PART I

THE PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE COASTAL PLAIN OF NORTH CAROLINA

BY WM. BULLOCK CLARK, BENJAMIN L. MILLER, AND L. W. STEPHENSON.

THE PHYSIOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY OF THE COASTAL PLAIN OF NORTH CAROLINA

BY WM. BULLOCK CLARK, BENJAMIN L. MILLER, AND L. W. STEPHENSON.

The western mountainous district, known throughout the eastern portion of the country from Pennsylvania to Alabama as the Appalachian Region, culminates in North Carolina in a series of ranges that reach over 6,000 feet in altitude. Kerr, in describing this region, says:

“The western section is a rugged mountainous plateau; it forms a narrow, irregular, much indented trough, lying between the bifurcating chains of the western and dominant arm of the southern prolongation of the Appalachians—the Smoky Mountains and the Blue Ridge—the former being the western boundary of the State. The length of this plateau from northeast to southwest is more than 200 miles, its breadth 15 to 50 miles, and its area nearly 6,000 square miles. The Smoky chain has a general elevation of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet, rising in many summits to 6,500 feet and upwards, but is broken down by half a dozen deepwater gaps or cañons to the level of 2,000 and even 1,200 feet. The Blue Ridge, which constitutes the eastern boundary of the plateau, is a very sinuous and angular and straggling mountain chain, with a general elevation of from 3,000 to 4,000 feet and upwards, a few of its higher summits, about midway in the State, reaching nearly 6,000 feet.

“These two bounding chains are connected by many north and south cross-chains, of equal elevation with themselves, or greater, and separated by deep valleys. On one of these cross-chains, called the Black Mountains, is Mitchell's Peak, the highest point east of the Mississippi, its altitude being 6,711 feet (400 feet above Mount Washington in New Hampshire). The cross-valleys or river basins have an altitude of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet, with smaller benches and marginal plateaus of from 3,500 to 4,000 feet. Seen from the east or Atlantic side, the Blue Ridge appears as a steep, ragged, and broken escarpment, springing suddenly 2,000 to 3,000 feet above the Piedmont Plateau at its base.”

The central hill country known as the Piedmont Plateau attains a much greater width in North Carolina than in the States to the north of it, and is also far more rugged. Kerr, in describing this area, says:

“This plateau has along its western margin an altitude of 1,200 to 1,500 feet above sea-level, and is mountainous, with high and precipitous spurs projected eastward and southward from the Blue Ridge. A few of these extend in irregular, straggling ranges all across the breadth of the Piedmont section, which is 60 to 75 miles wide, and carries an elevation of 1,000 feet to its eastern margin.

“This middle region of the State is a country of hills and valleys and rolling uplands, its prominent topographical features being a succession of broad-backed swells with eastward or southeastward trends, constituting the watersheds between a number of large rivers, which take their rise in the Piedmont or on the flanks of the Blue Ridge, and reach the Atlantic through a system of wide valleys, 300 to 500 feet below the intervening divides. The area of this region is about 20,000 square miles; its altitude, descending gradually from 1,000 to about 200 feet, averages about 650 feet.”

The eastern low country, known as the Coastal Plain, extends from Cape Cod and the islands off the New England coast as a constantly widening belt to the Gulf. Along its western margin in North Carolina

it is often hilly, forming the sandhill district, the streams here frequently cutting through the softer Coastal Plain deposits to the harder rocks of the Piedmont Plateau below. The sandhills often appear as outliers on the Piedmont Plateau, where they attain elevations of from 400 to 500 feet.

To the eastward the country declines in altitude, passing from one broad plain or terrace to another until it approaches tide-level, when it embraces swamps, marshes, bays, and sounds over wide areas—the whole surface for more than 50 miles inland from Hatteras and the Eastern Shore being less than 20 feet above sea-level. The ocean is walled off from this low region by a long linear chain of sand islands or dunes, ranging from 75 to 100 feet and upwards in height and separated in half a score of places by inlets which connect the sounds with the ocean. The total width of the plain reaches 125 miles. Its area is about two-fifths that of the State, exceeding 20,000 square miles and embracing wholly or in part 42 counties.

Beyond the outer shore line the surface slopes gradually beneath the sea to the continental shelf, this belt off the North Carolina coast having a width of about 50 miles, thus constituting a submarine district of nearly 15,000 square miles.

The Coastal Plain is the name applied to the low and partially submerged area of varying width that is confined between the Piedmont Plateau on the west and the continental shelf on the east. Its western boundary passes through Northampton, Warren, Halifax, Franklin, Wake, Johnston, Chatham, Moore, Richmond, and Anson counties. It naturally falls into two divisions—a submerged or submarine division and an emerged or subaërial division, the seashore forming the boundary line between them. This line of demarcation, although apparently fixed, is in reality very changeable, for during the geologic ages which are past it has migrated back and forth across the Coastal Plain, at one time occupying a position well over on the Piedmont Plateau, and at another far out at sea. At the present time there is reason to believe that the sea is encroaching on the land by the slow subsidence of the latter, but the period embraced by a few generations of men is too short in which to measure this change.

The Coastal Plain of North Carolina is part of the great district which borders the ocean front from New England to the Gulf, and for the most part has been subjected to the same great physiographic changes here as elsewhere. At the same time, some marked differences are found which have left their record in the region.

The Rivers and Creeks.—The Coastal Plain rivers consist of two types: first, those which rise in the Piedmont Plateau and cross the Coastal Plain on their way to the sea, and, second, those which rise in the Coastal Plain itself. In the first group belong the largest rivers of the district: the Roanoke and Chowan in the north, which have their sources in the Piedmont Plateau of Virginia; the Tar and Neuse of the central area, which rise in the eastern portion of the North Carolina Piedmont, and the Cape Fear River of the south, which has its source somewhat farther westward. Several important South Carolina rivers also have their sources in North Carolina; the Peedee, known as the Yadkin in its upper portions, and the Santee, which receives the waters of both the Catawba and the Broad rivers. All of these streams rise in the western portion of the North Carolina Piedmont, receiving their waters in part from the eastern flanks of the Appalachian Region.

Throughout the Coastal Plain are numerous small rivers and creeks as well as the lower tributaries of the big streams which have their source within the Coastal Plain itself. They are scattered throughout the district and do not need to be considered in detail in this connection.

The large rivers are tidal only in their lower courses, although they are for the most part navigable almost to the Piedmont border. The smaller streams flow generally with rather rapid currents, except near their mouths and throughout much of the low eastern district, where they, too, are tidal. Some of the tributary streams draining the higher terraces of the Coastal Plain have rapid currents, and where they have cut through the deposits of the Coastal Plain to the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont have all the essential characteristics of Piedmont streams.

The Valleys.—The valleys of the Coastal Plain district of North Carolina are not simple trenches cut out of the broad upland surface that forms the interstream areas. They have had in most instances a complicated history since they were formed during the extensive post-Lafayette emergence, which in North Carolina, as elsewhere, produced the greater river channels and conditioned the chief Coastal Plain drainage systems of the present day. During subsequent oscillations the submergence of these valleys took place and the development of the same terraces here as in the other areas went on. Each succeeding terraceforming period left its impress on the valley topography, although all trace of the older terrace was often obliterated in the stream valley during the succeeding period of emergence.

The reëntrant valleys of the smaller streams also afford much interesting data for an interpretation of Coastal Plain history. While the

larger streams have often removed all or the larger part of the valley fillings, leaving only remnants of the accumulations along the sides, some of the smaller and less active streams have left the floors of the reëntrant valleys but slightly modified. Cases can be found where the smaller reëntrants have been practically unchanged since the enwrapping terraces buried the old valley beneath its accumulations, a signal proof of the submergence that preceded the terrace-making.

We find six generations of valleys in the Coastal Plain. The larger valleys may still contain remnants of all, but in the smaller valleys of each terrace the simplest conditions are found. Here numerous cases may be cited where streams that cut the valleys have disappeared. They will be later discussed in connection with the great terraces of which they form a part.

Toward their headwaters these valleys are narrow and V-shaped, and, if traced to their sources, are often found to start from intermittent springs, surrounded by steep-walled amphitheaters from 5 to 10 feet in height. Toward their lower courses these valleys are broad and flat and are frequently filled with fresh or brackish water marshes. In the upper portions of their courses the valleys are being eroded. In the lower portions they are being filled. A glance at the map will serve to confirm the opinion which has been held for a long time, namely, that the rivers of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina have been drowned along their lower courses, or, in other words, have been transformed into estuaries by the subsidence of the region. The filling of these valleys has taken place toward the heads of these estuaries. The headwaters of these recent valleys, on the other hand, are being extended inland toward the divides with greater or less rapidity.

Many of the tributary streams occupy the reëntrant valleys described above. The more energetic have succeeded in carrying out all of the ancient floors which formerly covered these valleys and formed a portion of the various terraces. Others have left mere remnants of these valley accumulations along the margins, while the less active streams have left the reëntrant valleys practically unmodified.

The topography of the Coastal Plain presents considerable complexity, notwithstanding its low relief. This is fundamentally due to the system of terraces out of which the region is composed, although denudation and wind action have also been important factors in changing the surface configuration, the former more especially in the higher terraced region near the main stream channels and the latter near the coast. The subaërial division of the Coastal Plain contains six terraces,

the submarine division, on the other hand, only one, which make altogether seven terraces in the Coastal Plain. In describing these terraces, the author will anticipate somewhat material which will be discussed later in another place. These terraces, beginning with the highest, are the Lafayette, Coharie, Sunderland, Wicomico, Chowan, Pamlico, and Recent.

The Lafayette Terrace.—The Lafayette terrace is represented in North Carolina by the sandhills of Scotland, Richmond, Cumberland, Moore, Harnett, Wake, Johnston, Nash, Halifax, and Northampton counties, which are dissected remnants of an ancient terrace that wrapped about the higher elevations of the eastern Piedmont, burying the western margin of the Coastal Plain and the lower portions of the Piedmont Plateau, just as the later and lower terraces in successively more easterly positions have done. The terrace features of the Lafayette, no longer clearly recognizable in North Carolina, have been described in Virginia and Maryland, where more extensive and but partially dissected remnants of the Lafayette terrace have been preserved. The extensive erosion to which the Lafayette has been subjected in North Carolina and the fact that deposits of this age have only been observed at a few points overlying the older sediments of the Coastal Plain suggest a higher elevation in post-Lafayette time with a more extensive erosion of the earlier materials than in the States directly to the north.

In Maryland where this terrace has been studied in great detail it has been found in the interstream areas to be at times as flat and featureless as the later terraces, while along the margins where it has been dissected by waterways it has been transformed into a gently rolling country and its true character obscured. Many isolated outcrops, not unlike the sandhills of North Carolina, are found in nearby areas both of the Coastal Plain and the Piedmont Plateau, which are regarded as scattered remnants of a continuous Lafayette terrace that have been brought into their present isolated position by erosion. The remnants of this plain along the ancient Piedmont shore line present approximately a common level from which point the surfaces decline gradually toward the adjacent stream channels and the ocean, as in the case of the Recent terrace of the submarine division of the Coastal Plain. In fact, the physical similarity of this terrace, as of all the later terraces of the Pleistocene to the terrace forming to-day in the estuaries and along the ocean front, is most pronounced and renders it practically certain that the conditions from Lafayette time on to the present have been in the main the same, and that, with the successive oscillations of the coast line, terraces have been formed at levels where the sea has stood for any considerable period of time.

The Coharie Terrace.—The Coharie Terrace, undeveloped in the northern Coastal Plain, is found in the region to the east of the sand-hills in Scotland, Robeson, Cumberland, Harnett, Sampson, Johnston, Wayne, Wilson, and Nash counties. Along its inner edge it has elevations of 220 to 235 feet, from which it slopes gradually to the eastward, having elevations of 160 to 180 feet along its outer border, being often much broken, as in Cumberland County, toward the valley of the Cape Fear River. Broad interstream areas but little dissected occur in that part of the area south of the Neuse River. The width of the terrace, which in the larger areas reaches nearly 25 miles near the South Carolina border, gradually decreases until it apparently disappears in Halifax or Northampton counties, the last important development of it being in Nash County. It is believed that a narrow area of the Coharie terrace extends northwestward through Halifax County and possibly into Northampton.

The Sunderland Terrace.—The Sunderland terrace is found as a belt extending throughout the district from the Virginia to the South Carolina boundary, except where cut through by the reëntrants of the Wicomico terrace. Adjacent to the Coharie escarpment it has an elevation of 140 to 160 feet, from which point it gradually slopes eastward to an elevation of 110 feet and at some points may even reach 100 feet. Within the interstream areas broad undrained tracts are found, while near the margins of the terrace, especially adjacent to larger river valleys, the surface is often deeply trenched.

The Sunderland terrace is found principally in Robeson, Columbus, Bladen, Cumberland, Sampson, Duplin, Wayne, Johnston, Greene, Wilson, Edgecombe, Nash, Halifax, and Northampton counties. The area covered by the Sunderland terrace is much larger than that covered by the Coharie, and gradually increases in width to the southward. In the northern counties it is from 5 to 15 miles in width, but gradually increases to fully 25 miles in the central counties, while in the Cape Fear River district and toward the South Carolina line it is fully 40 miles wide in places.

The Wicomico Terrace.—The Wicomico terrace embraces a much larger portion of the Coastal Plain than do the Coharie and Sunderland, similarly as this terrace in more northern areas embraces more area than the Sunderland. It likewise forms deep reëntrants in the older terraces, reaching in some of the valleys nearly if not quite to the Piedmont border. This feature is especially well seen in the valleys of the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers. The elevation of the terrace near the Sunderland escarpment is from 80 to 100 feet, while up the river valleys farther to the westward it may reach 120 feet in elevation, as shown in

some of the main-stream valleys in Cumberland and Johnston counties. The elevation of the inner surface of the Wicomico terrace in the northern counties is somewhat greater than in the south, but this is doubtless due to the fact that the Wicomico terrace has, because of marine planation, encroached somewhat farther westward on the Sunderland terrace here than farther to the south. The outer margin of the Wicomico terrace is about 60 feet, except in the great tract between the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers, where its easterly extension declines to 50 feet.

The largest areas of the Wicomico terrace are found between the Chowan and Roanoke rivers in Bertie, Hertford, and Northampton counties; between the Roanoke and Tar rivers in Halifax, Edgecombe, and Martin counties; between the Tar and Neuse rivers in Pitt and Greene counties; between the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers in Lenoir, Craven, Jones, Duplin, Onslow, Pender, and Bladen counties; and south of the Cape Fear between the Waccamaw and Lumber, chiefly in Columbus County. Much the largest area is between the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers, this great interstream area, many hundreds of square miles in area and over 40 miles in width, being poorly drained and with several great swamps on its surface. Here are found the Great Dover Swamp of Craven and Jones counties, the Whiteoak Pocoson of Jones and Pender counties, the Holly Shelter Swamp of Pender County, and the large swamp tracts in southern Duplin County. To the north of the Neuse River the areas are smaller and more largely dissected and the surface has been more fully drained. Even here, especially in the extensive area between the Roancke and Chowan rivers, numerous swamps are found.

The Chowan Terrace.—The Talbot terrace of Maryland may be divided into two terraces in North Carolina. They are called the Chowan and Pamlico terraces, from formations of the same names described in later pages of this report. The Chowan terrace lies to the east of the Wicomico terrace and also extends as reëntrants up many of the river channels, in some instances cutting entirely across the Wicomico terrace to the Sunderland terrace, thus breaking the continuity of the former. The Chowan terrace, like the Wicomico terrace, becomes more pronounced southward until it covers the larger part of New Hanover and Brunswick counties and the adjacent portions of Columbus, Bladen, and Pender counties. Farther to the northward it is found extensively developed in Onslow, Jones, and Pamlico counties and in adjacent portions of Carteret and Craven counties. Still farther northward it appears in Beaufort, Pitt, and Martin counties, and extending up the Tar River valley into Edgecombe County. It is also found extending from Martin and Bertie counties on either side of the Roanoke River valley

into Halifax and Northampton counties. It likewise covers considerable areas in Hertford, Chowan, and Gates counties, both to the east and west of the Chowan River valley. Along the eastern margin of the Wicomico terrace, from which it is often separated by a pronounced escarpment, it has an elevation of from 40 to 50 feet which up the reëntrant valleys often rises to 60 feet or more in elevation. It gradually declines eastward to about 30 feet near its seaward face. It has a width of 20 to 25 miles, somewhat more in the south than in the north, where it is also much more dissected than the Pamlico terrace. The larger areas in the southern counties are also on the whole less fully drained than in the north. In Columbus and Brunswick counties extensive swamps are found, including Green Swamp, a large underained area containing Waccamaw Lake.

The Pamlico Terrace.—The Pamlico terrace covers a large area to the east of the Chowan in the northern coastal counties to the north of Cape Lookout, while to the south of this point it is continued only in a narrow belt along the coast. In the valley of the Neuse and farther northward, especially in the Pamlico, Roanoke, and Chowan valleys, it extends as deep reëntrants up the channels of the several streams. It covers the entire area of Hyde, Dare, Tyrrell, Currituck, Camden, and Pasquotank, together with much of Perquimans, Chowan, Washington, Beaufort, Pamlico, Craven, and Carteret counties. Its elevation along the base of the Chowan escarpment is about 20 feet, from which point it slopes eastward to almost tide-level, and in the outer tier of counties in places seems to merge into the Recent deposits. The surface of the Pamlico terrace is covered over wide areas with swamps and marshes and embraces many estuaries, sounds, and bays. Many of the swamps along the rivers are on the Pamlico surface, as are also the Great Dismal Swamp of southern Virginia and northern North Carolina and the remarkable Mattamuskeet Lake of Hyde County, which is 16 miles long by 5 miles broad and has a depth of only 4 feet. The lower elevations of the Pamlico are also extensively covered with peaty bogs which may well prove of economic significance. The width of the Pamlico terrace exceeds 50 miles between Pamlico and Albemarle sounds. In the southern part of the State, in New Hanover and Brunswick counties, on the other hand, it is a very narrow strip and is confined to the lower courses of the Cape Fear and Northeast Cape Fear rivers.

The coastal border contains beaches, reefs, spits, and sand dunes. The inner beaches are narrow and sandy and frequently along the sounds are simply swampy lands that extend gradually below water level. They have been everywhere protected from the action of the

open sea by an almost continuous series of low-lying islands that accompany the entire coast from the Virginia to the South Carolina line as fringing reefs. These reefs are built up on the floor of the submarine division of the Coastal Plain, where the currents have deposited materials brought down by the streams and where its breakers and under-tow, by their mutual reaction, have caused a great reef to be heaped up parallel to the general trend of the shore line. Cobb,* in describing the reefs, says:

“The strong winds of midwinter come from the north, and the gentler steady winds of midsummer and of the greater part of the year blow usually from a little west of south. * * * The strong north winds pile the sands up into great barchanes or medanoes, crescentic sand dunes known locally as whaleheads, which are moving steadily southward. These are best developed along the Currituck Banks, from Virginia as far south as the Kill Devil Hills, and numbers of them may be seen to the north and to the south from the top of Currituck Light. These whaleheads are composed of singularly homogeneous blown sands, the horns or cusps of the barchanes pointing to leeward, which is almost due south.

“The prevailing winds from a little west of south have rippled the heterogeneous sands on Hatteras just south of the cape, on Shackleford at its southwest extremity, and on the southwest side of Smith's Island. These wind ripples, started in sands exposed by the removal of a strip of forest next to the shore, have grown in size to great sand waves, which are advancing on forests, fields, and homes. As the sand wave has advanced it has taken up several feet of the loose soil over which it has passed, undermining houses, laying bare the roots of trees, and exposing the bones of the dead in the cemeteries.

“Diurnal winds from the sea have pilled the sands into small wandering dunes and hillocks, and even sometimes into sand waves, which are marching steadily inward and shoaling the waters of the sounds. At Nag's Head a large hotel, constituting a solid obstruction, soon had a sand wave built up a short distance in its rear until the level of its roof was reached, when the wave moved forward and engulfed the hotel. In the immediate neighborhood two cottages suffered a similar fate. Here the land gained on the sound 350 feet in ten years.

“On the northern end of Hatteras Island a fishing village has been similarly buried, while the sand has entirely crossed the island at several places north of the cape. This movement of the sand was started just after the Civil War by the cutting of trees next the shore for ship timbers, and the section is still known as The Great Woods, though not a stick of timber stands upon it to-day. Pamlico Sound for two miles from the Hatteras shore is growing steadily shallower from the deposit of blown sand.

“On Smith's Island a pilot's village has been buried beneath the sand wave for a number of years, but this has been quite recently resurrected and its houses are again occupied. On Currituck, below Caffey's Inlet life-saving station, the sand has advanced entirely across the land, and one man, moving before the advancing sand, has at last built his house on piles in the sound.

“The writer has found by experiment that heterogeneous sands, consisting essentially of quartz, orthoclase, some mica, iron, bits of shell, and many mineral substances, showing little if any decomposition, ripple readily in the wind and are easily arrested * * * ; but so far he has found no means of checking the movement of homogeneous sands that do not ripple, these consisting entirely of well-rounded and wind-sorted quartz grains of the same size throughout a single dune. * * * As already pointed out, the movement of these sands was in every case started by the deforesting of a strip of land next the shore; but in several instances nature has herself grown forests on dune sands. Above Kitty Hawk Bay large dunes are covered with a growth of pine, maple, oak, cedar, sassafras, elm, locust, beech, persimmon, sycamore, hickory, and, in the damp interdune areas, gums and cypresses. Here are many veteran pines, some of them having attained a diameter of three feet. An essentially similar forest is found growing on the high dunes to the southwest of Cape Hatteras, but here we have to add the olive to the list, and there are broad interdune palmetto swamps.

