at the base of a pre- cipice of limestone sixty feet perpendicular. Large beds of the Ostrea selleeformis occur in the limestone, which contains green particles in the lower strata. A stream is constantly flowing out of the mouth of the cave, and there is a line of sinks communi- cating with the underground river-course, in which the under- mining process is continually going on. I was informed that a new " s i n k " had opened fifteen years ago within 110 yards of the mouth of the cave, and that a mule fell into the hollow while draw- ing the plough in the field above. Among other fossils from this place, I found in the limestone the tooth of Myliobates, and in the lower beds of calcareous greensand the same shells and corals as in the incumbent white limestone.

On reviewing the fossil Invertebrata which I collected from various localities in the Santee white limestone of South Carolina, I find many which will at once be recognised as species known to belong to the eocene formation of Claiborne and other places, among which I may mention Trochus agglutinans, Pyrula inau- rata (Fusus Conrad), _hratica writes, Dentalium, same as one from Claiborne, Lucina pandata, Lucina rotunda Lea, Lucina lapidosa, Crassatella agreeing with a Wilmington (North Carolina) fossil, Chama, like one from Jacksonboro', Georgia, Pecten calvatus, P. Lyelli Lea, Ostrea bellovacina, O. sellwformis. Besides these we find Terebratula lacryma, Ostrea Carolinensis, Pecten allied to P. pleuronectes Lain., and shells of the genera Nautilus, Voluta, Turritella, Scalaria, Vermetus, Lucina, Cytherea, Corbula, Car- dium, Lima, Pecten, Ostrea, Terebratula.

The Echinoderms are referable to the genera ScuteUa and Cidaris, and I met with several nautiliform foraminifera. The corals, already alluded to generically, will be described by Mr. Lonsdale. •

See " Report on the Corals," &c. in the present Number of the Journal.

L Y E L L ON T H E EOCENE BEDS OF NORTt t AMERICA, 435

Burrstone Formation.

I have before mentioned that the white limestone of the Santee River, on being traced in a north-westerly direction, disappeared at Stoudenmire Creek, a tributary of the Santee, beneath a newer deposit of considerable thickness. The latter consists of slaty clays, quartzose sand, loam of a brick-red colour, and beds of sili- ceous burrstone, in some of which fossil sponges, having a coarse fibre, have been detected. Some of the clays break with a con- choidal fracture, and become stony when dried. One of the beds is extremely light, and resenibles in appearance some kinds of cal- careous tufa, but does not contain carbonate of lime. I at first supposed it to be of infusorial origin, but some practised observers have been unable with the microscope to discover infusorial cases. There were casts of shells in this rock, and in several of the asso- ciated strata, referable to the genera Cypr~a, Voluta, 2Vatica, Trochus, Corbula, Mactra, Cardita, Cardium, I, ucina, 2Vucula, Pectunculus, Peeten, and Serpula. Among these, a Corbula, Car- dium, and IVucula, seem to agree with 121aiborne species ; the rest did not agree with fossils from that locality, nor with those from the miocene beds of Virginia, but I was afterwards shown siliceous casts of Ostrea sellaformis, Cytherea perovata, and other eocene fossils, from strata of the same formation at Orangeburg and near Aikin in South Carolina. I believe, therefore, that the larger portion of the ferruginous sands, red clays, and white beds of kaolin (often miscalled chalk by the inhabitants of South Carolina and Georgia) belong to the Upper Eocene or Burrstone deposit.

At Aikin, fifteen miles S. E. of Augusta, and near the left bank of the Savannah River, the inclined plane of a ~ailway has been cut through strata, 160 feet in thickness, consisting partly of earth and sand of a vermilion colour, and containing much oxide of iron ; partly also of mottled clays, and white quartzose sand with masses of pure white kaolin. This compact kaolin appears fitted to make good porcelain ware. The globules of iron give a pisolitic ap- pearance to some of the beds of quartzose sand. These beds at Aikin yielded no fossils, but I suppose them to be all referable to the Burrstone or Upper Eocene formation.

Georgia.

The same Burrstone formation is continuous from Aikin and Stoudenmire Creek, South Carolina, to Augusta in Georgia, and to the junction of the tertiary with the primary or hypogene rocks above that city. I t must attain there in some places a thickness of more than 200 feet, and is very variable in its aspect and com- position.