“On Bogue Banks, where deforesting has only just begun at two points, we have 20 miles of woodland, the virgin forest extending down to the water's edge and preventing the formation of dunes.

“From Southport westward into South Carolina the dunes have moved northward and inland, in some places completely filling the lagoons. At one point such a filled lagoon has produced a pine forest in something more than forty years.

“The checking of these moving dunes presents a problem of increasing importance, not only to the inhabitants of these sand keys, but to the navigators of the inland waterways as well.”

The reefs reach a very much higher elevation than the adjacent mainland. The great dunes formed on these reefs attain in Dare County, in the Kill Devil Hills near Collington, an elevation of 100 feet or more, the sand being driven from them gradually shallowing Pamlico Sound. At many other points along the reefs the dunes reach 50 to 75 or more feet in elevation. Many such elevations, both large and small, are found on the Currituck banks in Currituck County.

From some points spits are developed by the shore currents, notably from Cape Lookout southward.

the present planets; but by analogy with the many nebulæ which have become known in the last fifty years, it is now thought more probable that the planets originated in special points of condensation of the nebula. Comparisons of the spectra of the comets and nebulæ with those of meteors led Sir Norman Lockyer to the view that these bodies were made up of swarms of meteors whose temperature was raised by impact among themselves; and he contended that the solar system had its origin in such a swarm. Prof. George H. Darwin showed that such a swarm would probably act practically like a mass of gas and that the solar system under this hypothesis would develop in exactly the same way as under the hypothesis of a gaseous origin, a high temperature being caused by the impact of the meteors analogous to that produced by the contraction of the gas. This modification of the nebular hypothesis does not require any material change in the history of the solar system. As contraction and condensation proceeded, the ancestors of the planets became hotter and hotter, and finally reached a stage like that of our present sun; as they became still denser, their power of condensation diminished, and their comparatively small masses have allowed them to cool sufficiently to become solid, though the immense sun still retains enough heat to keep it in a gaseous or liquid state. In the case of the earth, as it continued to cool it is probable that the solid rock first formed at the surface, but on account of its greater density, sank through the underlying liquid, and gradually built up a solid foundation from the center to the surface. The very small conductivity of rock for heat has only allowed a very thin shell of the earth near the surface to cool appreciably below the temperature at which it first solidified. This view has been largely strengthened by the calculations of Lord Kelvin, who, assuming that heat had not been developed within the earth since its solidification in sufficient quantities materially to alter the temperature gradient near the surface, showed that the wellknown increase of temperature underground could only be accounted for on the supposition that the earth was at one time hot enough to be liquid. Within a few years Prof. T. C. Chamberlain has advanced the suggestion that the earth was built up by the accumulation of meteors which fell at such a slow rate that the heat of impact was dissipated pari passu, and that the internal heat of the earth is due to the compression of the earth under the weight of its own parts. Still more recently Prof. E. Rutherford has suggested that the internal heat is produced by the radio-active substances distributed throughout the earth, and the Hon. R. J. Strutt has shown that it is only necessary for these substances to be distributed to a depth of 45 miles with the density they have at the surface to account for the observed heat. The last two

hypotheses deny the assumption which is the basis of Lord Kelvin's calculations, and thus cast discredit on the resulting age of the earth; but under any hypothesis we are forced to believe that many millions of years have passed since life first appeared on the earth. We get still further conception of the vast lapses of time which these early rocks imply, when we discover that, even after the waters had become suited for living beings, a greater part of the development and differentiation of organic life went on in forms which have left no trace of their existence. Hardly a more remarkable fact confronts us in geology than the variety and the complexity of types in the earliest rocks which contain any trace of life at all. The fact which is all the more remarkable for being attested by the best evidence from all parts of the earth's surface, compels us to assign to the history of life before its first permanent record was made, a longer period perhaps than all the time that has since elapsed, unless the view more recently advanced, that acceleration of development took place in the case of the earliest sea-floor dwellers, is shown to be true. The earlier forms were either unsuited for preservation or else they have been obliterated in the subsequent alteration of the rocks containing them.

All of the oldest rocks which are to-day entirely without, or with only slight traces of former life, are referred to the first great division of geological history called Archean Time. These oldest rocks are largely crystalline in character, so that there can be but little chance of encountering organic forms, even had they earlier existed in the strata. Even the least altered deposits, although they have afforded a few scattered remains of archaic forms at certain points, contain nothing more than the merest traces of the organisms of this early time.

When, however, life does once appear in all its variety, it is well-nigh the same in all the older rocks. In the most widely separated localities the same types occur in rocks of the same age, and this furnishes us with the key to the succession of deposits. From the time when the oldest fossil-bearing stratum was deposited until now, the story of life-progress and development is told by the rocks with sufficient clearness to be unmistakable. Local differences of conditions have probably always prevailed, as they do now, but the same types of organisms have always lived at the same time over the entire globe, so their remains serve as sufficient criteria for the correlation of the strata which contain them. The sequence of life forms once made out gives us, for the whole earth, the means for fixing the order of deposits, even when this is most profoundly disarranged by foldings of the strata into mountains or by other earth movements.

Geologists distinguish three principal divisions in the history of life as read in the record of the rocks. During the earliest of these great time divisions, archaic forms of life flourished—uncouth fishes, crustaceans, mollusks, and tree-ferns—most of them very unlike those now extant. On this account this is known as the period of most ancient life, or Paleozoic Time. To this succeeded a long lapse of ages when enormous reptiles predominated, associated with other types more like those that now inhabit the globe. To this is given the name of middle life, or Mesozoic Time. Finally, living things began to assume the form and appearance with which we are familiar, so that this last grand time division, which includes the present, is designated as the period of recent life, or Cenozoic Time.

Each of these three grand divisions of geologic time is in its turn separated into shorter subdivisions called Periods, characterized by their own peculiar types of life; and the several periods themselves are divided into Epochs, which vary more or less in character according to the region where they are developed. For this reason the chronological and stratigraphical divisions require an independent nomenclature, although this duality of geological classification can in most instances be readily adjusted to the contingencies of each district. The stratigraphical divisions are usually designated by local terms.

There are representatives not only of each of these great time divisions in North Carolina, but also of most of the periods as well as of many of the epochs.

The Piedmont Plateau and Appalachian Region contain representatives of the Archean, Paleozoic, and earliest period of the Mesozoic, while the Coastal Plain contains representatives of the latest period of the Mesozoic and the Cenozoic. The following tables give the sequence of Coastal Plain formations of North Carolina described in detail in later pages:

CENOZOIC.

QUATERNARY:

Recent,

Pleistocene—Pamlico Columbia Group.

Chowan Columbia Group.

Wicomico Columbia Group.

Sunderland Columbia Group.

Coharie Columbia Group.

TERTIARY:

Pliocene—Lafayette Waccamaw.

Miocene—Yorktown north of Hatteras axis.

St. Marys north of Hatteras axis.

Duplin (south of Hatteras axis).

Eocene—Castle Hayne. Trent.

MESOZOIC.

CRETACEOUS:

Upper Cretaceous—Peedee. Black Creek.

Lower Cretaceous—Patuxent.

These Coastal Plain formations stand in marked contrast to the formations in other parts of the State, in that they have been but slightly changed since they were deposited. Laid down one upon another along the eastern flank of the Piedmont Plateau when the sea occupied the present area of the Coastal Plain, these later sediments form a series of thin sheets which are inclined slightly seaward, so that successively later formations are generally encountered in passing from the inland border of the region toward the coast. Oscillation of the sea floor with considerable variation both in the angle and direction of tilting went on, however, during the periods of Coastal Plain deposition, with the result that the stratigraphic relations of these formations, which generally have been held to be of the simplest character, possess in reality much complexity. Viewing the Coastal Plain as a whole, we find at no place accessible to our study a complete sequence of deposits, although sedimentation must have been going on continuously along the continental shelf. The incompleteness, therefore, must be regarded as a purely marginal condition due to the retrogressions and transgressions of the sea along the coastal border.

It is not uncommon to find in any particular region marked breaks in the sequence of sedimentation, the absent members being present perhaps only a short distance away. A number of instances of this kind are shown in the Coastal Plain district of North Carolina, which lack formations that appear in Virginia on the north and South Carolina on the south, while formations found in North Carolina are lacking in those States. Not only is this true as regards North Carolina and adjacent States, but also in different portions of the North Carolina Coastal Plain itself, particularly when the region to the north of the Hatteras axis is compared with that to the south, which will be fully discussed in a later portion of this report.

A brief discussion of the main divisions of the Coastal Plain is presented here preliminary to the detailed descriptions which will follow.

The Mesozoic formations are the basal deposits of the Coastal Plain, and they consist chiefly of sands, clays, and marls, for the most part unconsolidated. They include strata of Cretaceous age and certain basal beds that may be possibly Upper Jurassic, although there seems to be a growing belief on the part of geologists and paleontologists that the Mesozoic deposits of the Coastal Plain may be wisely considered as of Cretaceous age throughout, notwithstanding the claims hitherto made by certain leading authorities in vertebrate paleontology that the reptilian remains of the lower beds are Jurassic in their affinities.

The Mesozoic deposits will be considered in subsequent pages to belong entirely to the Cretaceous period. They constitute the largest element in the Coastal Plain series. The formations represent both the Lower and Upper Cretaceous.

The Lower Cretaceous is represented from Maryland southward to the Gulf by formations consisting of gravels, sands, and clays. The arenaceous beds are often arkosic throughout this region and the deposits are stained by the hydrous oxides of iron and in some instances cemented to form a sandstone. They are extensively cross-bedded. The clays, which are at times very plastic and at other times more or less arenaceous, occur in large and small lenses. They have been extensively employed for economic purposes and many industries are based on them. Lignitic deposits frequently occur, and to the north iron ore beds also are found, which in Maryland were the chief source of the iron of colonial days.

The fossils of the Lower Cretaceous consist of dinosaurian and plant remains, the latter being mainly ferns, cycads, and conifers in the lower beds, with an increasing number of conifers toward the top of the series.

The Lower Cretaceous deposits in North Carolina are confined to the Patuxent formation, which consists of clays and sands, the latter prevailingly arkosic. A small amount of lignite has also been observed. No determinable fossils have been secured.

Upper Cretaceous deposits are found from Massachusetts and the islands off the south coast of New England to the Gulf. They consist of gravels, sands, clays, and marls, the latter frequently glauconitic. The lower portions of the Upper Cretaceous series, although unconformable everywhere so far as known to the underlying Lower Cretaceous formations, are not unlike the older deposits in many respects, although in general less arkosic. The fossils are chiefly the remains of dicotyledonous types of plant life.

The higher beds are widely glauconitic, are rarely cross-bedded and at times contain such a large admixture of shell remains as to be highly calcareous, such deposits in places becoming indurated to form limestone ledges. The fossils in these upper beds consist largely of the remains of dinosauria, mollusca, bryozoa, brachiopoda, echinodermata, and formainifera. At some points an intergradation of the lower into the upper type of deposit appears, while at other points the change is clearly marked.

The Upper Cretaceous deposits in North Carolina have been divided into two formations known under the names of Black Creek and Peedee, the former consisting of sands and clays thinly laminated, with interstratified beds of marl in the upper portions, and the latter consisting largely of argillaceous sands, more or less glauconitic, and with beds here and there highly calcareous. The fossils of the Black Creek formation consist of plant remains, especially of conifers and dicotyledons, and in the upper beds also of dinosaurian bones and coprolites, fish teeth and molluscan shells. The fossils of the Peedee sand consist of reptilian bones and fish teeth and the remains of mollusca, bryozoa, echinodermata, foraminifera, and other groups, showing a distinctly marine facies.

The Cenozoic deposits overlie the Mesozoic formations, and although collectively possessing less thickness than the underlying Mesozoic, are much more conspicuous in surface outcrop than the older beds. Like the latter, they consist chiefly of sands, clays, and marls; but as their origin is in most instances different, they are commonly distinct in lithologic character. The older Cenozoic beds are in places strikingly similar to the later Mesozoic, but the later Cenozoic deposits are quite different. The sands, except in the very latest Cenozoic formations, are rarely cross-bedded and the arkosic character is absent. The beds, however, are prevailingly unconsolidated, although ferruginous and calcareous strata now and then occur.

The Tertiary deposits consist of sands, clays, and marls, the last being highly glauconitic at the lowest horizons and calcareous higher in the series. They represent the Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, and Pliocene periods. Oligocene strata are apparently absent from the middle and northern Coastal Plain regions, and therefore will not be further considered in this connection.

Deposits representing different horizons of the Eocene are found scattered more or less irregularly either along the eastern margin of the Cretaceous formations or as the result of transgression as isolated outcrops on the surface of the Cretaceous or even beyond the latter on the crystalline rocks of the Piedmont Plateau. The older Eocene deposits, which are largely sands, are highly glauconitic, in this respect showing a marked similarity to the Cretaceous beds below. The later Eocene deposits lose their glauconitic character and become often highly calcareous, the materials frequently being indurated by the calcareous cement. A profuse infralittoral fauna, chiefly representing the mollusca, bryozoa, echinodermata, zoantharia and foraminifera with fish teeth and reptilian bones and coprolites, is found.

The Eocene deposits of North Carolina consist of the later facies of Eocene sedimentation. They are highly calcareous and often indurated and occur irregularly scattered over the surface of the Cretaceous formations and even transgressing the latter into the Piedmont Plateau. They often occur in depressions in the Cretaceous surface where they have withstood the erosion to which the rest of the deposits have been subjected, since there is every reason to believe that the Eocene beds had a much wider extent formerly and that the present isolated outcrops are merely remnants of a continuous or nearly continuous sheet. The Eocene deposits of North Carolina are all to the south of the Hatteras axis, as far as known. They are divided into the Trent and Castle Hayne formations, the relations of which are unknown from any observed contact, except in a single well boring, but they are probably unconformable, just as the Eocene deposits are unconformable everywhere in North Carolina to the underlying Cretaceous. Fossils of infralittoral marine types are numerous, although the molluscan forms are with difficulty determined because they occur largely as imperfect casts.

Miocene deposits constitute a thick mantle over the eastern margin of the older formations throughout much of the Coastal Plain area and

in some places transgress them onto older formations. They are unconformable to the underlying Eocene. The Miocene deposits consist of sands, clays, marls, and diatomaceous earth beds. Glauconitic materials are rarely found, and when found are probably derived from older formations. The diatomaceous earth is most strikingly developed in the basal Miocene formations of Virginia and Maryland, where it has been known as “Richmond earth.” The calcareous marls are at times cemented into limestone ledges. The fossils consist chiefly of littoral and infralittoral forms in which the cetacea, mollusca, bryozoa, echinodermata, zoantharia, foraminifera, and diatomacea are chiefly represented.

The Miocene deposits of North Carolina belong to the later facies of Miocene sedimentation, the littoral phase being well developed in the Yorktown formation to the north of the Hatteras axis and in the Duplin formation to the south of the Hatteras axis, where the shell remains are much broken by wave action. In the underlying St. Marys formation of the former area—the only other Miocene formation found in North Carolina—the moderately fine argillaceous sands are of a distinctly infralittoral character. They rest unconformably on Eocene or Cretaceous beds as the case may be. The fossils of the North Carolina Miocene are varied and numerous.

Pliocene or supposed Pliocene deposits of two very marked types occur in the Coastal Plain region. The first is an infralittoral marine deposit not known with certainty to occur to the north of Cape Hatteras, although a detailed study of well borings may show it to overlie the Miocene beds toward the coast beneath the mantle of Pleistocene deposits. To the southward this phase of the Pliocene is, however, well developed and its characters are not unknown. The deposits of this type, however, lie as far as known along the eastern margin of the subaërial division of the Coastal Plain in somewhat detached basins. It is called the Waccamaw formation in North Carolina, where it is chiefly found in the region near the mouths of the Neuse and Cape Fear rivers. The isolated outcrops are probably remnants of a once continuous deposit. Whether the poorly developed Croatan deposits should be included cannot be determined with our present knowledge of those beds.

The second phase is a littoral and sublittoral phase, the exact age of which in the absence of fossils has never been satisfactorily determined. It is evidently of late Tertiary or early Quaternary time. It consists of gravels, sands, and loams which were evidently laid down close to

land the border of which it enwrapped, forming a terrace-like deposit. This formation is widely known to-day as the Lafayette formation from the Gulf to Pennsylvania, where the last remnants occur. In North Carolina the Lafayette is largely represented in the “sandhills” along the eastern margin of the Coastal Plain.

The Quaternary deposits south of the terminal moraine of the continental ice sheet consist chiefly of the great Pleistocene terraces covering the larger portion of the Coastal Plain area and the Recent beaches, sand dunes, bars, and spits along the coastal border. Just below tide in the estuaries and along the coast is the Recent terrace which is now in process of formation and which affords such convincing proof of what transpired during preceding Pleistocene time in the relatively slight oscillations to which the Coastal Plain was then subjected.

The Pleistocene formations of the Coastal Plain are collectively known as the Columbia group. With the exception of the Recent deposits, they are the youngest of the Coastal Plain sediments. They lie on the surface and form a thin mantle that conceals from view all of the older formations over wide areas. Wherever found along the Atlantic border south of the terminal moraine, they are developed as more or less clearly defined terraces. Throughout the northern part of the region three well marked levels appear, while in North Carolina the upper and lower show subdivisions indicating intermediate periods of rest in the oscillatory movements of the sea in this area that have not been recognized farther northward. The deposits consist of gravels, sands, and loams, with ice-borne bowlders adjacent to the courses of the more northern streams.

The North Carolina Pleistocene deposits comprise five clearly defined terrace formations, known as the Coharie, Sunderland, Wicomico, Chowan, and Pamlico, which have been developed at successively lower levels throughout the Coastal Plain area of the State. The Talbot formation of the northern Coastal Plain is the equivalent of the Chowan and Pamlico, the subordinate terrace levels not having been recognized in the more northern areas.

The Recent formations embrace, first, those aqueous deposits that are being laid down to-day over the submarine portions of the Coastal Plain and in the estuaries, sounds, bays, and lakes and along the various

streams, and, second, such terrestrial deposits as dunes and humus. In short, all deposits which are being formed at the present time under water or on the land by natural agencies belong to this division of geological time. All of these Recent deposits are being formed in various portions of the North Carolina Coastal Plain and collectively afford an ever increasing volume of deposits that represent the influence of the forces now active.

BY B. L. MILLER AND L. W. STEPHENSON.

BARTRAM, WILLIAM.—Travels Through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, etc. 520 pp., 6 pls.; Philadelphia, 1791; London, 1794.

Describes physical features, soils, vegetation, etc., from the South Carolina line in Brunswick County, northward along Cape Fear River to Cambleton [Fayetteville], and thence northeastward to the Virginia line.

A bluff at Ashwood on Cape Fear River, which was situated 3 or 4 miles below the present site of Whitehall, is described in considerable detail (pp. 472-479).

MACLURE, WILLIAM.—Observations on the Geology of the United States, Explanatory of a Geological Map. Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans., vol. 6, pp. 411-428, map, 1809. Jour. de Physique, vol. 69, pp. 204-213; vol. 72, pp. 137-165, map, 1811.

The boundaries of the Atlantic Coastal Plain are defined with considerable accuracy, the strata constituting it being referred to the “Alluvial formation.” The author states that it contains beds of shells.

MACLURE, WILLIAM.—Observations on the Geology of the United States, etc. Amer. Phil. Soc. Trans., vol. 1, new series, pp. 1-91, map, plates 1-2. Philadelphia, 1818. Published separately, Philadelphia, 1817. Zeitsch. Mineral. (Leonhard), vol. 1, 1826, pp. 124-138.

The whole Coastal Plain is included in the author's “Alluvial formation,” which consists of peat, sand, gravel, bog iron-ore, shell marls, and, in a few places, limestone.

HAYDEN, HORACE H.—Geological Essays; or an inquiry into some of the geologic phenomena to be found in various parts of America and elsewhere. Baltimore, 1820, 412 pp.

The origin of the deposits of the Coastal Plain is attributed to a mighty flood of waters which swept across the North American continent from the northeast to the southwest. The currents transported the materials from the interior of the continent and deposited them in their present position in the Coastal Plain region.

DICKSON, JOHN.—Notices of the Mineralogy and Geology of Parts of South and North Carolina, in a letter to the Editor. Amer. Jour. Sci., 1st ser., vol. 3, 1821, pp. 1-4.

The Carolinas are divided into three regions—the sandy region, the clay country, and the mountains. The sandy region is practically coextensive with the Coastal Plain. The topographic features and character of the surface soils are briefly described.

OLMSTED, DENISON.—Descriptive Catalogue of Rocks and Minerals Collected in North Carolina. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 5, pp. 257-264, 1822.

Brief references are made to marly limestones in Wayne County and an extensive bed of gray compact limestone on the lower Cape Fear, “where it is burnt for lime.”

MITCHELL, ELISHA.—Report of the Geology of North Carolina. Conducted under the direction of the Board of Agriculture. Pt. III, Raleigh, 1827, 27 pp.