At a place called The Rocks, six miles west of Augusta, it con- sists of a highly micaceous quartzose grit and sand, having much the appearance of certain kinds of granite, and having been by

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436 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

some writers improperly termed gneiss. The mass exhibits oc- casionally a distinct cross-stratification, and pieces of compact kaolin, sometimes angular, are imbedded in it. In other places, as at Somerville, red, vermilion-coloured, and white clays, 180 feet thick, are seen. These rest in horizontal beds on the edges of highly inclined strata of chlorite schist and clay-slate, which are ex- posed to view at the rapids of the Savannah River, three miles above Augusta. On Ray's Creek, near this point, the old schists, much charged with iron, are seen to decompose into materials so like the red vermilion, coloured clays of the ter t iary deposits, that they would be undistinguishable, were it not that the veins of quartz, which have not decomposed, still remain running through them. The quartz itself, when broken up, would furnish a white sand such as that found associated with the red clays, so that we have here a most satisfactory explanation of the derivative origin of a great part of the burrstone formation.

Savannah River. m I shall now describe several natural sections which are seen in the bluffs or cliffs bounding the alluvial plain of the Savannah River, in its course of about 250 miles between Augusta and the sea. The river has an average fall of about one foot per mile, or 250 feet between Augusta and the delta of the river. Like the Mississippi and all large rivers, which, in the flood season, are densely charged with sediment, the Savannah has its immediate banks higher than the plain intervening be- tween them and the high grounds, which usually, at whatever distance from the river, present a steep cliff or " b l u f f " towards it.

Near Augusta, the Savannah cuts through the red clays and sands before mentioned. For ty miles below the city, a section from 120 to 150 feet high, and half a mile in extent, is observed in Shell Bluff in Georgia, on the right bank. URfortunately, at the time of my visit the waters were high, and covered the bottom of the bluff. The lowest exposed portion of the cliff consisted of white pulverulent marl, derived chiefly from comminuted shells, which passed upwards into a solid limestone, sometimes concre- tionary, and containing numerous casts of shells ; and above this was again seen pulverulent white marl. Still higher, the calca- reous deposit becomes more sandy and clayey, and encloses a bed of huge oysters (0 . Georgiana Conrad), which are found growing one upon the other, and have evidently not been drifted into their present place. The total thickness of these calcareous strata is about 80 feet, above which, beds of red loam and yellow sand, such as prevail at Aikin and Augusta before mentioned, and without fossils, are seen at the top of the cliff 40 feet or more in thickness.

After a diligent search of several days, I obtained casts of no less than thir ty-nine species of shells from the limestone of Shell Bluff, twenty-four of which I have been able to identify either with eocene species, known to Mr. Conrad to occur at Claiborne, or to species found by me in other eocene localities, and I have no doubt that I could have identified more had my own collection from Claiborne been more complete.

LYELL ON THE EOCENE BEDS OF NORTH AMERICA. 437

Shells found at Shell Blu f f agreeing with Species in other Eocene Localities.

1. Conus, like one from Jacksonboro', Georgia

2. Cypr~ea, llke one from Wilmington, S. Carolina

3. Oliva Alabamensls Conrad 4. Pyrula, apparently agreeing with

one from Claiborne 5 Voluta prisca (Turblnella prisca,

Con.) 6. Troehus agglutinans 7. Melongena alveata, very common 8. Infundibulum troehiforme 9. N a t i e a mtites Con.

10. Bulla, like one from Jaeksonboro' 11. Crepidula lirata Con.

12. Dentallum thalloides Con. 13. Crassatella protexta Con. 14 Lucina pandata Con. 15. Lutraria lapldosa Con. 16. Cytherea Poulsoni Con. 17. C. perovata Con. 1~. Cardita planicosta 19. C. rotunda Con. 20. Cardium, like one from Jackson-

boro' 21. Nueula magnifica Con. 22. Chama, like one from Jaekson-

boro' 23. Ostrea sell~eformis Con. 24. Pecten membranosus

The remaining shells, chiefly casts, which I collected, belong to the following genera : Conus, Voluta, Turritella, Fusus, Cytherea, Lithodomus, Solenomya, Cardita, Cardium, Pectunculus (two species), Pecten, Arca, Ostrea.