The origin of the low country of North Carolina is discussed, and the conclusion reached that “it is, compared with the secondary formations of other countries, of recent date.”

He mentions the occurrence of blue marl in great abundance on the banks of Northeast Cape Fear River a little below the village of South Washington. Brief statements are made concerning the marls of Bladen, Brunswick, New Hanover, Duplin, Halifax, and Hertford counties. He recognized the fact that the strata of the Coastal Plain were not all of the same age, though he did not refer them to any definite periods. The oldest marl beds which he describes are now referred to the Eocene or the Cretaceous, while the later ones are Miocene or Pliocene.

MITCHELL, ELISHA.—Geological Report on North Carolina. Papers on agricultural subjects, conducted under the direction of the Board of Agriculture, 1827, pp. 101-108. Raleigh.

Marl is reported from the Tar River, while “fine clay, marl, shell limestone, and iron pyrites” are said to be abundantly, as well as extensively, distributed through the “Low Country.”

OLMSTED, DENISON.—Report on the Geology of North Carolina. Conducted under the direction of the Board of Agriculture. Part II, 1827, pp. 87-141. Abst., Am. Jour. Sci., vol. 14, pp. 230-251, 1828.

The author describes green sands containing fossil wood which occur on Neuse River in Wayne County. Similar materials are said to extend for 100 miles along the river. These are now known to be of Cretaceous age (pp. 98-99).

Descriptions are given of the [Eocene] limestones which occur along the Trent River, in Craven and Jones counties, in the Sarpony Hills, and at Bass’ Ferry, near the mouth of Falling Creek, on the Neuse River. They have been burned for lime or used for construction purposes. He also

describes (Miocene) materials along the Neuse River below New Bern and on the Tar River, near Tarboro, and the (Pliocene) marl along the Beaufort Canal. All of these materials are described merely as marls or limestones, with no discussion of their age or correlation.

VANUXEM, LARDNER.—See S. G. Morton (Geological Observations on the Secondary, Tertiary, and Alluvial Formations of the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America).

MITCHELL, ELISHA.—On the Character and Origin of the Low Country of North Carolina. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 13, pp. 336-347, 1828.

The author combats the view, apparently common at that time, that the Coastal Plain materials were accumulated by the currents of the Gulf Stream, and also the view of Hayden, published in 1820, that they were transported by a great flood from the northeast, and comes to the conclusion that “the strata of the low country were formed in the bed of the sea, and this district became dry land either by a depression of the level of the ocean or by the elevation of its bed, by a force operating from beneath.” He believes that the “low country” is made up of recent strata, as evidenced by the character of the shells. He refers to the discovery of the remains of both the mastodon and the elephant in digging the Clubfoot and Harlow Canal, near the mouth of the Neuse River. The deposits of marl at the Natural Well, at Wilmington, and at Rocky Point, are briefly described.

MORTON, SAMUEL G.—Geological Observations on the Secondary, Tertiary, and Alluvial Formations of the Atlantic Coast of the United States of America. (Arranged from the notes of Lardner Vanuxem.) Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Jour., vol. 6, 1829, pp. 59-71.

In this report the author names the localities south of Delaware in which the “Secondary” strata had, up to that time, been observed to occur, as follows: Ashwood, near the Cape Fear River, North Carolina [3 or 4 miles below Whitehall]; Mars Bluff, on the Peedee River; Effinghams Mills, Florence County, South Carolina; near the Eutaw Springs, Berkeley County, South Carolina [now known to be Eocene]; and Cockspur Island, near the Savannah River, South Carolina [likewise an Eocene locality].

CONRAD, T. A.—Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North America. Vol. 1, No. 1, 20 pp., 6 pls., Phila., 1832. Republished by G. D. Harris, Washington, 1893.

The Tertiary deposits of North Carolina are referred to the “Upper Marine” or “Upper Tertiary.” Arca limula, Arca transversa, and Cypricardia arata, from New Bern, are described and figured.

CONRAD, T. A.—Observations on the Tertiary and More Recent Formations of a Portion of the Southern States. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., Jour., vol. 7, pp. 116-129, 1834.

The Miocene deposits at Wilmington are referred to the Pliocene, while the Eocene is not mentioned.

“The deposit therefore, at Vance's Ferry, is probably very limited in extent and extremely superficial, capping the Cretaceous rocks in the same manner as at Wilmington, North Carolina, where a patch only a few feet thick reposes on the zoophytic secondary rocks.”

HARLAN, R.—Critical Notices of Various Organic Remains Hitherto Discovered in North America. (Read May 21, 1834.) Trans., Geol. Soc. Pa., vol. 1, Pt. I, 1834, pp. 46-112. Med. Phy. Researches, 1835. (With a few additions.)

Quotes from Cuvier's “Theory of the Earth,” by S. L. Mitchell, in regard to the skeleton of a huge animal found on the bank of the Meherrin River, near Murfreesborough. The vertebral column recovered measured 26 feet and both tail and head were absent. Harlan says: “We have recognized them as the remains of a gigantic species of shark.” Were probably the remains of a whale.

MORTON, SAMUEL G.—Synopsis of the Organic Remains of the Cretaceous Group of the United States. Philadelphia, 1834, 88 pp., 19 pls.

Describes the mineralogical and organic characters of the Cretaceous and indicates briefly its known geographic extent in North America. The “Secondary or Cretaceous group” is included in the divisions, the Ferruginous sand and the Calcareous strata. The synopsis proper consists of descriptions, arranged in systematic order, of the known organic remains of the Cretaceous, including vertebrates and invertebrates.

CONRAD, T. A.—Fossil Shells of the Tertiary Formations of North America. Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 29-58, pls. 15-18. Phila., 1835. Republished by G. D. Harris, Washington, 1893.

The Tertiary deposits near New Bern are referred to the “Newer Pliocene.”

CONRAD, T. A.—Observations on a Portion of the Atlantic Tertiary Region. Geol. Soc. Pa., Trans., vol. 1, pp. 335-341, 1835.

The author states that he was in error in his previous statements concerning the existence of the Miocene in the United States. He asserts that all Tertiary deposits above the Eocene belong to the Pliocene, which is divisible into the “Older” and “Newer” Pliocene. Brief mention is made of the existence of the “Newer Pliocene” in North Carolina.

CONRAD, T. A.—Observations on the Tertiary Strata of the Atlantic Coast. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 28, pp. 104-111, 280-282, 1835.

The author discusses the Tertiary strata of the Atlantic Coast, and states that the Miocene is probably wanting. It seems that he would refer all of what we now call Miocene in North Carolina to the “Medial Pliocene,” while his “Newer Pliocene” constitutes our Pleistocene. He gives a list of sixty-seven species of fossil shells from Mr. Benner's plantation on the Neuse River, below New Bern, only five of which are extinct or unknown. He refers the beds to the “Newer Pliocene.” The lists of

fossils given seem to prove conclusively that they are Pleistocene. The writer compares the fossils from this locality with those found near the mouth of the Potomac River (Cornfield Harbor).

CROOM, H. B.—Some Account of the Organic Remains Found in the Marl Pits of Lucas Benners, Esq., in Craven County, N. C. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 27, pp. 168-171, 1835.

Mr. Benners’ estate, where the pits were dug, was located on the north bank of the Neuse River, sixteen miles below New Bern. The pits were about 25 feet in depth, and about 10 feet below the surface of the river. The following genera are named and their measurements given:

1. Pholas costata. 7. Arca. 13. Buccinum. 2. Venus. 8. Pecten. 14. Mya. 3. Strombus. 9. Ostrea. 15. Donax (?). 4. Murex. 10. Patella fornicata. 16. Nerita. 5. Cardium. 11. Pectunculus. 17. Madrepora porites. 6. Solen. 12. Conus.

Besides, there were sharks’ teeth, vertebræ of fishes, and teeth, hoof, and horns of an elk, and grinder of Mastodon giganteum.

MORTON, SAMUEL G.—Notice of the Fossil Teeth of Fishes of the United States, the Discovery of the Galt in Alabama, and a Proposed Division of the American Cretaceous Group. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 28, 1835, pp. 276-278.

The author divides the American Cretaceous into the Upper division, the Medial division, and the Lower division. The beds included in the Upper division and at least a part of those included in the Lower division were later shown to belong to the Eocene.

CONRAD, T. A.—Fossils of the Medial Tertiary of the United States. No. 1, 1838, 32 pp., pls., 1-27, Phila. Republished by W. H. Dall, Washington, 1893.

Fossils are described from the Miocene at Murfreesborough, Wilmington, and near New Bern, which he refers to the “Medial Tertiary.”

WAGNER, WILLIAM.—Description of Five New Fossils of the Older Pliocene Formation of Maryland and North Carolina. (Read January, 1838.) Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 8, 1838, pp. 51-53.

The three following new forms of Miocene shells from “Meherring River,” North Carolina, are described and figured:

Pecten marylandicus,

Panopea goldfussii,

Mysia nucleiformis.

CONRAD, T. A.—Fossils of the Medial Tertiary of the United States. No. 2, 1840, pp. 33-56, pls. XVIII-XXIX. Phila. Published by W. H. Dall, Washington, 1893.

The following fossils are described:

Lucina divaricata, from Upper Tertiary of North Carolina.

Astarte lunulata, from Upper Tertiary, New Bern.

Pecten eboreus, from Upper Tertiary, New Bern.

CONRAD, T. A.—New Fossil Shells from North Carolina. Amer. Jour. Sci. and Arts, vol. 39, 1840, pp. 387-388.

The following new species of fossils from the “Medial Tertiary” of Duplin County are described:

Natica canrena, Fulgur contrarius, Conus adversarius, Fulgur excavatus, Voluta carolinensis, Lucina jamaicensis Lam.

CONRAD, T. A.—Description of Twenty-six New Species of Fossil Shells, Discovered in the Medial Tertiary Deposits of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 1, 1841, pp. 28-33.

The new species, Astrea bella, from near New Bern is described. The same description is repeated in the Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 8.

CONRAD, T. A.—Appendix to paper by JAMES T. HODGE, entitled, Observations on the Secondary and Tertiary Formations of the Southern Atlantic States. Assoc. Amer. Geol., Trans., 1840-42; Appendix, 1843, pp. 106-111. Abstr., Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 41, 1841, pp. 344-348.

See abstract of paper by Hodge.

HODGE, JAMES T.—Observations on the Secondary and Tertiary Formations of the Southern Atlantic States, with an Appendix by T. A. CONRAD. Abstract, Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 41, pp. 182, 183, 332-348, 1841. Trans., Assoc. Amer. Geol., pp. 34-35, 94-111, 1843.

The occurrence of the “Secondary formation,” consisting of a blue sandstone containing Exogyra costata, Belemnites, Plagiostoma palagicum, Anomia ephippium, etc., on the northeast banks of the Cape Fear River [doubtless meaning the Northeast Cape Fear River], in the neighborhood of South Washington [now Watha], is described. He thinks the occurrence of this rock between the Tertiary deposits to the east and west indicates a low anticlinal axis running north and south.

The shell marls at Murfreesboro, near Williamston, at the Natural Well in Duplin County, and at Wilmington, all of which are referred to the “Medial Tertiary,” are described. A limestone is described from the western part of Jones County at the heads of Trent and New rivers, which contains 87% CaCo3. This is referred to the “Secondary (Cretaceous) formation,” but is undoubtedly Eocene. The Eocene at Wilmington seems also to have been confused with the Cretaceous.

A list of 84 species of “Medial Tertiary” (Miocene) fossils is given from the Natural Well and 52 from Wilmington. In the appendix 32 new species of fossils are described from the Natural Well and 18 are figured. Brief descriptions of Angola Bay and Holly Shelter Swamp. in Pender and Duplin counties, are given.

LIMBER, JOHN.—Fossil Remains in Lenoir County, N. C. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 40, p. 405, 1841.

In digging a ditch near the summit level between the Neuse and Northeast Cape Fear rivers, three miles from the Neuse and on a branch of it and at least 100 feet above the river, the following section was penetrated:

Fine white sand and vegetable matter 3 inches. Shell bed 3 inches. Yellowish clay containing bones of enormous size few inches. Black impervious clay, containing a few bones depth unknown.

The shell marl is said to be very abundant and to have been used on the land.

REDFIELD, WILLIAM C.—Fossil Shells from Tertiary Marl Beds at Washington, Beaufort County, N. C. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 41, p. 161, 1841. Trans., Amer. Assoc. Geol., p. 14, 1843.

The fossils were said to occur at a depth of 15 to 20 feet below the surface and about 2 feet below the usual level of the water in Pamlico River and Sound. The fossils were in a good state of preservation and were supposed to belong to the Miocene period. No names of the species found are given.

CONRAD, T. A.—Observations on a Portion of the Atlantic Tertiary Region, with a Description of New Species of Organic Remains. Proc. Nat. Inst. Promotion of Science, vol. 1, pp. 171-194, 2 pls., 1842.

The thickness of the entire Miocene in the Atlantic Coastal Plain is given as 100 feet. It is said to occur in the eastern counties of North Carolina. The “Upper Tertiary,” or post-Pliocene, with a thickness of 12 feet, is represented by the beds on the north side of the Neuse River. 15 miles below New Bern. A list of 34 species of mollusks is given. The locality is now considered Pleistocene.

CONRAD, T. A.—Description of Twenty-four New Species of Fossil Shells, Chiefly from the Tertiary Deposits of Calvert Cliffs, Maryland (read June 1, 1841). Jour. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 8, 1842, pp. 183-190.

Astrea bella, a new species of Astrea from near New Bern, is described.

HARLAN, R.—Notice of Two New Fossil Mammals from Brunswick Canal, Georgia; with Observations on Some of the Fossil Quadrupeds of the United States. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 43, 1842, pp. 141-144, 2 pls.

Mention is made of the teeth of a Sus from the post-Pliocene (Pleistocene) of New Bern, that was found in association with the remains of the mastodon, elephant, elk, deer, horse, seal, cetacea, tortoise, shark, skate snake, and fish, together with fossil shells. (These were probably from the Benners plantation, 15-16 miles below New Bern, on the north bank of the Neuse River.)

LYELL, CHARLES.—On the Tertiary Formations and Their Connection with the Chalk in Virginia and Other Parts of the United States. (Review of paper read before the Society.) Geol. Soc., London, Proc., vol. 3, 1842, p. 736.

The resemblance of the marls on Northeast Cape Fear River near South Washington to the New Jersey Cretaceous marls, both as regards lithology and organic content, is noted. This locality was first reported by Mitchell, and later the materials were referred to the “Secondary formation” by Hodge. He states that these marls extend to the south of Lewis Creek along the Northeast Cape Fear nearly to Rocky Point, where they are covered by the Eocene limestone and conglomerate. He could find no

organic remains which supported the view held by Hodge and other geologists, that the latter was an “upper Secondary” deposit or a deposit interposed between the Cretaceous and the Eocene.

MITCHELL, ELISHA.—Elements of Geology, with an Outline of the Geology of North Carolina. 1842, 141 pp. (esp. pp. 123-141).

Geologic map of State under first cover. He divides the Coastal Plain materials into two classes, namely, the Tertiary strata and the “Secondary” strata. He does not clearly differentiate between the Tertiary and later deposits. The character of the materials which go to make up the land of the low country and the age of the fossil remains which they contain are briefly described.

A formation contemporaneous with the marls of New Jersey and the Cretaceous of Europe is described as underlying the southern part of the State, outcropping at intervals from the eastern part of Jones County to the Cape Fear River. He states that it is well exhibited at Wilmington, and the good lands of Jones and Onslow counties and those at Rocky Point in Pender County are ascribed to it. The rocks to which he refers are the well-known Eocene limestone of this region, which up to this time had been regarded by Mitchell and other geologists as of “Secondary” age. No definite mention is made of the greensands of the Cape Fear River.

CONRAD, T. A.—Description of a New Genus, and Twenty-nine New Miocene and One Eocene Fossil Shells of the United States. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 1, 1843, pp. 305-311.

The following new species of Miocene shells from North Carolina are described:

Miocene Carditamera carinata New Bern. Pecten vicenarius Wilmington. Amphidesma æquata Wilmington. Lucina multistriata Wilmington. Oliva duplicata Wilmington. Venus cribraria Wilmington and Neuse River below New Bern. Crepidula densata Natural Well, Duplin County. Tellina arctata North Carolina.

RUFFIN, EDMUND.—Report of the Commencement and Progress of the Agricultural Survey of South Carolina. Columbia, S. C., 1843, 120 pp. (esp. pp. 7, 24-27).

Describes the lithologic character, stratigraphic position and distribution of the “Secondary” or Peedee formation. This terrane corresponds to Sloan's “Burches Ferry marl” (1907). He also describes a “shale” or clay underlying the Peedee (“Burches Ferry”) formation, which he does not name, but which corresponds to Sloan's Black Creek shale (1907).

LYELL, CHARLES.—On the Geological Position of the Mastodon Giganteum and Associated Fossil Remains at Bigbone Lick, Kentucky, and Other Localities in the United States and Canada. Amer. Jour. Sci., 1st series, vol. 46, 1844, pp. 320-323.

Notes the occurrence of a large assemblage of mammalian bones, including those of the mastodon giganteum, on the Neuse River 15 miles below New Bern.

LYELL, CHARLES.—Notes on the Cretaceous Strata of New Jersey and Parts of the United States Bordering the Atlantic. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 47, 1844, pp. 213-214.

Describes the Cretaceous of the Atlantic Coast of the United States as consisting of greensand and marl, red and highly ferruginous sandstones, white sand, limestone, and some beds of lignite. He states that they agree in their lithologic characters with the Lower Cretaceous series of Europe, but that in their fossils they agree far more nearly with the European strata ranging from the Gault to the Mæstricht beds inclusive.

At South Washington (now Watha), Pender County, North Carolina, he found Cretaceous strata with characteristic Cretaceous fossils, some common to the lower and some to the upper fossiliferous group of New Jersey. He also found several new species. The pebbly limestone at Wilmington is referred to the Eocene.

RUFFIN, EDMUND.—Secondary and Miocene Marls on and Near Lynch's Creek, in Darlington, Sumter, Williamsburgh, and Marion Districts. (Supplemental report of the agricultural survey for 1843.) Report on the Geological and Agricultural Survey of the State of South Carolina, Columbia, S. C., 1844, pp. 59-63.

Describes occurrence of the “Secondary formation” on Lynch's Creek in South Carolina and on the Waccamaw River in the vicinity of Conway. He also gives an account of two exposures of “Secondary” marl which he observed near South Washington, North Carolina, from which he obtained Belemnitella, Exogyra lastatœ [probably meaning costata], and large thick shells of a similar oyster. This was doubtless the same, or approximately the same, horizon at which Lyell made his collection.

BAILEY, J. W.—Notice of Some New Localities of Infusoria, Fossil and Recent. Amer. Jour. Sci., vol. 48, 1845, pp. 321-343, pl. IV.

Mention is made of the presence of fossil Polythalamia in the Miocene marl at Wilmington, N. C.

CONRAD, T. A.—Fossils of the (Medial Tertiary or) Miocene Formation of the United States. No. 3, 1845, pp. 57-80, pls. XXX-XLV, Philadelphia. Republished by W. H. Dall, Washington, 1893.

A large number of fossils are described from the Neuse River near New Bern, from Wilmington, and from the Natural well in Duplin County.

FORBES, EDWARD.—On the Fossil Shells Collected by Mr. Lyell from the Cretaceous Formations of New Jersey. Geol. Soc., London, Quart. Jour., vol. 1, 1845, pp. 61-62.

Describes and figures the new species, Ostrea subspatulata, from Lewis Creek near South Washington, N. C., collected by Lyell.

LYELL, CHARLES.—Travels in North America, with Geological Observations on the United States, Canada, and Nova Scotia. 2 vols.: vol. 1, 251 pp.; vol. 2, 221 pp., 7 pls. 12 mo. New York, 1845. Other editions published in London and Halle.

The occurrence of Cretaceous greensand marl on Lewis Creek near South Washington is described, and the presence of Belemnitella and other characteristic New Jersey Cretaceous forms is noted (vol. 1, p. 156).

Reference is made to the fossil beds on the lower Neuse River previously described by Conrad, and the presence of fossiliferous strata of Eocene and Miocene age at Wilmington. He also describes the general character of the great Dismal Swamp and the pine barrens of Virginia and North Carolina.

LYELL, CHARLES.—Observations on the White Limestone and Other Eocene or Older Tertiary Formations of Virginia, South Carolina, and Georgia. Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. 1, pp. 429-442, 1845.

The writer notes the differences between the Eocene of Maryland and Virginia, in which greensand predominates, and the Eocene of the Carolinas and Georgia, where the materials consist principally of highly calcareous white marls and white limestones. The Eocene exposures at Wilmington and Rocky Point on the Northeast Cape Fear River are briefly described. At Wilmington he collected 39 species of fossils, most of which are determined generically only. Terebratula wilmingtonensis is described as a new species. In conclusion, he states that there are few Eocene species common to the United States and Europe, and only one from the Wilmington Eocene, Infundibulum trochiforme.

LYELL, CHARLES.—On the Miocene Tertiary Strata of Maryland, Virginia, and of North and South Carolina. Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., vol. 1, pp. 413-429, 1845.

“In the cliffs at Wilmington, North Carolina, resting on a calcareous eocene rock, are seen miocene shelly strata of the ordinary character, in which I collected about thirty species of shells” (p. 418). The following recent species were found there in the Miocene: Calyptraea costata, Dentalium dentalis, Solen ensis, Lucina anodonta, Lucina contracta, and Venus mercenaria. Lucina contracta also occurs in the Suffolk Crag, while several of the Wilmington forms are said to be very closely allied to European Miocene species.

LYELL, CHARLES.—Notes on the Cretaceous Strata of New Jersey, and Other Parts of the United States Bordering the Atlantic. Geol. Soc., London, Quart. Jour., vol. 1, 1845, pp. 55-60.

The Lewis Creek locality near South Washington (now Watha) is correlated with the Cretaceous strata of New Jersey. A partial list of the fossils is given.

TUOMEY, MICHAEL.—Reports on the Geology of South Carolina. Columbia, S. C., 1848. 293 pp., 2 maps (esp. pp. 132-139). Review Amer. Jour. Sci., 2d series, vol. 8, 1849, pp. 61-74.

In this report (pp. 132-139) Professor Tuomey describes in detail the localities at which he observed Cretaceous strata. These are limited to the eastern part of the State, occurring principally in the banks and bluffs of the Peedee, Waccamaw, and Black rivers and their tributaries. He states that these beds form a continuation of the Cretaceous strata outcropping on the Cape Fear River in North Carolina. The latter are said to contain a small content of glauconite, but not a grain did he observe in the former. A list of the Cretaceous fossils is given.

DESOR, E.—Post-Pliocene of the Southern States and its Relation to the Laurentian of the North and the Deposits of the Valley of the Mississippi. Amer. Jour. Sci., 2d series, vol. 14, 1852, pp. 49-59.

The beds along the Neuse River below New Bern, evidently those on Benners’ plantation, described by Conrad, are referred to the post-Pliocene.

EMMONS, EBENEZER.—Report of Professor Emmons on His Geological Survey of North Carolina, pp. 3-182. Raleigh, 1852.

The greensand occurring on Cape Fear River, at various localities below Elizabethtown and at Wilmington, which he regards as of higher value as a fertilizer than the shell marl of the region, he correctly refers to the Cretaceous.

Many analyses of soils and marls are given, and various sections of the marl beds described. The fossiliferous beds containing oysters and clams primarily in the vicinity of the ocean are referred to the post-Pliocene; certain beds near New Bern, and probably some deposits along Fishing Creek, to the Pliocene; to the Miocene are referred the beds near Goldsboro, Tarboro, Rocky Mount, along the Toisnot and Contentnea creeks, the Neuse and Tar rivers; at Elizabethtown, Walker's Bluff, and Brown's Landing; to the Eocene certain gravel beds in the vicinity of Leaksville, Rockingham County, and Carthage, Moore County (these are probably Cretaceous), and greenish-colored clays and marls found at Colonel Collier's plantation, near Goldsboro, and at Wilmington.

MCLENAHAN, S.—Letter to Professor Emmons, State Geologist, in Report of Geological Survey of North Carolina, pp. 168-173. Raleigh, 1852.

He reports the presence of a siliceous, shelly limestone (Eocene) ten miles southeast of Raleigh, and describes the skeleton of a whale found in the marl of Fishing Creek.

CONRAD, T. A.—Monograph of the Genus Fulgur. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 6, 1853, pp. 316-19.

The following forms are recorded from the Natural well, Duplin County:

Fulgur canaliculatum,

Fulgur contrarium,

Fulgur excavatum.

Fulgur carica is reported from North Carolina, but the exact locality is not given.

MARCOU, JULES.—A Geological Map of the United States, and the British Provinces of North America; with an Explanatory Text, Geological Sections, etc. 1853, pp. 48-57. (Geological map in separate cover.)

Describes the character and distribution of the Quaternary deposits of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. On the accompanying geological map the Quaternary and Tertiary deposits are represented by one color.

TUOMEY, M.—Description of Some Fossil Shells from the Tertiary of the Southern States. Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 6, pp. 192-194, 1852; vol. 7, p. 167, 1854.

Discusses the presence of Cretaceous fossils in the Eocene strata at Wilmington and says that they lived during the Eocene and were not redeposited by the breaking up of Cretaceous strata. His reason for such a view is that the internal casts of both Cretaceous and Eocene forms consist of compact white limestone unlike any materials formed in the Cretaceous of North Carolina. He describes the following forms from the beds at Wilmington:

Trochus nixus, Voluta conoides, Cardita trapezium, Pyrula ampla, Trigonia lunata, Arca cancellata, Fusus abruptus, Trigonia divaricata, Cucullœ lœvis. Conus mutilatus,

EMMONS, EBENEZER.—Geological Report of the Midland Counties of North Carolina. New York and Raleigh, 1856, 351 pp.

Divides the State into three natural belts or zones, the Eastern, Western, and Midland. The character and extent of the Eastern zone [Coastal Plain] is briefly indicated (p. 3).

FOSTER, J. W.—On the Geological Position of the Deposits in Which Occur the Remains of the Fossil Elephant of North America. Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., vol. 10, Pt. II, pp. 148-167. 1857.

Reference is made to the Pleistocene deposits on the Neuse River below New Bern containing remains of the mastodon, elephant, hippopotamus, horse, deer, and elk, that Conrad described in 1835. The age is regarded as upper Tertiary.

EMMONS, EBENEZER.—Report of the North Carolina Geological Survey. Agriculture of the Eastern Counties. xvi, 314 pp. Raleigh, 1858.

This report contains good descriptions of the marl beds of the Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene formations of the State, together with many analyses. Many sections are given. For the most part those deposits containing marine shells are referred to their proper series, but the Cretaceous lignitic sands and clays occurring on Cape Fear River from

a dozen or more miles below Elizabethtown upstream nearly to Fayetteville are regarded as of probable Eocene age. The occurrence of Belemnitella, Exogyra, and coprolites as a mechanical mixture in the Miocene marl is mentioned. The report contains an extended account of the fossils of the marl beds, of which over 200 species, many of which are new, are described and figured. It is the most complete report on the Coastal Plain formations of the State published, up to that time. The soils of various Coastal Plain counties are described.

EMMONS, EBENEZER.—North Carolina Geological Survey, Part II, Agriculture. Raleigh, 1860, 95 pp.

Describes the geographic distribution and character of the swamp lands, with special reference to the nature of the soils, of which many analyses are given. He regards the swamp accumulations as of recent origin.

CONRAD, T. A.—Fossils of the (Medial Tertiary or) Miocene Formation of the United States. No. 4, 1861 (?), Phila., pp. 81-89, index and plates xlv-xlix. Republished by W. H. Dall, Washington, 1893.

Crypta densata,

Busycon contrarium,

Fasciolaria rhomboidea,

are described from the Natural well in Duplin County.

RUFFIN, EDMUND.—Sketches of Lower North Carolina and the Similar Adjacent Lands, 296 pp. Printed at the Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and the Blind, Raleigh, 1861.

Contains general statements in regard to the marl deposits of the State. The deposits are said to belong to the Tertiary, though no mention is made of the different divisions. To explain the origin of the materials of the “drift region” (Coastal Plain), he adopts the already antiquated theory of H. H. Hayden which appeared in his “Geological Essays” published in 1820.

CONRAD, T. A.—Notes on Shells, with Description of New Fossil Genera and Species. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., vol. 16, 1864, pp. 211-214.

The new species of Fasciolaria subtenta is described from the Natural well in Duplin County.

CONRAD. T. A.—Observations on the Eocene Lignite Formation of the United States. Proc. Phila. Acad. Sci., vol. 17, pp. 70-73, 1865. Amer. Jour. Sci., 2d series, vol. 40, pp. 265-268, 1865.

In this article it is stated for the first time that the commingling of Cretaceous and Eocene fossils in the limestone breccia at Wilmington was due to mechanical mixture. It is explained as due to a “disturbance in the bed of the Eocene ocean.”

CONRAD, T. A.—Tertiary of North and South Carolina. Amer. Jour. Sci., 2d series, vol. 43, p. 260, 1867.

The author refers to the presence of Cretaceous fossils in the Eocene strata at Wilmington and in the Miocene strata of the Cape Fear River, and considers the mixture of forms as purely accidental and not due to the coexistence of Cretaceous forms with Eocene and Miocene forms during the two latter periods.

KERR, W. C.—Report of the Progress of the Geological Survey of North Carolina. 57 pp., Raleigh, 1869.

The statement is made (p. 10) that the marls along “the lower waters of Cape Fear, Northeast, Trent, Neuse, and Tar rivers” have been examined in search of phosphatic materials similar to the phosphates of Charleston, but with negative results.

MARSH, O. C.—Notice of Some Fossil Birds, from the Cretaceous and Tertiary Formations of the United States. Amer. Jour. Sci., 2d series, vol. 49, 1870, pp. 205-217.

The left humerus of a bird which was found at Tarboro is described by the writer and referred to the new species, Catarractes antiquus. It is supposed to have come from the Tertiary of that region. The same specimen is mentioned on p. 237 of the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for 1866.

CONRAD, T. A.—On Some Points Connected with the Cretaceous and Tertiary of North Carolina. (From a letter to J. D. Dana, dated Greenville, Pitt County, N. C., 1871.) Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d series, vol. 1, pp. 468-469, 1871.

In the vicinity of Greenville the Miocene is said to rest directly upon Cretaceous strata in which occur Ripley fossils.

He reports finding a tooth which he thinks belongs to Leidy's Equus fraternus and a Mastodon jaw, both of which he believes to have come from the Miocene.

Reference is also made to the occurrence of Ripley fossils at Snow Hill in Greene County. This is probably the first recorded attempt at correlating North Carolina Cretaceous strata with the Ripley in the Gulf region.

KERR, W. C.—On Some Points in the Stratigraphy and Surface Geology of North Carolina. Amer. Nat., vol. 4, 1870-71, p. 570.

Gives evidence indicating considerable oscillations of sea-level during the pre-human period. States that these movements were probably synchronous with the “Champlain” epoch.

PERRY, JOHN B.—Remarks on Southern Drift, Gulf Tertiary, and Notices of Occurrence of Cretaceous at Snow Hill in North Carolina. In discussion of E. W. Hilgard, The History of the Gulf of Mexico. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1871. Amer. Nat., vol. 5, 1871, pp. 521-522.

Contains a brief reference to a Cretaceous fossil locality at Snow Hill, North Carolina.

ELLIOTT, GEO. H.—Report on the Survey of the Cape Fear and Deep Rivers, North Carolina. Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1872, pp. 741-749.

Gives a brief description of the region through which the Cape Fear River flows.

SHALER, N. S.—On the Causes Which Have Led to the Production of Cape Hatteras. Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. 14, pp. 110-121, 1872. Abstract, Amer. Nat., vol. 5, pp. 178-181, 1871.

The view is expressed that the Cape Hatteras projection was caused by the operation of subterranean forces which resulted in the uplift of the region. In support of this view he states that there is evidence that a ridge once existed along a line passing north and south through Richmond, Va., and Weldon, N. C., which was produced by an upward folding of the rocks. This ridge was subsequently much eroded and finally covered by later deposits. This uplift probably occurred subsequent to the beginning of the Tertiary, or there may have been a succession of uplifts. Professor Shaler appears to have regarded Cape Hatteras as a southeasterly continuation of this ridge.

Brief descriptions of some of the Tertiary deposits of North Carolina are given. “Along the shore of the mainland from New Bern, N. C., to Washington, at the mouth of the Roanoke, the hard, shelly limestone of the Tertiary period, looking much like the shell bed which is found near Charleston, S. C., comes to the surface just above high-tide mark and seems to be the principal barrier to the encroachment of the sea” (p. 117).

KERR, W. C.—Topography as Affected by the Rotation of the Earth. Amer. Phil. Soc., Proc., vol. 13, 1873, pp. 190-192.

Notes the fact that the high bluffs of the North Carolina rivers are, in most cases, on the right side, and assigns as the cause the deflecting effect of the rotation of the earth on the courses of the streams.

KERR, W. C.—Appendix to the Report of the Geological Survey of North Carolina, 1873, being a brief abstract of that report and a general description of the State—geographical, geological, climatic, and agricultural. 24 pp., map. Raleigh, 1873.

“The Tertiary (and Quaternary) occupies the eastern champaign section, and consists mainly of beds of uncompacted clays, sands, and marls, belonging to the lower and middle divisions (Eocene and Miocene), which are everywhere filled with exuviæ and bones of marine animals, constituting an inexhaustible resource of manurial matter” (p. 6).

“Marl is found only in the eastern region, but is very abundant in some 25 counties, occurring in extensive superficial beds, which contain all the elements of a complete and permanent fertilizer. * * * This is the most valuable mineral in the State, as it is easily accessible to more than half of the farming lands, and is applicable to all crops.”

CONRAD, T. A.—Descriptions of New Genera and Species of Fossil Shells of North Carolina and in the Cabinet at Raleigh, etc. Geol. Survey of North Carolina, Report by W. C. Kerr, Appendix A, pp. 1-28, pls. 1-4. Raleigh, 1875.

Describes 46 new species of Cretaceous shells from Snow Hill, and states that they represent the Ripley of Mississippi. A synopsis of the Cretaceous Mollusca of North Carolina is given.

Three new species of Eocene fossils and 22 new species of Miocene shells are described and figured. Conrad believes that all the Tertiary strata of North Carolina should be referred to the Eocene and Miocene.

COPE, EDWARD D.—Synopsis of the Vertebrata whose Remains Have Been Preserved in the Formations of North Carolina. Geol. Survey North Carolina, Report by W. C. Kerr, vol. 1, Appendix B, pp. 29-52, pls. 5-8. Raleigh, 1875.

A number of new fossil vertebrates are described from the Miocene deposits of the State.

GENTH, F. A.—On the Minerals Found in the State of North Carolina. Geol. Survey North Carolina, Report by W. C. Kerr, vol. 1, Appendix C, pp. 53-69. Raleigh, 1875.

A few minerals, calcite, quartz, glauconite, etc., are reported to occur in the Tertiary marl beds.

KERR, W. C.—Report of the Geological Survey of North Carolina. Vol. 1, 8vo, xviii, 325 pp. Appendices, 120 pp., 8 pl., 18 figs. Geological map of State under front cover. Raleigh, 1875.

In the preface the following statement is made: “This volume may be considered, in part, as a sort of résumé of the whole subject of the geology of the State, as far as worked out, the labors of my predecessors being freely used and embodied with my own.”

The character and geographic distribution of the Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits of the State are described. The Tertiary deposits are divided into the Eocene and the Miocene, and the geographic limits of each are given. The marls of the Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene are described in detail. Many analyses are given, and the value of these marls for fertilizing purposes is fully discussed.

The surficial deposits, consisting of beds of pebbles, sand, and clay, are included in the Quaternary system. He believes that the Coastal Plain region was submerged during at least a part of the glacial period, and regards the Quaternary deposits as having been transported by the great floods resulting from the melting of the ice of the glacial period. The report is accompanied by a geological map of the State.

ABERT, S. T.—Geology. Letter from the Acting Secretary of War, transmitting report of S. T. Abert on the survey of a line to connect the waters of the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers, etc. Sen. Ex. Doc., No. 35, 44th Cong., 1st Sess., pp. 15-24, 1876.

Describes the physical features of the seacoast and of the sounds bordering the coast. Describes briefly the geology of the region between Norfolk

and Cape Fear River. Brief statements are made concerning the Eocene and Miocene formations of the Coastal Plain. Describes rivers, peat-bogs, swamps and soils.

GABB, WILLIAM.—Notes on American Cretaceous Fossils, with Descriptions of Some New Species. Acad. Nat. Sci., Proc., Phila., 1876, pp. 276-324.

Describes, among other Cretaceous fossils, a few species from North Carolina.

KERR, W. C.—Physiographic Description of North Carolina. North Carolina Geological Survey, 1879, 32 pp. and map and section under back cover.

Describes briefly the physiographic features of the eastern section (Coastal Plain), pp. 6-7. On the map the swamp lands in the region bordering the coast are indicated.

KERR, W. C.—North (and South) Carolina (geological formations). Macfarlane's American Railway Guide, p. 186, 1879.

Contains very brief statements concerning the geology along the various railroads.

GENTH, F. A., and KERR, W. C.—Mineralogy: Minerals and Mineral Localities of North Carolina, being Chapter 1 of the 2d volume of the Geology of North Carolina, pp. 1-122. Raleigh, 1881.

Calcite, siderite, limonite, glauconite, pyrite, lignite, and vivianite are reported from Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits in several of the Coastal Plain counties of the State.

HEILPRIN, ANGELO.—On the Relative Ages and Classification of the Post-Eocene Tertiary Deposits of the Atlantic Slope. Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 34, pp. 150-186, 1882.

In an examination of the post-Eocene fossils of the Atlantic Coastal Plain, the writer finds that of about 206 North Carolina mollusca, 128 are found in South Carolina, 79 in Virginia, 54 in Maryland, while 54 are recent. He, therefore, concludes that these deposits in North and South Carolina constitute the highest group of the Miocene strata, to which he applies the name “Carolinian,” while the Miocene deposits of Virginia and Maryland are referred to the middle Miocene, or “Virginian,” and the lower Miocene or “Marylandian.”

KERR, W. C.—Report on the Geology and the Soils of the Tobacco Region of North Carolina. Tenth Census United States, vol. 3, 1883, pp. 715-19 (bottom pagination).

States that the soils of the champaign or eastern tobacco district are formed of Quaternary deposits. The character and stratigraphic relations of these deposits are briefly described.

HEILPRIN, ANGELO.—The Tertiary Geology of the Eastern and Southern United States. Jour. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., vol. 9, Pt. I, pp. 115-154, map 4, 1884.

General descriptions are given of the Eocene and Miocene. Much is quoted from Kerr's Report on the Geology of North Carolina, 1875. A list of 26 species of Eocene fossils from the State is given.

HEILPRIN, ANGELO.—Contributions to the Tertiary Geology and Paleontology of the United States. 117 pp., map, 4to. Philadelphia, 1884.

The writer gives little new information in regard to the Eocene, but does give a short summary of existing information concerning the Eocene strata and their contained fossils. He does not attempt to correlate them with Eocene strata elsewhere in the United States.

The Miocene is discussed at considerable length, and from a comparison of the fossils he comes to the conclusion that these strata represent the same formation in North and South Carolina, and that they are younger than the Miocene deposits of Virginia and Maryland. The name “Carolinian” is applied to them.

KERR, W. C.—The Geology of Hatteras and the Neighboring Coast. (Abstract.) Bull. Wash. Phila. Soc., vol. 6, pp. 28-30, 1884. Abstract, Science, vol. 1, p. 402, 1883.

Describes in a general way the character of the low-lying region adjacent to Cape Hatteras.

The statement is made that “the quaternary as well as the tertiary of this coast region of North Carolina are laid down upon an eroded surface of cretaceous rock.”

PHILLIPS, W. B.—North Carolina Phosphates. Jour. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., 1883-1884, pp. 60-63. Abstract, Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d series, vol. 28, p. 75.

The phosphatic materials found in the Miocene strata of Duplin, Brunswick, and Pender counties are described. The best localities are said to be from 4 to 8 miles northeast of Magnolia, where a thin irregular bed of phosphate is found in places at a depth of from 3 to 5 feet beneath the surface.

HOLMES, J. A.—Taxodium (Cypress) in North Carolina Quaternary. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., 1884-85, pp. 92-93, 1885.

Describes the occurrence of fossil stumps of cypress on the southwest bank of the Neuse River 10 to 12 miles below the town of New Bern.

KERR, W. C.—The Eocene of North Carolina. Amer. Nat., vol. 19, p. 69, 1885.

Through finding upper Eocene fossiliferous rocks capping some of the highest hills of the Coastal Plain, the author concludes, erroneously, that most of the sand and gravel deposits, previously referred to the Quaternary, are really Eocene in age. “The area of Tertiaries in this State must now be extended over a wide stretch of country, from the tops of Laurentian hills, near Raleigh, and the higher elevations of the Huronian slates, to from 50 to 75 miles southeastward, along the course of the Deep River, and so onward to the South Carolina border, reaching at one point an elevation of 600 feet above tide. This leaves the Quaternary, like the Miocene, to be represented by a thin and broken covering of superficial deposits, of only a few feet to a few yards in thickness, and reaching from the coast only about 100 miles inland and an elevation but little above 100 feet.”

KERR, W. C.—Distribution and Character of the Eocene Deposits in Eastern North Carolina. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., for the year 1884-1885, pp. 79-84.

Essentially the same discussion as in the preceding paper.

HEILPRIN, ANGELO.—The Classification of the Post-Cretaceous Deposits. Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1887, pp. 314-322, 1888.

The author again refers to the Miocene of the Atlantic Coastal Plain as consisting of the three divisions: “Marylandian,” “Virginian,” and “Carolinian.”

MCGEE, W J—Three Formations of the Middle Atlantic Slope. Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d series, vol. 35, 1888. Potomac Formation, pp. 120-143. Appomattox Formation, pp. 328-330. Columbia Formation, pp. 367-388, 348-366.

Materials exposed on Roanoke River near Weldon, which he regards as representing the Potomac formation of Virginia, are described (p. 126). This is the only reference to Potomac equivalents in North Carolina.

Concerning the presence of the “Appomattox” formation in North Carolina he says: “And at Weldon it rests upon deeply ravined crystalline rocks, save where inconspicuous remnants of Potomac arkose intervene” (p. 330). The formation is said to be the equivalent of at least a part of the “Orange Sand” of Hilgard. As regards the age of the formation, he states that “It is manifestly newer than the fossiliferous Miocene upon which it rests, and older than the Columbia formation by which it is overlain” (p. 330).