One of the species of Ostrea, O. Georgiana, has been supposed to agree with the large fossil so common in Touraine, and called by some 0. virginica, but this identification is doubtful. The Shell Bluff species is very remarkable for its enormous thickness and length.

About nine miles below Shell Bluff, in the Long Reach, is a cliff about e ighty feet high, called London Bluff, where the same shelly white calcareous beds again appear, covered with red clay and loam. The horizontal stratification is evident here, as in the cliff two miles below, where the large oysters are seen standing out in relief. Below this, at Stony Bluff in Burke County, near the borders of Scriven County, the calcareous beds have quite disappeared, and siliceous beds of the burrstone series are seen occupying the cliff, and rest ing upon brick-red and vermilion-coloured loam. This superposition is important, as concurring, with other facts, to show that the burrstone of this region with its eocene fossils is an in- tegral par t of that great red loam and quartzose sand formation, usually devoid of fossils, which occupies so large a space between the hypogene (or pr imary) region and the Atlantic. The quart- zose and siliceous rock of Stony Bluff was, during the last war with Grekt Britain, quarried for millstones. I t passes into a sand- stone with distinct grains of quartz, and is full of cavities and geodes, part ial ly filled up with crystals of quartz and agates. Por- tions of it are filled with spiculm of fossil sponges, some of them in a decomposed state, and there are also seen in the same flints, when th in slices are cut and polished, minute flustriform corals and foraminiferous shells, which were detected by Mr. Bowerbank, who has had the kindness to examine the specimens for me micro-

438 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY,

scopically. "Loose flints of this formation, containing spines of echini and other fossils, are scattered over the surface of the country, like chalk-flints in England. At Millhaven, in Scriven County, about eight miles from Stony Bluff, and five in a direct line from the Savannah River, the siliceous beds crop out on the banks of a small stream. In the flints here I found casts of several shells of the genera Valvata, Peeten, and Terebratula, with a species of Cidaris. It was evident to me that this millstone be- longs to the same formation of red loam and sand which extends almost uninterruptedly from Aikin and Augusta to this region, for I observed near :Millhaven, where the deposit has been pierced through to the depth of 26 feet in wells, pieces of white kaolin embedded, like those before mentioned near Augusta.

Jachsonboro', Scriven County. SECTIOIq OF EOCENE STRATA ON THE RIGHT BANK OF BEAVERDAM CREEK,

SCRIVEN COUNTY, GEORGIA.

a. Limestone. b. Whi te marl. e. Yellow and red sand and clay of the burr-stone formation.

About eight miles from the Savannah River, and one mile west of Jacksonboro', a limestone occurs, covered with sand, in the fork of Briar and Beaverdam Creeks, which has been quarried for lime. This limestone (a) passes upwards into marl (b), which has an undulating surface, as represented in the annexed section, and appears to have been denuded before the deposition of the incumbent sand and loam (c). The height of the cliff is about 25 feet, the thickness of the calcareous formation varying from l0 to 15 feet, and the yellow sand which rests upon it from 3 to 10 feet.

From this limestone of Jacksonboro' I obtained, besides corals and echinoderms, thirty species of shells, the larger portion of which were kindly presented to me by Colonel Jones of Millhaven. Those in italics agree specifically with fossils from Claiborne, Ala- bama, or other eocene localities, which I have specified.

Fossil Shells of Jachsonboro', Scriven Co., Georgia. O llva Alabamensls Fusus ihauratus Voluta prisca Ceri thium Georgianum Lyell 8f G. Conus, same as one from Shell Bluff Sowerby, see fig. ? Rostellaria or Strombus (casts), four Melania, see fig. ?

species Paludina ?

L Y E L L ON T H E E O C E N E B E D S O F N O R T H A M E R I C A . 439

Natica mtites Cardium, like one from Shall Bluff Turritella Chama, like one from Shell Bluff Bulla, same as one from Shell Bluff Cardita Troehus agglutinans Lithodoraus daetylus Infundibulum trochiforme NIodiola Solarium canalicalatum NIytilus Dentalium .4vicula trigona .9. Crassatella Peeten Lucina pandata Ostrea panda Cytherea

C ~'~'

c. Melanla, east. Cerithium Georglanum. a. Nucleus. b. Cast of exterior.