The Columbia formation is divided into the Fluvial Phase and the Interfluvial Phase. Both phases are mentioned as occurring along the Roanoke River in North Carolina. Terracing is mentioned as occurring along Roanoke River in the vicinity of Weldon.

PENROSE, R. A. F., JR.—Nature and Origin of Deposits of Phosphate of Lime, with an introduction by N. S. Shaler. Bull. U. S. Geol. Surv., No. 46, 143 pp., 3 pls. Washington, 1888.

Brief descriptions with chemical analyses are given of the character and occurrence of amorphous nodular phosphates in North Carolina. They occur in Duplin, Sampson, Onslow, Pender, New Hanover, and Columbus counties. The most valuable deposits occur at Castle Hayne and near Wilmington, and these are briefly described (pp. 70-75).

FONTAINE, WM. M.—The Potomac or Younger Mesozoic Flora. U. S. Geol. Survey, Monograph XV, 2 vols., 1889. Text 377 pages.

Describes the deposit of supposed Potomac at Weldon as consisting of a thin layer of sands and gravels resting directly upon the crystalline rocks. He believes it referable to the Potomac upon lithologic grounds. He says: “It suggests the idea that the Potomac may be found as far south as this place. The exposure, however, is too slight to be taken as anything more than suggestive of probabilities” (pp. 45-46).

HOLMES, J. A.—Historical Notes Concerning the North Carolina Geological Surveys. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., vol. 6, Pt. I, January-June, 1889, pp. 5-19.

Gives a brief account of the several North Carolina State surveys that have been called geological surveys, including lists of publications.

CHANCE, H. M.—North Carolina (Geological Formations). Macfarlane's Geol. Ry. Guide, 2d edition, pp. 365-368, 1890.

The “Sketch of the Geology and Topography of North Carolina” contained in this work is abstracted from the geological reports of Prof. W. C. Kerr. The references to the Mesozoic and Cenozoic strata are very brief.

CLARK, W. B.—On the Tertiary Deposits of the Cape Fear River Region. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 1, pp. 537-540, 1890.

He shows that the Cretaceous greensand marl occupies the base of the series in the lower Cape Fear River region. The commingling of Eocene and Cretaceous forms at Wilmington is discussed and is explained as due to a reworking of the Cretaceous forms during the Eocene. The following Eocene forms are given:

Aturia alabamiensis Conrad.

Conus gyratus Conrad.

Emarginula eversa Conrad.

Lunulites distans Lonsdale.

Mortonia pileus-sinensis Ravenel.

Oliva alabamiensis Conrad.

Pecten membranosus Morton.

Pseudoliva vetusta Conrad.

Siliquaria vitis Conrad.

Sismondia plana Conrad.

Terebratulina lachryma Morton.

Trochita trochiformis Conrad.

In the same bed the following Cretaceous fossils occur:

Baculites compressus Say.

Cardium spillmani Conrad.

Cucullæa antrosa Morton.

Gyrodes abyssina Conrad.

Nautilus dekayi Morton.

Navicula uniopsis Conrad.

Venilia conradi (?) Morton.

Zenophora leprosa Morton.

DALL, WILLIAM HEALEY.—Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna of Florida, with especial reference to the Miocene Silex Beds of the Caloosahatchie River, including, in many cases, a complete revision of the generic groups treated and their American Tertiary species. Trans., Wagner Free Institute of Science of Phila., vol. 3, 1654 pp., 60 pls. Pt. I, 1890; Pt. II, 1892; Pt. III, 1895; Pt. IV, 1898; Pt. V, 1900; Pt. VI, 1903.

In this exhaustive work a great number of fossils are described from the Tertiaries of North Carolina. The most important contributions are with reference to the Miocene deposits of Duplin County, which are regarded as closely related to the beds at Yorktown, Va. This correlation was established after a very detailed study of the fossils had been made. The deposits in the vicinity of Croatan are placed in the Pliocene as

the result of a careful study of the contained fossils. Eighty out of ninety-six recognized species are represented in the recent fauna; 83 per cent of which, according to Lyell's original classification, would place these beds unquestionably in the Pliocene.

FONTAINE, WILLIAM M.—Potomac Strata at Haywood, Chatham County, N. C. U. S. Geol. Survey, 10th Ann. Rpt. (1888-1889), 1890, p. 174.

Announces the discovery of supposed Potomac strata near Haywood, N. C.

MCGEE, W J—Southern Extension of the Appomattox Formation. Amer. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 40, 1890, pp. 15-41.

Deposits referable to this formation are said to occur throughout the extent of the Atlantic and Gulf Coastal Plains as far as the Rio Grande. In North Carolina it forms a terrane 40 or 50 miles wide on the Roanoke and extends southward through the Carolinas in a broad zone. In Virginia and the Carolinas the deposits are said to lie at elevations of between 25 and 250 feet above tide. As regards its age, the formation is said to correspond roughly with the Pliocene.

SHALER, N. S.—General Account of the Fresh-water Morasses of the United States, with a Description of the Dismal Swamp District of Virginia and North Carolina. U. S. Geol. Surv., 10th Report, pp. 255-339, pls. 6-19, Washington, 1890.

Describes the Dismal Swamp district (pp. 313-339) as regards the character of the materials, the topographic features, the character of the animal and vegetable remains, etc. On the evidence of some fossils found near Suffolk, Va., the writer believes that the entire district is underlain by Pliocene strata.

An escarpment is described which forms the western boundary of the district, and which is believed to mark a former shore line. This is called the Nansemond Escarpment. A higher plain of which this escarpment forms the eastern boundary is designated the Nansemond Bench.

CLARK, WILLIAM BULLOCK.—Correlation Papers—Eocene. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. 83, 173 pp., 2 maps. Washington, 1891.

This paper contains a discussion of the previously published literature pertaining to the Eocene of the United States together with a correlation of the Eocene deposits in the several areas.

MCGEE, W J—The Lafayette Formation. U. S. Geol. Surv., 12th Ann. Rept., 1890-91, Pt. I, pp. 347-521.

The author presents a monographic study of the Lafayette formation in the eastern United States.

The term Lafayette is here used instead of “Appomattox,” which was the original designation of the formation. As to age, the formation is regarded as late Neocene. The character, distribution, and stratigraphic position of the formation in North Carolina are described.

STANTON, T. W.—Cretaceous and Tertiary Strata Near Wilmington, N. C. Amer. Geol., vol. 7, pp. 333-334, 1891.

The Eocene exposures at Wilmington, Castle Hayne, and Rocky Point are briefly described. There the formation rests upon the Cretaceous, and fossils from the latter are found redeposited in the Eocene strata mingled with Eocene fossils. The Cretaceous forms present in the Eocene deposit at Castle Hayne are as follows:

Cardium eufaulense Con. Ostrea subspatulata L. and S. Exogyra costata Say. Crassatella pteropsis Con. Aphrodina tippana Con. Trigonia divaricata Tuomey (=T. angulicosta Gabb). Cucullœa antrosa Mort. Pachycardium spillmani Con.

WHITE, CHARLES A.—Correlation Papers. A Review of the Cretaceous Formations of North America. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 82, 1891, pp. 74-100.

The known facts regarding the character and distribution of the Cretaceous in North Carolina are briefly summarized. He expresses the opinion that both the marine and nonmarine divisions of the Cretaceous are, or originally were, continuous throughout the Atlantic border region.

DALL, WILLIAM HEALEY, and HARRIS, GILBERT DENNISON.—Correlation Papers—Neocene. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 84, 349 pp., 3 maps, 3 pls., 43 figs.; Washington, 1892.

In this report a summary of all previously published literature describing the Miocene and Pliocene strata of the United States is given. The principal statements pertaining to North Carolina are largely taken from publications by Kerr.

GENTH, FREDERICK A.—The Minerals of North Carolina. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 74, 119 pp.; Washington, 1891.

Calcite, limonite, siderite, pyrite, phosphate nodules, glauconite, and lignite are reported from numerous places in the Coastal Plain of the State, while vivianite is reported from Tertiary marl of Edgecombe County.

HOLMES, J. A.—Character and Distribution of Road Materials. Jour. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc., Pt. II, 1892, pp. 66-81.

The writer discusses briefly the value of the limestones contained in the Tertiary beds of the State for road-building purposes. Of these, the limestones exposed along the Northeast Cape Fear and Trent rivers are considered of greatest importance.

There is also a brief statement of the distribution of gravels, and their availability as road materials is discussed.

BOYLE, CORNELIUS.—A Catalogue and Bibliography of North American Mesozoic Invertebrata. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 102, 1893.

COBB, COLLIER.—Notes on the Deflective Effect of the Earth's Rotation as Shown in Streams. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., 1893, pp. 26-32.

Discusses the deflective effect of the earth's rotation on the courses

of streams. Cites examples of such deflection in various parts of the world, and notes particularly the apparent operation of this force on the streams of North Carolina.

HOLMES, J. A.—Geology of the Sandhill Country of the Carolinas. Geol. Soc. Amer. Bull., vol. 5, 1893, pp. 33-34.

Describes the character, stratigraphic relations, age, etc., of the deposits of the sandhill region of the Carolinas. Recognizes Cretaceous, Eocene, Lafayette, and Columbia deposits.

The Cretaceous deposits consist of several hundred feet of arkosic sands with subordinate clay beds. The upper surface is deeply eroded.

Eocene remnants are said to cap many hills at an elevation of 500 feet above tide-level. “The submergence during Eocene deposition could hardly have been less than 600 or 700 feet, and may have been several hundred feet more, and the Eocene waters for a short time may have covered a considerable part of the Piedmont Plateau and washed against the slopes of King's and Anderson's and the Sauratown Mountains” (p. 34).

The sands and loams of the Lafayette formation overlie unconformably both the Cretaceous and Eocene deposits. These, also, have been deeply eroded.

A mantle of sands and loams, classed as Columbia, overlies all older formations.

NITZE, H. B. C.—Iron Ores of North Carolina. A Preliminary Report. N. C. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 1, pp. 21-239, pls. i-xx, figs. 1-58, maps. Raleigh, 1893.

Limonite is reported from Edgecombe, Pitt, Halifax, and Robeson counties, but the geological horizon is not stated. On the accompanying geological map the Tertiary is not separated into formations, as the author says that he does not have sufficient information to draw the formation lines.

HAYES, C. W., and CAMPBELL, M. R.—Geomorphology of the Southern Appalachians. Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 6, 1894, pp. 63-126.

The probable connection of the Cape Hatteras axis and the Cincinnati uplift with a transverse fold in the Appalachian region, which is expressed in the deformed contour lines in the Cretaceous peneplain of the latter region, is discussed (p. 81).

ABBE, CLEVELAND (JR.).—Remarks on the Cuspate Capes of the Carolina Coast. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Proc., vol. 26, 1895, pp. 489-497.

Discusses the origin of the Cuspate Capes of the Carolina Coast.

DARTON, N. H.—Artesian Well Prospects in the Atlantic Coastal Plain Region. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 138, 233 pp., 19 pls., Washington, 1896.

A brief résumé of the geology of the Coastal Plain is given in this report. A section across the State prepared by Prof. J. A. Holmes is included. Sections of wells in Wayne, Pender, and New Hanover counties, which penetrate Cretaceous beds, are also given.

DARTON, N. H.—Notes on Relations of Lower Members of the Coastal Plain Series in South Carolina. Geol. Soc. Amer., Bull., vol. 7, 1896, pp. 512-518.

The paper is of interest because the beds described constitute the South Carolina equivalents of formations recognized in North Carolina.

FONTAINE, WILLIAM M.—The Potomac Formation in Virginia. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 145, 1896, 149 pp.

Again describing the supposed Potomac at Weldon, the author says: “In only one place, and in a very limited space, did I find the surface of the gneiss laid bare. This was in the channel of a small run that entered the river on the north side of and near the bridge head. Here a deposit, a few inches thick, of coarse, gray grit, with occasional large pebbles, is displayed. The material has all the lithological characters that distinguish the Potomac formation. It seems to owe its preservation to its firm union with the uneven surface of the gneiss” (p. 25).

HOLMES, J. A.—Notes on the Kaolin and Clay Deposits of North Carolina. Trans., Amer. Inst. Min. Engrs., vol. 25, pp. 929-936, 1896.

The author states that beds of laminated dark-colored Potomac clays containing in places lignite and pyrite, occur on the rivers crossing the Coastal Plain, notably along the Cape Fear River for 50 miles below Fayetteville. A vertical section of Prospect Hall Bluff, 93 miles above Wilmington, is given.

The following statements are made in regard to the Eocene: “Along the western border of the Coastal Plain region, especially in Moore and Harnett counties, there are limited exposures of siliceous Eocene deposits (overlying the Potomac series, and capping some of the sandhills), which have recently been tested for fire brick with very satisfactory results. These deposits are from 5 to 15 feet, or more, in thickness, and are overlain by but a few feet of loose sand” (p. 935). Analysis of Eocene fire clay two miles northeast of Spout Springs:

SiO2 87.70 Al2O3 3.29 Fe2O3 2.81 CaO .48 MgO .40 Alkaline chlorides 1.48 Loss on ignition 3.15 99.31

Mention is made of exposures of blue Miocene marl at various places in the Coastal Plain, especially on the Roanoke and Tar rivers, that may prove to be of some value for the manufacture of clay products.

He describes briefly the geography, distribution, and character of the Lafayette and Columbia formations (pp. 935-936).

RIES, HEINRICH.—Clay Deposits and Clay Industry in North Carolina. N. C. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 13, 1897, 157 pp., 12 pls., 5 figs.

In this report the black clays occurring from 10 to 60 miles below

Fayetteville on Cape Fear River are regarded as Potomac. Special mention is made of the clays at Prospect Hall Bluff, an analysis of which is given. The clays occurring in the cuts at Spout Springs in Harnett County are erroneously referred to the Eocene, while those between Spout Springs and Fayetteville are regarded as of uncertain age, either Eocene or Cretaceous.

He describes the occurrence of clays in the Lafayette and Pleistocene formations and gives specific localities in various counties (pp. 102-138).

WOOLMAN, LEWIS.—Fossil Mollusks and Diatoms from the Dismal Swamp, Virginia and North Carolina; indication of the geological age of the deposits; with notes on the diatoms by Charles C. Boyer. Proc. Phila. Acad. Nat. Sci., 1898, pp. 414-424, 1898.

Fossils from the Dismal Swamp Canal, near Lilly, are described and the strata containing them referred to the late Pliocene or possibly the Pleistocene. They are correlated with the fossiliferous strata, near Croatan, N. C.

GLENN, L. C.—The Hatteras Axis in Triassic and in Miocene Time. Amer. Geol., vol. 23, pp. 375-379, 1899.

The writer believes that during both the Triassic and Miocene periods the central portion of the State of North Carolina was a region of much greater stability than the regions on either side, and that a line or belt extending from Cape Hatteras westward served as an axis, so that when the region to the north was depressed the region to the south was uplifted, and vice versa. The reason for this belief is the dissimilarity of the Triassic and Tertiary deposits of Virginia, Maryland, and New Jersey when compared with those of South Carolina and the Gulf States.

He asserts that the region of the so-called “Hatteras Axis” has been one of minimum movement since the beginning of Lafayette time.

HOLMES, J. A.—The Cretaceous and Tertiary Section Between Cape Fear and Fayetteville, N. C. Abstract, Science, new series, vol. 11, p. 143, 1900.

Brief mention is made of the great unconformity between the Cretaceous and the Tertiary, and the erosion intervals at the close of the Eocene and Lafayette.

HOLMES, J. A.—The Deep Well at Wilmington, N. C. Science, n. s., vol. 11, 1900, pp. 128-130.

Describes the character of the materials and the nature of the water encountered in this well. A thickness of 1,109 feet of Upper Cretaceous sediments was penetrated, at the base of which granite was encountered. On the basis of the contained fossils, Dr. Stanton, who identified them, classes the upper 720 feet of materials as Ripley and the remainder of the strata down to the granite as Eutaw. Potomac equivalents are absent.

DARTON, N. H.—Norfolk Folio, Virginia-North Carolina. U. S. Geol. Surv., Geol. Atlas of U. S., Folio No. 80, 4to, 4 pp., 2 maps, 6 figs., Washington, 1902.

The configuration of a portion of Camden and Currituck counties is described. The author states that the Pliocene probably underlies the entire Dismal Swamp region, though the paleontological evidence which he offers does not seem to be conclusive, and in the present report these strata are referred to the Pleistocene. The origin of the Dismal Swamp is also discussed.

COBB, COLLIER.—Origin of the Sandhill Topography of the Carolinas. Science, n. s., vol. 17, 1903, pp. 226-227.

Notes æolian cross-bedding in the sand accumulations. Comments on the similarity in composition of these sands to those of the present beaches, and states that this explains the origin of some of the topographic features.

COBB, COLLIER.—The Forms of Sand-dunes as Influenced by Neighboring Forests. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., vol. 20, 1904, p. 14.

Discusses the factors which tend to prevent sand-dunes, which have been heaped up along the coast by east winds, from being blown back into the sea by west winds.

PRATT, JOSEPH HYDE.—The Mining Industry in North Carolina During 1903. N. C. Geol. Surv., Econ. Paper No. 8, 74 pp., map; Raleigh, 1904.

The shell limestones along the Northeast Cape Fear and Trent rivers are briefly described and statements are made concerning their use for structural purposes and as a source for lime (p. 56).

SLOAN, EARLE.—A Preliminary Report on the Clays of South Carolina. South Carolina Geological Survey, series 4, Bull. No. 1, 1904, 175 pp.

Describes and classifies the Coastal Plain deposits. He introduces the name “Hamburg clays” for the basal Cretaceous formation, and the name Middendorf beds for an immediately overlying Cretaceous formation. The “Hamburg clays” correspond to the Patuxent formation of the present report.

FULLER, M. L.—Underground Waters of Eastern United States: North Carolina. U. S. Geol. Survey Water Supply and Irrigation Paper No. 114, pp. 136-139, 1 fig.; Washington, 1905.

The article contains a very brief description of the Coastal Plain region of North Carolina.

WARD, LESTER F.—Status of the Mesozoic Floras of the United States. U. S. Geol. Survey, Mon. 48, 1905; Pt. I, text 616 pp.; Pt. II, 119 pls.

Describes briefly (pp. 385-392) the Cretaceous deposits exposed on Cape Fear River and some of its tributaries, and in the railroad cuts between Sanford and Fayetteville. Those appearing in the bluffs at Fayetteville are referred to the older Potomac of Virginia. Higher beds farther down

the river are referred to the newer Potomac. Of the river exposures taken collectively he states that “The section seems to be complete from the older Potomac through the marine Cretaceous, and the later Tertiary overlies the last.” The beds exposed in the railroad cuts above mentioned are referred to the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama.

CHAMBERLIN, T. C., and SALISBURY, R. D.—Geology, vol. 3, 1906. Lafayette, pp. 301-308. Columbia, pp. 447-454.

Describes the character, distribution, etc., of the Lafayette and Columbia formations and concludes that their origin is largely due to fluviatile and subaërial processes.

COBB, COLLIER.—Notes on the Geology of Currituck Banks. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., vol. 22, No. 1, 1906, pp. 17-19.

Describes the physical character of these banks and discusses their origin. Expresses the view that the coast in the vicinity of Currituck Banks is now subsiding.

COBB, COLLIER.—Where the Wind Does the Work. Nat. Geog. Mag., vol. 17, No. 6, 1906, pp. 310-317, 10 figs. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., vol. 22, No. 3, 1906, pp. 80-85.

Describes wind-blown sand-dunes and their migrations on the chain of low-lying sand reefs and islands along the Atlantic coast of North Carolina.

SALISBURY, ROLLIN D.—See CHAMBERLIN, T. C., and SALISBURY, R. D.

SANFORD, SAMUEL.—Record of Deep Well Drilling for 1905. U. S. Geol. Surv., Bull. No. 298, 1906, pp. 15-296.

Describes well sections at Kinston, Fort Caswell, and Pinehurst (pp. 245-246).

SHATTUCK, GEORGE B.—Pliocene and Pleistocene Deposits of Maryland. Maryland Geol. Survey, 1906, 237 pp., pls. 75.

A monographic study of the Pliocene and Pleistocene deposits of Maryland.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Coastal-Plain Amber. Torreya, vol. 7, No. 1, 1907, pp. 4-6.

The presence of amber is noted in Cretaceous deposits near Blackmans Bluff on Neuse River, and near Parker Landing on Tar River, both in North Carolina.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Contributions to the Mesozoic Flora of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. II. North Carolina. Torrey Botanical Club Bull., vol. 34, No. 4, 1907, pp. 185-206, pls. 11-16.

Notes the occurrence of 29 recognizable species of plant remains in the transitional Cretaceous beds of North Carolina, and of these 7 are described and figured as new. He correlates the beds provisionally with the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama and the Raritan formation of New Jersey, but predicts that they will eventually prove to include representatives of both the upper Tuscaloosa and Eutaw formations and the Magothy and Raritan formations of New Jersey.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Cretaceous Floras in North and South Carolina. Johns Hopkins University Circular, n. s., 1907, No. 7 (whole No. 199), pp. 79-91.