The shell named Cerithium Georg ianum in the above list (figs. a, b.), is ve ry abundant , and closely resembles C. lamellosum Lam., a t e r t i a ry species of the Par is basin. I ts characters are as follows : - -

Cerlthium, with an acumlnated turreted shell, volutlons 9 or IO, rounded, with rather obsolete and irregular longitudinal ribs, and with 5 or 6 transverse ridges, of which tile three anterior are very prominent, and lamellose near the aperture.

Of the nex t sheU in the list, named ]~Ielania (fig. c.), t he re is only a cast of the inside preserved, so that its ex te rna l characters cannot be dis t inct ly known.

Of the JLithodomus dactylus I obta ined a beaut i ful cast, bo th of the ex ter ior and interior, f rom the cavi ty of a fossil coral. I t resembles the W e s t I nd i an variety, and is an eocene species well k n o w n in the Par is basin. As, according to Phi l ippi , i t is one of the most cosmopolitic of l iv ing species, we have the less reason to be surpr ised at its grea t ver t ical range in the geological series.I

A species of Scutel la differing from those found by me in o ther places was common at Jacksonboro ' . F o r the fol lowing descrip- t ion of i t I am indeb ted to Professor E. Forbes , and it has been named, after Colonel J o n e s of :M.iUhaven, Scutel la Jonesi i : - -

440 PROCEEDINGS OF T t t E GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

• . : : . . . :~ .~

• . . . . . . ~ . = , . . : , £ , . ~ : , . ~ o ; $ t , , ~ 2

Scutella Jonesi, Edward Forbes. Body plane, shield-shaped, subpentangular, with sides and posterior

margin undulated ; angles obtuse. Back centrally slightly convex, interambulacral spaces depressed ; ambu-

laeral spaces broad, somewhat convex, with parallel sides. .4venues petalold, with their inner margins nearly straight. Pairs of pores in each avenue 37, united by oblique lines.

Oral surface concave, with five deep furrows radiating from the mouth to the margin.

M a r g i n thick, rounded. Lat. 2 ~ ]on. ~ . crass, max. 1~.

This species appears to have been marked with spots. L o c a l i t y . --Jacksonboro'. I have no doubt that all the sandy soil on which the long-leaved

pitch pine grows in the neighbourhood of Jacksonboro' belongs to the burrstone formation, consisting of sand, ferruginous sand- stone, and red loam, and although it is rare to find the limestone and marl exposed to view, I believe it to be everywhere subjacent. For we meet not unfrequently in Seriven, and several of the ad- joining counties, with lime-sinks, or deep depressions, more or less circular in shape, in the vertical walls of which we observe sec- tions of the horizontal beds of sand and mottled red and yellow loam and clay. As the water does not stand in these sinks, there is evidently a subterranean drainage, by which the loose sand has been carried down, and the surface undermined, as before de- scribed at Cave Hall. I saw several lime-sinks near Jackson- boro', and one about 16 miles south of Millhaven, on the east side of the road to Savannah, at Reeve's mill. I t was 60 paces in circumference, and 80 feet in depth, and the beds gone through consisted of yellow and deep-red sand, in some parts t~rruginous, with beds of mottled red and white steatitic clay.

L Y E L L ON T H E EOCENE BEDS OF N O R T H AMERICA. 441

All the bluffs which I examined on the Savannah River below Briar Creek belonged to the beds above the limestone, and are referable for the most part, if not entirely, to the burrstone form- ation. I observed several sections in the Long Reach in ~criven's County, where the red loam and yellow sand is conspicuous ; and there is a fine section in Hudson's Reach, at a place called Tiger- Leap, where beds of fuller's earth occur. A few hundred yards below Tiger-Leap, where a small .creek or brook enters on the right bank of the Savannah River, I found in some of the white clays impressions of Mactra, Pecten, and Cardita, with fragments of fishes' teeth, particularly of the genus Myliobates, several of the genus Latona, and one of the genus Galeus. These bluffs of loam, clay, and sand are often 80 feet in height ; and after passing Scri- yen I found, in the county of Effingham, similar sections, as at Sister's Ferry and Ebenezer. In the section at Sister's Ferry there is not only the brick-red loam, and the red and grey clay and sand, but layers of steatltic clay, which, although soft when moist, be- come hard and acquire a conchoidal fi'acture when d~ied.