Notes the discovery in North and South Carolina of fossil plant localities which yield forms belonging to a remarkable Cretaceous flora of comparative modern aspect, originally described from Greenland by Oswald Heer, and now known to occur interruptedly at localities from New England to Alabama. A list of 15 species belonging to this flora, from a new locality at Court House Bluff, Cape Fear River, Bladen County, N. C., is given.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Contributions to Pleistocene Flora of North Carolina. Jour. of Geol., vol. 15, 1907, pp. 338-349.

Announces the discovery of two Pleistocene plant localities in the Coastal Plain of North Carolina and gives a brief preliminary description of the fossil plants obtained. As regards their significance, he concludes that the temperatures were not lower than at the present time in the same latitude and may have been higher. The flora shows a very modern aspect and indicates a short lapse of time in a geological sense since the deposition of the beds.

COBB, COLLIER.—Geology of Core Bank. Science, n. s., vol. 25, 1907, p. 298. Elisha Mitchell Sci. Soc. Jour., vol. 23, No. 1, May, 1907, pp. 26-28.

Discusses the character and origin of Core Banks and states that the coast south of Hatteras is rising, and not subsiding.

JOHNSON, B. L.—Pleistocene Terracing in the North Carolina Coastal Plain. Science, n. s., vol. 26, 1907, pp. 640-642.

Describes a series of ocean-bordering terraces with estuarine reëntrants which together make up the principal surface features of the North Carolina Coastal Plain.

MCCARTHY, GERALD.—Ground and Deep Waters of North Carolina. Bull. of the North Carolina Board of Health, vol. 22, No. 1, 1907, pp. 1-14, 6 figs.

Discusses briefly and in a general way the geology of the Coastal Plain of the State.

SLOAN, EARLE.—Geology and Mineral Resources (South Carolina). Handbook of South Carolina, issued by the State Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Immigration, 1907. Chapter 5, pp. 77-145, map, pp. 138-139.

Classifies the Coastal Plain formations of the State. Introduces the names Black Creek shales and “Burches Ferry marls” for Upper Cretaceous formations corresponding respectively to the Black Creek and Peedee formations of North Carolina, as defined in the present report.

STEPHENSON, L. W.—Some Facts Relating to the Mesozoic Deposits of the Coastal Plain of North Carolina. Johns Hopkins University Circular, n. s., 1907, No. 7 (whole No. 199), pp. 93-99.

The author recognizes three divisions in the Coastal Plain Mesozoic deposits of the State. The lithologic and paleontologic characters, the stratigraphic relations and areal extent of these divisions are briefly summarized. For the oldest, which is correlated approximately with the Patuxent formation of Virginia and Maryland, the name Cape Fear

formation is proposed. For the next younger division, which is correlated provisionally with the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama with the suggestion that they may prove to include equivalents of the Eutaw formation, the name “Bladen” formation is proposed. The youngest division is correlated with the Ripley of Alabama and Mississippi, and the latter designation is applied to it.

In the present report the names Patuxent, Black Creek, and Peedee replace the names “Cape Fear,” “Bladen,” and “Ripley,” respectively.

In connection with the discussion of the Mesozoic strata some brief statements are made in regard to the distribution of the Eocene and Miocene of the State.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Some Araucarian Remains from the Atlantic Coastal Plain. Torrey Bot. Club Bull., vol. 35, No. 5, 1908, pp. 249-260, pls. 11-16.

Describes two new species from the “Bladen” (Black Creek) formation of North Carolina, namely, Araucaria bladenensis and A. jeffreyi. States that the former “is preëminently the type fossil of the Bladen formation of North Carolina.” States that the beds in which those forms are found should probably be correlated with the Magothy formation of New Jersey.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—A Mid-Cretaceous Species of Torreya. Amer. Jour. Sci., 4th ser., vol. 25, 1908, pp. 382-386.

A new species of Torreya, Tumion carolinianum, from Cretaceous beds of Rockfish Creek near Hope Mills, Cumberland County, is described.

SLOAN, EARLE.—A Catalogue of the Mineral Localities of South Carolina. South Carolina Geological Survey, series 4, Bull. No. 2, 1908, 505 pp. and map under back cover.

The geology of the Coastal Plain region of the State is summarized, the extent and character of the various Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quarternary formations being indicated (pp. 434-485).

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Additions to the Pleistocene Flora of North Carolina. Torreya, vol. 9, No. 4, April, 1909, pp. 71-73, 2 figs.

Enumerates 5 species from near Weldon, N. C., not previously listed from the Pleistocene of the State, and figures two of them.

STEPHENSON, L. W.—Cretaceous Geology of the Carolinas and Georgia. Science, new series, vol. 30, 1909, pp. 124-125.

Summarizes briefly the stratigraphy of the Cretaceous deposits of North Carolina, indicating their approximate correlations with other Cretaceous deposits in the Coastal Plain to the north and to the south, and discussing briefly their possible correlations with Cretaceous deposits in the Western Interior.

BERRY, EDWARD W.—Contributions to the Mesozoic Flora of the Atlantic Coastal Plain. V. North Carolina. Torrey Botan. Club, Bull., vol. 37, 1910, pp. 181-200, pls. 19-24.

Describes 29 new species of fossil plants from the Black Creek formation of North Carolina.

CLARK, WM. B.—Results of a Recent Investigation of the Coastal Plain Formations in the Area between Massachusetts and North Carolina. Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., vol. 20, pp. 646-654, pl. 111. (Read December, 1909.)

Describes the Cretaceous formations of North Carolina and points out their relations to the Cretaceous deposits of the Northern Coastal Plain and of the Gulf. The question of their correlation is considered in much detail.

BY L. W. STEPHENSON.

The earliest account of strata now classed as Cretaceous, in the State of North Carolina, was furnished by William Bartram1 in 1791. In the course of his travels through the Southern States he came to Ashwood on Cape Fear River, situated 3 or 4 miles below Whitehall in Bladen County, the exact site of which is not at present known. A river bluff at this point attracted his attention, and in the published account of his travels he describes in considerable detail the materials therein exposed. On account of its historic interest the description is quoted (pp. 472-479), as follows:

This perpendicular bank of the river, by which the waters swiftly glide along, discovers at once the various strata of the earth of this low maritime country. For the most part, the upper stratum consists of a light, sandy, pale yellowish mould or loam, for 10 or 12 feet in depth * * *; this sandy mould or loam lays upon a deep bed of black or dark slate-colored saline and sulphureous earth, which is composed of horizontal thin flakes or laminæ, separable by means of very thin, almost imperceptible veins or strata of fine micaceous particles * * *; other places present to view strata of heterogeneous matter, lying between the upper loamy stratum and the bed of black saline earth, consisting of various kinds of seashells, some whole, others broken to pieces, and even pulverized, which fill up the cavities of the entire shells, and the interstices betwixt them; at other places we observe, two or three feet below the surface or virgin mould, a stratum of four, five, or six feet in depth, of brownish marl, on a bed of testaceous rocks; a petrification composed, apparently, of various kinds of seashells, belemnites, sand, etc., combined or united with a calcareous cement; * * *. And again we observe shells, marcacites, belemnites, dentes carchariæ, with pieces of wood transmuted, black and hard as sea coal, singly interspersed in the black vitriolic strata of earth; * * *.

The next account of materials falling under this class was given by Denison Olmsted2 in 1827. He describes a deposit of so-called copperas at Spring Bank, 7 miles below Waynesborough (Goldsboro of to-day) in Wayne County, as follows:

About 12 feet above the bed of the river the eye meets with a layer of greensand, embracing a black, charry substance, which, on examination, is found to be fossil wood, in the state of coarse coal. Here may be found by digging, the trunks, branches, and bark of trees, forming a kind of subterranean forest. In company with this stratum is found the copperas, more or less mixed with sand, from which it is easily separated by lixiviation, as ashes are lixiviated in making soap.

He states that these copperas deposits extend for more than 100 miles along the banks of the river.

In the same year Elisha Mitchell3 described briefly an occurrence of blue marl on Northeast Cape Fear River at South Washington. This was later referred by Hodge to the “Secondary formation,” and by Lyell to the Cretaceous of New Jersey.

In this same year also Lardner Vanuxem,4 through Prof. S. G. Morton, proposed a classification of the Atlantic Coastal Plain deposits, dividing them into three major divisions, namely, in ascending order, the Secondary, Tertiary, and Alluvial formations. The only locality in North Carolina mentioned as belonging to the “Secondary formation” was near Ashwood on Cape Fear River. Doubtless this is the exposure described by Bartram in 1791.

No further contributions were made to the knowledge of the Cretaceous in this State until 1841, when James T. Hodge,5 in the account of his travels in the Southern States, described briefly the marl locality at South Washington. He mentions the occurrence of Exogyra costata, Belemnitella, Plagiostoma palagicum, and Anomia ephippium, and on the evidence of these fossils correlates the rock with the “Secondary formation.”

The following year the same locality was visited by Charles Lyell. In several publications appearing between the years 1842 and 18456 he correlated the marl definitely with the New Jersey Cretaceous marl and with the Cretaceous of Europe. A new species of oyster, Ostrea subspatulata, obtained by Lyell at this locality, was described and figured by Edward Forbes7 in 1845.

The limestone and phosphate conglomerate in the vicinity of Wilmington, previously regarded by Hodge and others as an upper “Secondary” deposit or a deposit interposed between the Cretaceous and the Eocene, was referred by Lyell to the Eocene.

The deposits in South Carolina referable to the “Secondary formation” were described by Edmund Ruffin8 in 1843. The name Peedee is applied to a so-called marl bed outcropping on lower Great Peedee River from Jeffreys Creek southward. He describes, but does not name, a dark shale or clay which immediately underlies the Peedee bed. The Peedee is essentially the same terrane as that designated by Sloan, in 1907, the “Burches Ferry marl,” while the dark clay forms a part of the Black Creek shale of the same author.

In 1848, Prof. Michael Tuomey9 correlated the Cretaceous strata recognized in South Carolina, principally on lower Great Peedee River and its tributaries, with the Cretaceous beds outcropping on Cape Fear River in North Carolina.

The greensands exposed in the bluffs of Cape Fear River below Elizabethtown and at Wilmington were definitely correlated with the Cretaceous by Prof. Ebenezer Emmons10 in 1852. He mentions the occurrence of the characteristic Cretaceous fossils Exogyra costata and Belemnitella in the greensands. He treats at considerable length the subject of the value of the Cretaceous greensand marls as fertilizers.

The report of Professor Emmons11 on the “Agriculture of the Eastern Counties,” published in 1858, adds a few additional facts to those already known concerning the Cretaceous strata. Detailed descriptions are given of several of the bluffs on Cape Fear River below Elizabethtown. Sandbeds beneath Miocene shell marl, regarded as probably of Eocene age, are said to extend from Browns Landing, 24 miles below Elizabethtown, upstream nearly to Fayetteville. These beds are now referred to the Cretaceous. Cretaceous greensands are mentioned as present on Neuse River at Kinston. Light-gray sands occurring beneath shell marls [Miocene] at Tarboro on Tar River are correctly referred by him to the Cretaceous, but he regards them as interbedded in the greensand, and not belonging to a lower division of the Cretaceous, as is now known to be the case. The report contains descriptions and figures of a number of Cretaceous vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.

The first attempt to correlate the North Carolina Cretaceous with deposits in the Gulf region was made by T. A. Conrad in 1871. The following is quoted from a letter written by him from Greenville, N. C., to J. D. Dana, and published in the American Journal of Science:12

At Colonel Yellowby's marl pit, where digging is now in progress, I found the Miocene about 3 or 4 feet in thickness, resting on black Cretaceous sand with black gravel, and containing characteristic Ripley group fossils. It is here that a profusion of Belemnites is thrown up by the laborers, over the Miocene marl heap, and give rise to the opinion that they occur in the Miocene marl.

At Snow Hill, 22 miles from here in Greene County, the Ripley group is finely developed, containing closely packed specimens of the Ripley species in perfect preservation.

The most complete and comprehensive report on the geology of the State afforded by the literature even to the present time is that of Prof. W. C. Kerr,13 which appeared in 1875. The Cretaceous is described (pp. 147-149) as being visible only on the river bluffs of the southeastern portion of the State from the Neuse and its tributary, Contentnea Creek, southward. He elsewhere refers, however, to outcrops on Tar River (see p. 191) still farther to the northward. His description of the Cretaceous is quoted:

It is best exposed in the bluffs along the Cape Fear between Fayetteville and Wilmington. The rocks of this system (everywhere very slightly compacted) are, for 50 to 60 miles below Fayetteville, sandstones, clay slates and shales, 30 to 40 feet thick, in many places dark to black and very lignitic, with projecting trunks and limbs of trees, and at a few points full of marine shells. These beds Dr. Emmons regards as probably eocene. For 40 to 50 miles above Wilmington, and in all the other river sections, the rock is a uniform dark, greenish-gray, slightly argillaceous sandstone, massive, and showing scarcely any marks of bedding. This sandstone everywhere contains a small percentage of glauconite, and is in fact the representative of the true greensand * * *; but westward, higher up the Cape Fear, the beds lose entirely their glauconitic and calcareous character, and become more clayey and frequently black-lignitic with embedded trunks, limbs, and leaves of trees; and not unfrequently it is composed of sandy accumulations exhibiting much false bedding. These beds extend a hundred miles up the Cape Fear from Wilmington. It is probably the same lignitic member of this series which appears at low-water in the Neuse, at the railroad bridge near Goldsboro. The Cretaceous beds of North Carolina are not usually very rich in fossils, the greensand containing generally scattered specimens of belemnites, ostrea larva, exogyra costata, and an occasional anomia.

The following fossil localities are named: Kelleys Cove, Cape Fear River, 40 miles [46 miles] above Wilmington, in a stratum 2 to 4 feet thick; and Snow Hill, on Contentnea Creek, Lenoir County, where in a line of bluffs several hundred yards long and 20 to 40 feet high Cretaceous shells occur in a sandy marlite 10 to 12 feet thick at base, which he regards as representing a Ripley horizon.

In an appendix accompanying Professor Kerr's report T. A. Conrad describes 46 new species of Cretaceous mollusks, and states that they represent the Ripley of Mississippi. He includes a synopsis of the Cretaceous mollusca of North Carolina.

Six new species of mollusks from the Cretaceous of North Carolina were described by Gabb14 in 1876. Two of these were from Snow Hill, but the exact localities from which the remaining were obtained is not indicated.

In 1888, W J McGee15 described materials at Weldon, N. C., supposed by him to be a southward continuation of the Potomac group of Virginia, as follows:

The southernmost observed occurrence of the formation is at Weldon, N. C., where a bed of obscurely stratified arkose, interspersed with well-rounded quartzite pebbles, appears in the north bank of the Roanoke beneath the railway bridge. The deposit rests on an unequally eroded surface of gneiss, is not over a foot thick, and is unfossiliferous; but its composition and structure are characteristic, and there is little doubt as to its identity.

In Federal Survey reports appearing in 188916 and 189617 William H. Fontaine, who was engaged in a study of the plant remains in the Potomac group, accepted McGee's interpretation regarding the age of the materials at Weldon. Recent investigations have shown the probable absence of Potomac equivalents in this immediate vicinity.

The general stratigraphic conditions in the lower Cape Fear River region were described by Prof. W. B. Clark18 in 1890. He shows that the Cretaceous greensand marl occupies the base of the series of formations exposed.

The same year Fontaine19 announced the discovery of Potomac strata at Haywood, Chatham County, N. C., but later work has thrown doubt upon the correctness of this interpretation.

Dr. C. A. White's correlation paper on the Cretaceous formations of North America,20 which appeared in 1891, contains a brief review of the Cretaceous of North Carolina. He quotes Kerr's discussion regarding the marine division. Concerning the nonmarine division [Potomac], he says:

It is not probable that any extensive exposures of the nonmarine division of the Cretaceous exist in North Carolina, and those now known are few and

unimportant, except that they demonstrate its existence there and afford presumptive evidence that the formation is, or originally was, continuous throughout the whole length of the Atlantic border region.

A vertical section from Haywood to New Bern, constructed from data derived from Kerr's report of 1875, is given.

An important contribution to the literature of the Carolina Cretaceous was made by J. A. Holmes21 in 1893. The following general statements are made concerning the Cretaceous deposits along a portion of the inland margin of the Coastal Plain region:

That part of this region which lies between the Neuse and Savannah rivers has been examined more particularly, and in this region the following sections will indicate fairly well the geologic structure:

(a) A series of cross-bedded, medium to coarse arkose sands lying on the irregularly eroded surface of the crystalline rocks. These beds, which are classed provisionally as Cretaceous, contain in the upper layers in places lenses of clay and occasional thin beds and seams of lignitic material. They have been deeply eroded, their present surface rising nearly to the tops of the highest hills and sinking to the level of the deeper valleys.

The thickness of these sands is said to be several hundred feet. They are overlain by remnants of Eocene deposits, by loams and ferruginous sands of the Lafayette formation, also partly eroded away, and a surface mantle of sands and loams classed as Columbia. In this paper the author does not attempt to differentiate these sands as between Lower and Upper Cretaceous, but in a later publication (1896)22 he correlates them, as well as other Cretaceous deposits in the State, with the Potomac (Lower Cretaceous) of Virginia, as indicated in the following quotation:

In the Potomac (Lower Cretaceous) formation there are extensive beds of laminated, dark-colored clays, exposed along the banks of rivers crossing the Coastal Plain region, notably on the Cape Fear River, for 50 miles below Fayetteville. These clays are usually dark in color, owing to the vegetable matters which they contain; and, in some cases, they are highly lignitic. The thin laminæ of clay are frequently separated by still thinner partings of sand; and frequently within a short distance (from a few feet to a few hundred feet) the clay laminæ become thin and disappear, while the sand partings gradually thicken, so that the whole assumes the character of a sand-bed instead of a clay-bed. * * *

Along the western border of the Coastal Plain region, especially in Moore and Harnett counties, there are limited exposures of siliceous Eocene deposits (overlying the Potomac series, and capping some of the sandhills). * * *

Heinrich Ries23 in 1897 followed Holmes in referring the deposits along Cape Fear River 10 to 60 miles below Fayetteville to the Potomac group. Clays in the railroad cuts at Spout Springs, which should have been referred to the Potomac, were regarded by him as Eocene.

The first data throwing light on the character of the deeper Coastal Plain deposits near the coast was furnished by Holmes24 in 1900. He describes the section of a deep well drilled at Wilmington, N. C., in which were penetrated 1,109 feet of Upper Cretaceous strata, at the base of which granite was encountered. Dr. T. W. Stanton, to whom the fossils obtained were submitted, referred the upper 720 feet of strata to the Ripley and the remainder down to the granite to the Eutaw. The section is especially interesting as showing the absence of beds representing the Lower Cretaceous, between the Upper Cretaceous and the basal granite.

The Cape Fear River section was discussed by Lester F. Ward25 in 1905. He describes the river bluffs at Fayetteville and refers them to the older Potomac of Virginia, stating that the beds of arkose probably represent the “Rappahannock freestone,” and the interstratified clays probably correspond to the clay lenses in the “James River deposits.” The older Potomac beds are said to be transgressed by marine deposits which occupy the top of the bluffs nearly the whole distance. The latter statement is not upheld by the facts as shown by the recent studies of the region. Higher beds farther down the river, on the evidence of imperfect dicotyledonous leaves, are referred to the newer Potomac. Of the Cape Fear section as a whole he says: “The section seems to be complete from the older Potomac through the Marine Cretaceous, and the later Tertiary overlies this last.” He regards the arkosic deposit at Haywood as Potomac. The upper beds along the railroad between Sanford and Fayetteville are referred to the Tuscaloosa, apparently upon lithologic grounds. The exposures in the bed of Little River where the railroad crosses that stream are correctly regarded as older Potomac. The supposed Potomac at Weldon is regarded as still problematical.

A résumé of the results of field studies carried on in North Carolina by L. W. Stephenson during the years 1905 and 1906 appeared in 1907.26

Three divisions are recognized in the Mesozoic deposits of the Coastal Plain, and their character, geographic distribution, etc., are described.

The oldest, for which he proposes the name “Cape Fear” formation, is correlated approximately with the Patuxent formation of Virginia. For the next younger division, which is correlated provisionally with the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama, the name “Bladen” formation is proposed. The youngest division is correlated with the Ripley of the Gulf region, and the name “Ripley” formation is employed to designate it. The names “Cape Fear,” “Bladen,” and “Ripley” correspond respectively to the names Patuxent, Black Creek, and Peedee as used in the present report.

During the same year two important contributions were made by E. W. Berry, relating to collections of fossil plants made by himself and Stephenson from the “Bladen” formation during the two preceding years. Lists are given, a number of new species are described and figured, and the significance of the flora is discussed. In the first of these papers27 he discusses the age of the plant-bearing beds as follows:

Because of their geographical position these beds should be provisionally correlated with the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama; with this reservation, however, that the Tuscaloosa flora, as far as it is known, coincides with that of the Raritan. Lithologically these North Carolina beds are much more like the Magothy of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland than they are like the Raritan, and it seems probable that when the problem has been worked out for the whole Coastal Plain it will be found that the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama as a whole includes sediments of older Potomac, Raritan, and Magothy age, while what is here called the Tuscaloosa formation in North Carolina, already differentiated from the older Potomac, includes phases corresponding to both the Raritan and Magothy formations of the more northern portions of the Coastal Plain and to the upper Tuscaloosa and Eutaw formations of the Gulf region.