On the whole it appeaI's, from the information I obtained, that the less elevated part of South Carolina and Georgia, intervening between the mountains and the Atlantic, has a foundation of cre- taceous rocks, containing Belemnites, ~Exogyra, and other fossils, above which are, first, eocene limestones and marls, and, secondly, the burrstone formation, with its red loam, mottled clays, and yellow sand. I am informed by Mr. Vanuxem that a tertiary lig- nite formation is sometimes interposed between the cretaceous beds and the eocene limestone; but I had no opportunity of verifying this fact in the sections which I saw, partly, I believe, owing to the swollen state of the rivers at the time of my visit. The re- markable difference of the fossils found in the eocene limestone at different points may lead some to the suspicion that there exists in this country a considerable succession of minor divisions of the eocene period, but I am inclined to ascribe the circumstance princi- pally to two causes : first, that the number procured in each place i~ small, and therefore represents a mere fraction of the entire fauna of the period under consideration ; and, secondly, that we have not yet any great eocene collection from any part of the United States. I f we had 1000 shells from Alabama instead of little more than 200"(those, namely, which have been found at Claiborne), we should be able to form. a more correct opinion respecting the mutual relations of the strata at distinct points, such as Shell Bluff, Jackson- boro', Eutaw, the Santee canal, and Wilmington, North Carolina.

The difficulty of classifying the tertiary strata of the southern states arises mainly from the wide extent of red and white clays, and siliceous sand, withouL fossils. The sterile sands which form the soil of the pine barrens in the lower plains of Virginia and :North Carolina appear to belong to the miocene period, while those of a large part of South Carolina and Georgia are eocene. Some, of the red ochreous and vermilion clays, as, for example, those of ]Vlartha's Vineyard and at Richmond, Virginia, are mio-

442 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

cene. Others of similar character in South Carolina and Georgia, as at Orangeburg, Aikin, Stony Bluff, and MiUhaven, belong to the burrstone formation, which is of the eocene period.

The species of eocene shells common to the United States and Europe appears to be very small. I have in my cabinet eighty- five species, in a good state of preservation, from Claiborne, Ala- bama, presented to me by Mr. Conrad ; and I procured from the various localities already enumerated in this paper about forty species which I could not identify with the above, or with any which I have seen from Claiborne. Out of these 125 species l have been able to identify the following seven only with European eocene shells: namely, Bonellia terebellata, Trochus agglutinans, Solarium canaliculatum, Infundibulum trochlforme, Cardita plani- costa, JLithodomus dactylus, Ostrea bellovacina. The propor- tion, therefore, of species common to Europe and the United States scarcely exceeds five per cent., and the proportion of species now living and identical with the American eocene shells appears to be "still smaller. In regard to geographical represent- ations, I found at least one fourth of the species to be very closely allied to :European eocene fossils, while another fourth p r e s e n t e d forms differing greatly from any species procured from the eocene strata of Europe, although belonging to genera which are abund- antly represented in these formations.

March 12. 1845. Sir Robert Burdett, Bart., of Ramsbury Park, Wilts, and Wa-

rington W. Smith, Esq. M.A. of Trinity College, Cambridge, were elected Fellows of this Society.

The following communication was r e a d : - - On the comparative Classifcation of the Fossillferous Strata of

~ORTH WALES, with the corresponding deposits of CUMBERLAND, WESTI~IORELAND, and LANCASHmE. By the Rev. ADA~ SEDG- WICK, M.A., F.R.S., Woodwardian Professor of Geology in the University of Cambridge.

THE author referring to his memoir on the structure of North Wales, published in the first number of this Journal, for an account of the sequence of the rocks in that district, states that his object now is to bring the successive groups of the Cumbrian mountains into comparison with the three primary divisions of the whole Welsh series. *

* These divisions are: 3. The uppermost slate rocks of the Upper Silurian age, consisting of a series

of beds called by the author the ' C r e s e i s flagstone,' from the abundance of that £ossil, overlaid by the Denbigh flag, &c.

2. Roofing slate and greywacke of great thickness, with alternating beds of contemporaneous porphyry.

1. Chlorite and mica slate, &c. of Anglesea and the S. W. border of Caernar- vonshire.