In the second,28 discussing the broader significance of the “Bladen” flora, he says:

The remarkable flora, of a comparative modern aspect which seems to have evolved in the Arctic region, and which migrated southward over eastern North America during the Mid-Cretaceous, has been discovered at a large number of localities during the last decade. Originally described by Oswald Heer from the west coast of Greenland, it is now known from Massachusetts, the southern New England islands from Martha's Vineyard to Brooklyn, from Staten Island, and from the Raritan and Magothy formations of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. From Maryland southward there has been a long break in the record, no plants having been known from the Potomac to the Chattahoochee, or a distance of about 800 miles. It is the purpose of the following brief note to partially bridge over this intervening area and record this Mid-Cretaceous flora from both North and South Carolina.

In the same paper, discussing the distribution of fifteen well-known forms, most of which come from Court House Landing, Cape Fear River, he says: “Of these, seven were originally described from Greenland, seven from the Dakota group of the West, and seven from the Raritan formation of New Jersey. Four species have a European distribution, * * *.” The European species all occur in the Cenomanian, and one of these also ranges up into the Senonian.

In 1907, Earle Sloan29 introduced the name “Burches Ferry marls,” using it for essentially the same terrane as that to which Ruffin had in 1843 applied the name Peedee.

Three new “Bladen” forms were described by Berry in 1908. Two of these belong to the genus Araucaria,30 namely, Araucaria bladenensis and Araucaria jeffreyi. Of the former he says:

It is preëminently the type fossil of the Bladen formation of North Carolina, single leaves or even fragments being quite characteristic and easy of recognition.

Concerning the correlation of the beds in which these remains were collected, he says:

The New Jersey material comes from beds of the Magothy formation, very probably of Cenomanian age. The Carolina forms are from beds which differ in age but slightly, if at all, from those of New Jersey, although they may be somewhat older, possibly synchronous with the Raritan formation of New Jersey and the Tuscaloosa formation of Alabama, the question of exact correlation being under active investigation at the present time.

The third31 is a species of Torreya, namely, Tumion carolinianum.

An abstract of a paper read before the Geological Society of Washington by L. W. Stephenson appeared in 1909.32 The Cretaceous is divided into three formations; the oldest, the “Cape Fear” formation, is referred to the Lower Cretaceous; the “Bladen” formation which overlies the “Cape Fear” formation unconformably, and the third or upper division formerly designated the “Ripley” formation by the same author, which overlies the “Bladen” formation conformably, are referred to the Upper Cretaceous. On account of uncertainty which has arisen regarding the exact meaning of the term Ripley as employed in the Gulf region, the author suggests that the name “Burches Ferry”

formation, applied by Sloan to the southward continuation of the same terrane, might appropriately be substituted for that of Ripley. Brief statements are made regarding the probable correlations of these divisions with Cretaceous deposits in other regions. The names “Cape Fear,” “Bladen,” and “Ripley” correspond respectively to the names Patuxent, Black Creek, and Peedee, of the present report.

In 1910, E. W. Berry33 described 29 new species of fossil plants from the Black Creek formation of North Carolina.

Prof. W. B. Clark presented a paper34 in 1909 before the Geological Society of America on the results of the work by himself and associates in the Coastal Plain region between Massachusetts and South Carolina, in which he discusses the Cretaceous formations of North Carolina and points out their relations to the Cretaceous deposits of the Northern Coastal Plain and of the Gulf. The question of their correlation is considered in much detail.

Previous to the investigations furnishing the data for the present report, there had been little attempt on the part of geologists working in the region to differentiate the Cretaceous deposits of North Carolina into formations. It was recognized by Professors Holmes and Ward that the basal Cretaceous beds were the probable equivalent of the Potomac, but neither were clear in their definition of the upper stratigraphic limits of these Lower Cretaceous representatives; and, in fact, Holmes included in this division certain of the beds on Cape Fear River now known to belong unquestionably to the Upper Cretaceous.

The recent investigations in the North Carolina Coastal Plain have led to the recognition of three Cretaceous divisions designated in the ascending order: the Patuxent (“Cape Fear”) formation of Lower Cretaceous age, and the Black Creek (“Bladen”) and Peedee (“Burches Ferry”) formations of Upper Cretaceous age.

As will be seen by referring to the geologic map (Plate XVII, in pocket), these three formations have their widest areal development in the southern part of the Coastal Plain portion of the State. To the northward the area of outcrop narrows, being transgressed more and more by younger, Tertiary strata until at the Virginia line the Cretaceous strata are entirely overlapped and concealed. The best continuous series of Cretaceous exposures is furnished by the bluffs of Cape Fear River and its tributaries, the strata appearing at intervals all the way

from the fall line to Wilmington, a distance of over 100 miles. The Cape Fear region furnishes not only the widest area of Cretaceous strata in this State, but also the widest area at right angles to the fall line in the Coastal Plain region east of the Mississippi River.

Plate XXX, p. 342, is a section constructed across the Coastal Plain, at right angles to the general strike of the strata from Cameron to Wrightsville, which shows the stratigraphic relations of the three recognized Cretaceous formations.

Name.—The name, Patuxent formation, was proposed by Prof. Wm. Bullock Clark in 189735 to designate the basal formation of the Potomac group in Maryland. The name is derived from Patuxent River, Maryland. The formation as defined consists of arkosic sands with subordinate amounts of sandy clay, having an estimated thickness of 150 feet. The division was described in detail in later publications by Clark and Bibbins.36

The terrane in North Carolina, under consideration, was first differentiated by the writer37 in 1907, and the name “Cape Fear” formation was used to designate it. The division was then regarded as the probable equivalent of the Patuxent formation of Maryland. Although there is no paleontologic evidence to support the correlation, the investigations carried on in the region since the publication of the above paper have led to the conviction, based upon physical criteria, that the “Cape Fear” formation is in fact the southward extension of the Patuxent formation, but with its surface connection with that formation interrupted in the region of southern Virginia and northern North Carolina by overlapping Tertiary strata, as is the case at various points farther north in Virginia and Maryland.

Definition.—The Patuxent formation outcrops in a belt beginning at Roanoke River, where the river forms the boundary between the eastern halves of Northampton and Halifax counties, and passing thence to the southwest through the following counties: Edgecombe, northern Pitt, Wilson south of the town of Wilson, northern Greene, the northern half of Wayne, Johnston south of Smithfield, northern Sampson, southern Harnett, almost all of Cumberland, southern Moore, northern Robeson, probably all of Scotland, and southern Richmond to the South Carolina line. Beyond this line it passes into South Carolina through

Marlboro County and from thence, by way of Camden, Columbia, and Hamburg, into Georgia in the vicinity of Augusta. (See geologic map, Plate XVII, in pocket.)

The formation where present forms the basal division of the deposits of the Coastal Plain and rests directly upon the eroded surface of the basement rocks. The latter consist for the most part of early Paleozoic or Proterozoic igneous and metamorphic rocks, but also to a limited extent of sedimentary deposits of Triassic age (Newark). The upper surface of the basement rocks where they are overlain by the deposits of the Coastal Plain is very uneven. This is true not only with respect to minor details, but likewise as regards certain larger features. This unevenness is indicated, first, by the eastward extension at the surface of long tongues of the older rocks; second, by the outcrop of isolated patches of these rocks at considerable distances to the east of the Piedmont border; and, finally, by the depths at which they have been encountered in wells at various places.

The formation is overlain unconformably by the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation, or, where that is absent, by overlapping strata of the Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, or Pleistocene periods. The beds of the Black Creek formation form the immediate superjacent covering along the southeastern edge of the belt of Patuxent occurrences. The observed width of overlaps of these beds above water level varies from a few miles to a maximum of at least 12 miles, the greatest width being in the valley of Cape Fear River in southeastern Cumberland County. The undulating Patuxent-Black Creek contact has been observed at various places on Cape Fear, Neuse, Contentnea, and Tar rivers.

The relations of the Patuxent formation to Tertiary and younger beds will be discussed in the order of age, beginning with the oldest. But one area of Eocene is known within the belt. This is in Harnett County, about 3 miles northeast of Spout Springs, where a bed of siliceous limestone, probably of very limited extent, is poorly exposed near the top of a hill. Its vertical position is perhaps about 300 feet above sea-level. It is believed to rest upon the Patuxent formation and is probably overlain by a surface covering of the Lafayette formation. From the southwestern edge of Wilson County northeastward to Roanoke River the Patuxent formation is perhaps continuously overlain by overlapping beds of Miocene age, except where the latter have been removed by stream erosion and by Pleistocene terracing processes along the valleys. From Neuse River to Roanoke River the observed Patuxent exposures are all low, nowhere exceeding 15 feet above water level of the streams. It is probable that from Wilson County northeastward

the thickness of the overlapping Miocene everywhere exceeds the thickness of that portion of the Patuxent beds appearing above water level. In this region the Miocene beds transgress westward entirely across and several miles beyond the Patuxent belt, resting directly upon the surface of the basement rocks.

The next younger division having a contact relationship with the Patuxent formation is the Lafayette formation. This relationship exists, so far as known, only in the sandhill country of the southwestern portion of the Coastal Plain province. The term sandhills has been applied to a series of rolling hills covering portions of Richmond, Scotland, Moore, Cumberland, and Harnett counties, whose elevations vary from a little over 200 feet to perhaps 500 feet. In this region the comparatively thin and more or less discontinuous Lafayette covering rests unconformably upon an eroded Patuxent surface whose broader topographic features seem to correspond closely to the present surface topography.

To the east of the sandhills and throughout the entire remaining extent of the belt of Patuxent outcrop not covered by Miocene or Lafayette strata, the Patuxent beds are concealed by surficial Pleistocene terrace coverings. Indeed, were it not for occasional stream cuttings, gullies, or artificial excavations, the older beds would be everywhere effectually concealed.

The strata of the Patuxent formation consist of sands and clays and various intergradations of arenaceous clays and argillaceous sands. The sands are fine to very coarse in texture, the individual grains being, as a rule, angular. They are in most places arkosic, and locally contain a large percentage of pure white kaolin grains. Muscovite mica is a common constituent and in places is present in large amounts. One specimen from near the base of the section at Fayetteville resembles a decomposed mica schist, the mica flakes being arranged in a general way parallel with the bedding planes and having diameters ranging up to ⅛ inch. In this same specimen biotite mica is present in considerable amount, the individual flakes being smaller than those of muscovite. The sands are light gray to gray and greenish-gray in color, but locally are stained various shades of red, yellow, and brown by the hydrous oxides of iron.

The clays are everywhere more or less arenaceous, and fine mica flakes are generally present in greater or lesser amount. The colors range through dark drab, drab, greenish-drab, gray, and greenish-gray, or the materials may be mottled or more or less uniformly colored with purplish and reddish tints.

In most of the river exposures in North Carolina both the sands and

clays are, as a rule, very compact, but nearer the Piedmont border the sands are more commonly of a loose texture. In some instances the arkosic sands are slightly indurated, forming a soft friable sandstone rock.

Iron sulphide, probably in the form of marcasite, was observed in a clay bed in the section at milepost 105 on the Neuse River and also in clay beds at some of the exposures on Roanoke River.

A small amount of lignite was observed at one or two places on Contentnea Creek, on Tar River in the vicinity of Tarboro and on Roanoke River in the section above the State Farm.

In the better sections in which the formation is revealed, especially in the bluffs of Cape Fear River, the clay and sand are observed to form alternate strata from 2 to 10 feet or more in thickness, giving to the section a banded appearance, which is further emphasized by the difference in color, the clay being darker than the sand. In most places the sand layers show more or less cross-bedding, this feature being more strikingly developed, however, in exposures closely adjacent to the Piedmont border.

At but few places have the Patuxent strata been observed in actual contact with the basement rocks. Where seen, however, as might be predicted, pebbles and cobbles occur, and it may be presumed that practically everywhere along this contact a basal conglomerate of gravels is present.

The general strike of the beds, as may be inferred from the areal distribution of the belt of outcrop, is northeast-southwest.

The Cape Fear River bluffs furnish the only exposures of sufficient extent to permit of the determination of the approximate dip of the beds. No exact measurements were made, but from the fact that certain of the clay and sand layers can be traced for several miles, especially in the southern part of Cumberland County, approximately at right angles to the strike, with scarcely any appreciable change in the level, it is apparent that the dip in this region, at least, is very slight, being but little more than the grade of the stream itself. The disappearance of the formation beneath the overlying terrane appears to be due in part to an increase in the general slope of its upper unconformable surface, as well as to the dip of the beds themselves.

The thickness of the Patuxent formation from its upper surface to the underlying bedrock has been determined from well data at a number of places along the belt of outcrop. A well drilled by the Fayetteville Ice and Manufacturing Company, located at their plant on the Wicomico terrace on which the business part of Fayetteville stands,

with the exception of a few feet of Pleistocene materials at the top, penetrated this formation to a depth of 220 feet, at which depth ancient basement slate was encountered. An escarpment separating the Wicomico terrace from the Coharie terrace, whose elevation is about 100 feet greater than the Wicomico, runs north and south along the west border of the town. Poor exposures of Patuxent strata occur in this escarpment to a height of about 35 feet above the Wicomico terrace and are overlain by supposed Black Creek strata. The thickness in the vicinity of Fayetteville, therefore, amounts to about 255 feet. At Goldsboro, according to a section published by Darton,36 about 175 feet of materials which should be referred to the Patuxent formation were passed through from 50 feet below the surface to the surface of the basement rocks underlying the Coastal Plain at 226 feet. At Tarboro in a well drilled under the auspices of the city government, basement rock was struck at a depth of 328 feet. The lower 228 feet of Coastal Plain materials is interpreted as referable to the Patuxent formation. In a deep well at Scotland Neck, Halifax County, basement rock was encountered at 349 feet below the surface, and it is believed that about 275 feet of Patuxent beds were penetrated. It thus appears that along the southeastern border of the belt of outcrop throughout its northeast-southwest extent the thickness is comparable to that at Fayetteville. In the coastward direction down the dip the formation may thicken somewhat for a short distance, but as the coast is approached it is believed to become thinner and finally to pinch entirely out between the underlying basement rocks and the overlying Upper Cretaceous beds.

The only data throwing light upon the presence or absence of the formation far out under the younger deposits of the Coastal Plain are furnished by two deep borings. One of these, located at Wilmington, reached a basal granite at a depth of 1,109 feet. Only Upper Cretaceous beds were penetrated, indicating that land, either an island or peninsula, existed in the Wilmington region during early Cretaceous time, and that either no Lower Cretaceous beds were deposited or, if such deposition took place, that the resulting beds were removed by erosion before the beginning of Upper Cretaceous deposition. The other well, located at Fort Caswell, at the mouth of Cape Fear River estuary, reached basement rock at a depth of 1,540 feet. There is some doubt as to the age of some of the lower beds penetrated, but there seem to be no certain grounds for regarding any portion of the section as representing Lower Cretaceous deposits.

No fossil remains have been found in the deposits of the Patuxent formation in North Carolina except small amounts of lignite in some of the exposures on Contentnea Creek, and on Tar and Roanoke rivers.

Detailed Sections.—The strata of this formation are best exposed in the bluffs of the streams which cross the belt, at all places where present, forming the base of the deposits of the Coastal Plain and rising to various heights above the level of the water to a maximum of 50 or 60 feet. A few good interstream localities have been observed.

The most complete series of exposures are those appearing along Cape Fear River from a point about 1½ miles above the mouth of Little River in Harnett County, to Devanes Ferry, 17 miles below Fayetteville in Cumberland County. The sections in nearly all cases show at least 15 or 20 feet of Patuxent strata, and at a number of the bluffs the beds are revealed to heights of 50 feet or more above low-water level. For the greater part of this distance the overlying beds consist of Pleistocene terrace materials. Towards the southern limit of the line of exposures, however, between mileposts 100 and 101, the feather edge of the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation begins to appear, resting in basin-like depressions on the eroded surface of the Patuxent beds and overlain by the usual terrace deposits. In the next 3 miles the unconformable relations of the Patuxent and Black Creek beds are clearly exhibited in several sections. The former appears for the last time at Devanes Ferry, near milepost 98, where it finally passes from view beneath the latter. (For sketch map of Cape Fear River, see Plate I.)

The more important sections presented by the bluffs of this stream will be described in detail on the following pages. The fall line, that is, the foot of the last rapids formed by the basement rocks, is at a point about 2½ miles above the mouth of Little River in Harnett County. The first section observed in descending the river is at a point about 1 mile below the fall line and about 1½ miles above the mouth of Little River. It is as follows:

SECTION ON LEFT BANK OF CAPE FEAR RIVER 1½ MILES ABOVE THE MOUTH OF LITTLE RIVER. Pleistocene: FEET. Surface loam 8 Light yellow, argillaceous sand 8-10 Gravel lens about 3 feet thick at middle of exposed portion of bluff, and thinning out towards each end in a distance of about 200 feet 0-3 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): FEET. Drab, iron-stained, sandy clay, grading down into coarse, gray, gravelly, arkosic sand, containing some mica 8 Hard, drab, iron-stained (yellow and red) sandy clay, becoming more sandy towards base and grading into next layer below 3-5 Greenish gray, arkosic, micaceous sand (very micaceous in places, especially towards base) 10 Dark greenish drab clay 4 Very hard, coarse, iron-stained, argillaceous sand 10 Yellowish drab clay, becoming sandy at top, mottled in places with dark-red iron stain 6 Concealed to water's edge by landslide 28-30

From this point to and beyond Fayetteville the present flood plain of the river is very narrow and in places almost absent. The steep banks formed by the partially indurated materials of the Patuxent formation, for the most part covered with vegetation, rise on either side to heights of 40 to 60 feet. The narrow flood plain, in most places not more than a few feet to a few rods in width, is present, as a rule, on one side of the channel only. At a few places the floods which have swept through the gorge have torn away the vegetation covering the steep slopes, revealing the outcropping Patuxent beds.

The next good exposure is at the mouth of Little River. The upper part of the bluff is terrace material continuous with that forming the terrace on which Fayetteville is built. The details of the section are as follows:

SECTION AT MOUTH OF LITTLE RIVER, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Reddish loam, grading down into hard, reddish sandy clay 6 Concealed by talus 10 Gravel band not well exposed, with large pebbles and cobbles and some large erratic bowlders 2 or more feet in diameter 2-3 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Yellow and drab, stratified, arkosic sand 2 Light drab, sandy clay, more sandy in the middle portion, mottled with dark-red and purple iron stain 5 Arkosic and micaceous sand, light gray to greenish gray, and more or less mottled with red and yellow, becoming very micaceous towards base 18 Greenish drab, sandy clay, mottled with dark red 4 Hard, greenish drab, arkosic and micaceous sand, becoming coarser at base, to water's edge 3

Near Wade, Cumberland County, a section is exposed on the left bank, as follows:

SECTION NEAR WADE, NORTH CAROLINA. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellowish and gray sands with a thin gravel bed at base, containing in addition to rounded and angular quartz pebbles, erratic bowlders of igneous and metamorphic rocks of all sizes up to several feet in diameter 6 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Coarse, light-gray sand, slightly darker at the top, mottled with yellow, slightly stratified, and containing layers more or less argillaceous 6 Greenish-gray, crumbly or grainy clay, darker in top layer, and mottled throughout with dark-red streaks 8.5 Fine micaceous, greenish-gray clay 2-5 Dark gray, micaceous, arkosic sand, mottled with rusty streaks and slightly indurated 3.5 Greenish-gray, micaceous sand, mottled with red and yellow and softer and lighter in color than preceding 5.5 Greenish-gray, micaceous, arkosic sand, coarse to fine, indurated to a soft sandstone, making a steep cliff. It is somewhat mottled with reds and yellows 16 Yellowish-green, micaceous sand, fine in upper part, becoming coarse and strongly mottled with reds and yellows in lower half 5 Greenish-gray, very micaceous, slightly arkosic sand to water's edge 3

In its lithologic character this section is essentially the same as the two preceding.

At Fayetteville a fairly good exposure occurs between the wagon bridge and the C. F. and Y. V. Railway bridge. As this is essentially the same as a better section occurring ¾ mile below at the Wilmington and Fayetteville steamboat wharf, the latter will be given in detail.

SECTION AT WILMINGTON AND FAYETTEVILLE STEAMBOAT WHARF, FAYETTEVILLE, N. C. Pleistocene: FEET. Sand and loam with gravel band at base containing erratic bowlders of quartz and crystalline rocks 10 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Coarse gray, compact, argillaceous and arkosic sand with some mica and many small pebbles as large as peas. A yellowish band of iron crust, 1 to 2 inches thick, occurs along the base 6 Hard, bluish-gray, coarsely arenaceous, micaceous, arkosic clay grading down into next layer below 2 Fine, yellowish, micaceous, somewhat arkosic iron-stained sand, with an iron crust layer ½ inch thick at base 5 Dark band of arenaceous clay, mottled with purple iron stain 2

Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): FEET. Hard, light-gray, coarse-grained, arkosic micaceous sand 6 Band of hard, dark gray, arenaceous, somewhat micaceous, arkosic clay, mottled with purple iron stain 3-5 Hard, gray, coarse, very arkosic micaceous sand, in places becoming coarser and containing many small quartz pebbles as large as peas 6-8 Drab to yellowish and red mottled clay, making a dark band along the cliff, becoming micaceous and sandy towards base 4-5 Hard, coarse, arkosic sand, somewhat micaceous 3 Dark, bluish-gray, argillaceous, very micaceous sand not well exposed, to water's edge 3

The distance by the river from Wilmington to Fayetteville is 115 miles. The mile intervals are indicated by numbers painted on boards and nailed to trees growing near the banks. The numbering begins at the former place and proceeds upstream to the latter.

For the first 4 or 5 miles below Fayetteville the river has a nearly straight course and the exposures are few and unimportant. At about milepost 110 the river makes a broad bend from its south-southeast course around to the east, south and southwest, coming back in line with its former course at about milepost 100. For a number of miles along the right bank of the northern limb of this bend and along the left bank after it turns to the south and southwest, the Patuxent beds are remarkably well exposed in bluffs ranging from 25 to 50 feet in height. The materials consist of layers of compact, partially indurated clays and arkosic and micaceous sands, from a few feet to 10 or 12 feet in thickness, making broad light and darker bands along the faces of the bluffs, the sections being similar in all essential respects to those farther up the river previously described. The beds are almost horizontal, it being possible to trace the bands along the bluffs for a number of miles without detecting any appreciable dip.

One of the striking features to be observed along the face of these bluffs is the effect produced by the water of the brooks and springs which enter the river through little overhanging valleys, on the sands and clays of the Patuxent formation over which it descends. It seems that these materials, kept constantly moistened, are rendered more resistant to the eroding effects of the high waters of the main stream than the adjacent materials of the same layers which are subjected to repeated wetting and drying so that the latter are cut away more rapidly, leaving the former standing out as rounded projections 4 or 5 feet in thickness at right angles to the face of the bluff, and from 10 to 25 feet or more in height. See Plate II, B.

The upper 10 to 15 feet in all these bluffs is made up of Pleistocene

sands and clays, in most places a gravel band containing erratic bowlders of quartz or crystalline rock being present at the base, the materials representing a continuation downstream of the terrace materials exposed at and above Fayetteville.

Between mileposts 100 and 101 beds of the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation begin to appear in the bluffs, occupying shallow basins in the eroded surface of the Patuxent beds and covered over by horizontal Pleistocene deposits. The relations of the different materials are roughly shown in Fig. 1.

The Patuxent materials represented in the section are of the usual character. In striking contrast to them are the materials occupying the basins, which consist of dark laminated sands and clays, in places containing considerable lignite, whose general aspect is the same as that of the materials of similar character which make up the bluffs farther down the river. They constitute the feather edge of the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation which overlies unconformably the Patuxent formation. This interpretation is confirmed by an observation made near Church Landing, right bank, about milepost 100. See Fig. 2.

Here there is a marked unconformity between the Patuxent formation, consisting of the usual compact, partially indurated, drab, sandy clays and light-gray, arkosic and micaceous sands, and the overlying laminated sands and clays of the Black Creek formation.

That the unconformable relations existing between the Patuxent and Black Creek formations are very marked is further proven by observations made at Hairs Wood Landing, ¼ mile below milepost 99. In a section extending for several hundred yards along the left bank the only materials seen are those belonging to the Patuxent formation and to the Pleistocene, the former consisting of the usual compact sands and clays rising some 20 or 25 feet above low-water level, and the latter consisting of characteristic sands and clays with a thin gravel band at base. The laminated materials of the Black Creek formation are entirely absent. At Devanes Ferry, however, just above milepost 98, left bank, the Black Creek beds are again seen resting unconformably upon the Patuxent beds. This is the last section in which the beds of this formation appear.

In Johnston County exposures of typical Patuxent strata occur in cuts of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad in the vicinity of the village of Four Oaks. In one of these 4½ miles southwest of the depot sands and clays, with a line of quartz and schist fragments along the base, belonging to the Patuxent formation, were observed in contact with deeply decayed crystalline schists. This is one of the few places where the contact of the formation with the underlying basement rocks has been observed.

In a cut 5 miles southwest of Four Oaks the unconformable relation of the Patuxent, of the Lower Cretaceous, to the overlying Pleistocene is well exhibited. A similar exposure occurs in a cut 2¾ miles northeast of Four Oaks, as represented in the section (Fig. 3) on page 94.

Occasional exposures occur in Johnston County in the hills for several miles to the south and southeast of Four Oaks, and one good outcrop occurs about 2½ miles northwest of Four Oaks in the road leading from Black Creek up to Clements Church.

On Neuse River various exposures of the Patuxent formation occur from 1 mile above Cox's Bridge in Johnston County to the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad bridge southwest of Goldsboro in Wayne County. These occurrences are all low, the beds not rising more than 8 or 10 feet above extreme low water. Throughout this distance the Patuxent strata are overlain unconformably by overlapping beds of the Black Creek formation, except where the latter have been removed

by Pleistocene terracing processes. The Patuxent-Black Creek contact undulates a few feet above and below water level. (For sketch map of Neuse River, see Fig. 4, p. 96.)

From Smithfield to Blackman's Bluff the river is bordered by low Pleistocene terraces, and as the observations were made at a time when the water was 8 or 10 feet higher than its normal stage, none but Pleistocene materials were seen for this distance. Had the water been low it is probable that Cretaceous beds would have been revealed at the base of some of the sections.

At Blackman's Bluff 117½ miles above New Bern only Black Creek beds were exposed, but it is possible a low-water stage would have revealed Patuxent beds at the base.

All the remaining Neuse River sections described below were prepared from observations made at medium to low water stages.

At 115¾ miles above New Bern and 1 mile above Cox's Bridge, the following section occurs:

SECTION 1 MILE ABOVE COX'S BRIDGE, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellowish clay, becoming sandy towards base, containing occasional pebbles and small bowlders of quartz and crystalline rock, especially near the base, and also a few rather large pieces of silicified wood 10 Gravel band ½ (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Dark gray, very compact, micaceous, arkosic sand 2

Coors Mill Branch enters from the left bank a short distance above milepost 111 and just above Quaker Bridge. Coors mill is located about ½ mile up this branch, just where it leaves the higher land to cross the river flood plain. The foundation of the mill is built upon a crystalline phyllite rock which was observed rising to a height of 10 feet above the bed of the stream, and, as indicated by the occurrence of large angular quartz fragments, a short distance away on a higher terrace level at a height of 30 or 40 feet above the stream bed, the basement rocks probably penetrate upward entirely through the deposits of the Coastal Plain at this place. This is interesting as showing the great unevenness of the buried Piedmont surface in this region.

At Tollers Bridge, milepost 106, there was exposed at low water about 3 feet of light-drab, finely arenaceous and micaceous clay, of the

Patuxent formation, overlain by 10 feet of Pleistocene sand, with a band of gravel containing crystalline bowlders at base.

At milepost 105, the river cuts into the upland and an interesting section is revealed which shows the contact of the Patuxent and Black Creek formations. The relations of the formations exposed are shown graphically in Fig. 5.

SECTION AT MILEPOST 105, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. 1. Coarse sand with gravel at base 10-15 (Unconformity.) Tertiary: 2. Light-gray, micaceous sand, interstratified with thin layers of light-drab plastic clay and layers of clay pellets of the same nature, the sand in places indurated to an iron stone 6 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous: Black Creek formation: 3. Dark drab, thinly laminated sandy clay with partings of fine micaceous sand, containing some small pieces of lignite. These materials are replaced in part a short distance away at the same level by a large lens of yellowish, stratified sand 7 or 8 feet in maximum thickness 10 (Unconformity.)

Patuxent formation: FEET. 4. Greenish gray, compact, arkosic, sandy clay, with irregular lenses of light-drab clay. The dark clay is filled with small dark particles which under the microscope appear to be partially decomposed marcassite 5 5. Coarse, gray, compact arkosic, somewhat argillaceous sand 8

Between the preceding locality and the county bridge none but Black Creek or supposed Black Creek beds are exposed in the river banks, the Patuxent-Black Creek contact being below water level.

At the county bridge, however, 2 miles southwest of Goldsboro and 94¾ miles above New Bern, right bank, the Patuxent beds again appear unconformably overlain by beds of the Black Creek formation, as shown in the following graphic section, Fig. 6. (See, also, Plate III, B.)

The last appearance of the Patuxent formation above water level is at the A. C. L. R. R. bridge ¾ mile below the preceding, where the following section is exposed:

SECTION AT A. C. L. R. R. BRIDGE A SHORT DISTANCE ABOVE MILEPOST 94, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow clay loam 3 Yellow sand, becoming coarser towards base 7 Gravel band with pebbles and cobbles of all sizes up to 4 or 5 inches in diameter, and many pieces of silicified wood 1 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous: Black Creek formation: Laminated, cross-bedded, dark clay and gray micaceous sand, containing lignite and iron sulphide concretions 5 (Unconformity.) Patuxent formation: Compact drab clay 3

On Contentnea Creek there are occurrences of Patuxent strata from 1 mile above Woodard Bridge 8 miles south-southeast of Wilson, to within 1 mile of Contentnea in Greene County. These exposures are mostly low, at but few places rising more than 5 or 6 feet above the water, the maximum height being about 15 feet. Between the first exposure at the locality indicated and a point 2 miles below Speights Bridge the beds overlying the Patuxent formation are of Miocene age, except where the latter have been removed by Pleistocene terracing processes. The low terrace sections reveal either Pleistocene deposits overlying Patuxent beds or Pleistocene beds only. From the locality 2 miles below Speights Bridge to the last exposure of the Patuxent formation near Contentnea the sections are all cut in the lowest Pleistocene terrace, and reveal at their base either Patuxent beds alone, or Patuxent beds overlain unconformably by Black Creek beds, or Black Creek beds only. The undulating contact rises and falls above and below the water level in such a manner as to reveal one or the other or both of the formations, the Patuxent, however, finally passing beneath the overlapping Black Creek beds about 1 mile above Contentnea. (For sketch map of Contentnea Creek, see Fig. 4, p. 96.)

A detailed account of the Contentnea Creek exposures is given below.

The first appearance of the Patuxent formation is at a point about 1 mile above Woodard Bridge, Wilson quadrangle, the section being as follows:

SECTION 1 MILE ABOVE WOODARD BRIDGE, RIGHT BANK. FEET. Concealed, but in part Pleistocene and in part Miocene 20-25 Miocene: Dark drab clay, with soft casts. Pebble band at base 2 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): FEET. Very compact, light gray, micaceous, arkosic sand 15

Between this locality and Ruffins Bridge on the same quadrangle the Patuxent materials are revealed in low exposures not exceeding 6 or 7 feet, on the cove side of many of the bends. They are everywhere characterized by their compact, partially indurated condition, and consist of light gray, micaceous, arkosic sands, or drab micaceous clays. A log of lignite 8 inches in diameter was observed in the materials at one place. The beds are in most places overlain by 6 to 10 feet of loam and sand with a band of gravel at base, as a rule containing bowlders of crystalline rocks and small pieces of silicified wood, which constitute Pleistocene terrace deposits.

One-half mile above Speights Bridge, Wilson quadrangle, the following observations were made:

SECTION ½ MILE ABOVE SPEIGHTS BRIDGE, LEFT BANK. FEET. Concealed by vegetation 12 Pleistocene: Mostly concealed, but consisting partly of sand with a band of gravel at base 12-15 (Unconformity.) Miocene: Sand and clay 9 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Very compact drab, sandy, micaceous clay 4 Very compact gray, micaceous, argillaceous, arkosic sand 6

A bluff at Speights Bridge exposes only Miocene strata, the Patuxent surface being below water-level.

In the next 1½ miles Patuxent beds were seen at several places rising 4 or 5 feet.

About 2 miles below Speights Bridge, right bank, Wilson quadrangle, in a distance of several hundred yards the surface of the Patuxent beds rises and falls 4 or 5 feet above and below water-level, being overlain unconformably by dark drab to black laminated clays with partings of fine micaceous sand, containing much lignite in small pieces and comminuted vegetable remains. The laminated beds belong to the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation. For the next few miles, to within 1 mile of Fools Bridge (Contentnea P. O.), Falkland quadrangle, the Patuxent beds, consisting of the usual compact light drab

clays and light gray, arkosic sands, are exposed at many places along the cove sides of the river bends and are in most places overlain by 6 to 10 feet of Pleistocene terrace deposits. Beyond the point indicated there are no more surface exposures of the Patuxent formation.

Tar River exhibits the beds of the formation from a point about 4 miles below Dunbar Bridge in Edgecombe County to Parker Landing in Pitt County. Above Tarboro the occurrences are all low, as a rule less than 6 feet being revealed; while below this town the surface of the formation gradually rises to a maximum height of 16 or 18 feet near Penny Hill in Pitt County. (See sketch map of Tar River, Fig. 7.)

From its first appearance in Edgecombe County to a point about ¼ mile above Parker Landing the formation is overlain either by beds of Miocene age or by Pleistocene terrace deposits. At the last point indicated, however, and also a short distance below Parker Landing, the Black Creek formation appears resting unconformably upon the Patuxent formation. Beyond this the latter does not again appear, having passed finally from view beneath the water level.

The Tar River occurrences are described in detail on the following pages.

SECTION ABOUT 4 MILES BELOW DUNBAR BRIDGE, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellowish loam and sand, becoming coarse and gravelly towards base 10-12 (Unconformity.)

Miocene: FEET. Greenish gravelly sand 1-3 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Light gray, coarse, compact, argillaceous, very arkosic sand 1-3

For the next few miles to within ½ mile of Hemmed Island there are numerous low exposures in places showing only the compact arkosic sands or drab clays of the Patuxent formation overlain by 10 or 12 feet of Pleistocene, at other places showing only the Miocene in a similar relation to the Pleistocene, and at still other places showing a few feet of the Miocene resting on the undulating surface of the Patuxent and overlain by the Pleistocene.

The next place at which Patuxent strata were observed was at a point about 2 miles below the A. C. L. (Norfolk branch) Railroad bridge, where 4 feet of very compact, laminated, drab clay and gray sand is exposed above medium low-water level.

At Shiloh Mills, left bank, Parmele quadrangle, 2½ miles above Tarboro, Miocene shell marl rests directly upon the undulating surface of the Patuxent, the latter varying in height within the limits of the exposure from 3½ to 5 feet above medium low-water stage. The Patuxent materials consist of greenish gray, sandy, very micaceous, very compact clay.

Between Shiloh Mills and Tarboro, Tarboro quadrangle, the Patuxent beds appear in a number of low exposures not exceeding 8 feet in height, consisting of characteristic arkosic, micaceous sands and drab clays. In places the sand is cross-bedded, though everywhere compact, and at one place a large flattened log and other small pieces and particles of lignite were observed.

Similar occurrences continue at occasional intervals below Tarboro. In a few places shell marl or a pebbly conglomerate with a matrix of greenish sand belonging to the Miocene were seen occupying shallow basin-like depressions in the surface of the Patuxent beds, and overlain by 8 to 10 feet of Pleistocene terrace deposit. In some of the better sections the Patuxent beds assume a banded appearance due to the alternating strata of sand and clay, in this respect resembling sections of the same formation exposed along Cape Fear River. The best and highest section of this kind on the Tar River occurs a short distance below Penny Hill, Tarboro quadrangle, as follows:

SECTION BELOW PENNY HILL, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loam and sand with gravel band at base 5-6 (Unconformity.) Miocene: Thin seam of loose greenish sand 3 in. (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Very compact, drab, sandy clay, slightly iron-stained 6 Compact, grayish-drab, micaceous, argillaceous sand 2 Compact, gray, micaceous, arkosic sand, stained yellow in places 2 Compact, drab, micaceous, arenaceous clay stained with iron 2 Compact, drab, micaceous, arkosic, argillaceous sand 4

At Dupree Landing, Falkland quadrangle, the Patuxent beds appear a few feet above the water, and again above and below Parker Landing, Winterville quadrangle. About one-fourth mile above Parker Landing the following interesting section was taken:

SECTION ABOVE PARKER LANDING LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow sand, becoming coarse and cross-bedded at base 7 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous: Black Creek formation: Dark to black, laminated, micaceous, sulphur-stained clay with partings of fine micaceous sand, containing lignite and iron sulphide concretions. This deposit appears to occupy a depression in the surface of the Patuxent formation, although the relations are not very clear 0-6 (Unconformity.) Patuxent formation: Gray, arkosic, micaceous sand, compact in places, and loose, stratified, and iron-stained in others, containing, occasional pieces and seams of lignite 5-10 Dark drab, compact, slightly micaceous arenaceous clay, irregular in exposed thickness along base of bluff 0-3

About ⅛ mile below Parker Landing the Patuxent formation makes its last appearance on Tar River, a few feet of compact drab clay being revealed at low water, overlain by several feet of laminated sand and clay of the Black Creek formation, the latter containing characteristic Black Creek plant remains (see description, p. 142.)

The following section of a well at Tarboro which was drilled under the auspices of the city government, by the Sydnor Pump and Well Company, of Richmond, Virginia, was made from a record furnished by John A. Weddell, Treasurer of the Board of Public Works of that city:

SECTION OF WELL AT TARBORO, N. C. (ELEVATION AT SURFACE ABOUT 50 FEET.) Pleistocene: THICKNESS IN FEET. White sand 0- 15 Miocene (?): Caving sand 15- 25 Sandy clay 25- 40 Caving white sand 40- 65 Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Stiff clay, bluish 65- 73 Yellow sandy clay 73- 85 White sand 85- 90 White stiff clay 90- 95 Blood-red clay and slate 95-105 White and pink sandy clay 105-115 White, coarse sand, with a little water 115-125 Yellow sandy clay 125-128 Yellow sand 128-132 Yellow clay 132-135 Red clay 135-145 Stiff yellow clay 145-150 Yellow sandy clay 150-152 Stiff yellow clay 152-160 Stiff red clay 160-170 Yellow sandy clay 170-174 Sandy clay and coarse gravel 174-182 Coarse sand, little water 182-190 Stiff yellow clay 190-194 Sandy yellow clay 194-196 Coarse sand 196-199 Stiff bluish and red clay 199-202 Stiff clay, red, yellow and white 202-212 Stiff blue clay 212-218 Stiff red and blue clay 218-228 Stiff brown clay 228-236 Stiff dark-brown clay 236-244 Stiff red clay 244-252 Red, black, and tan (clay?) 252-253 Yellow sand 253-256 Quicksand 256-257 Yellow clay 257-261 Blue clay 261-273 Red clay 273-277 Pink, red, and yellow clay 277-278 Quicksand 278-282 Marl, rock 282-284 Blue stiff clay 284-290

Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): THICKNESS IN FEET. Hard red clay 290-300 Red sandstone 300-303 Hard red clay 303-305 Dark clay 305-311 Dark clay and gravel, rotten rock 311-321 Dark clay and gravel mixed 321-328 Basement rocks: Dark clay, like rotten soapstone 328-332 Tan clay 332-334 Rock formation 334-338 Tan clay 338-340 Hard clay and gravel? 340-343 Dark rock formation 343-346 Hard clay and gravel (?) mixed 346-349 Hard sandstone 349

The section shows a thickness of at least 288 feet of the Patuxent formation. Basement rocks were penetrated in the bottom of the well. From the descriptions of the materials as given in the driller's records the exact depth at which these were entered cannot be determined with certainty; but from correspondence with the town authorities it was ascertained that about the lower 20 feet of the well was drilled in supposed “bed rock,” and it is probable that the material described as resembling “rotten soapstone” forms the upper decomposed portion of these older rocks.

The most northerly occurrences of Patuxent strata thus far observed are on Roanoke River from a point 5 miles below Halifax, near the State Farm, to the steamboat landing at Palmyra. Here, also, the exposures are all low, nowhere exhibiting more than about 12 feet of strata. With the exception of Pleistocene terrace beds, the overlying younger strata are everywhere of Miocene age. The Black Creek formation does not appear on this stream. The river was traversed from Weldon in Halifax County to Plymouth in Washington County. (See sketch map of Roanoke River, Fig. 8, p. 106.)

A search was made for the supposed Potomac deposit described by Fontaine in a section at the north end of the railroad bridge at Weldon, but the only materials exposed were of Pleistocene age, the basal beds apparently having been concealed by talus material subsequent to his visit. A study of the region about Weldon and Halifax, however, led to the conclusion that the existence of a Potomac equivalent at

this point is improbable, although it is possible that a feather edge of the Patuxent formation is present this far inland.

The bed of the river at Weldon exposes crystalline rocks. The rapids a short distance below the bridge may be regarded as the “fall line,” although the crystallines appear at one or two places along the river banks between Weldon and Halifax landing, and at the latter

The first river section presenting beds of Potomac equivalence is at a point 5 miles below Halifax, a short distance above the State Farm. Where best exposed, the section is as follows:

SECTION 114½ MILES ABOVE MOUTH OF RIVER AND A SHORT DISTANCE ABOVE THE STATE FARM, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellowish sandy clay loam 10 Coarse, yellow sand, in some layers gravelly, alternating with finer argillaceous sand layers 6 Heavy bed of gravel consisting of pebbles and cobbles and an occasional quartz bowlder 6 (Unconformity.) Miocene: Dark green clay with a few casts. At one place chunks of Patuxent material were observed reworked in the base of the Miocene 3-3½ (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Very coarse, very arkosic and micaceous sand, becoming coarser and containing thin gravel layers and lenses towards the base 12

In an exposure a few hundred yards above where the section was taken the Patuxent-Miocene contact is only 4 feet above the water level, which indicates a considerable unevenness in the eroded Patuxent surface. The sand of the Patuxent formation here contains seams of lignite, and some larger pieces of brown lignite.

The next section showing unquestioned Patuxent materials is at Jacobs Landing, as follows:

SECTION AT JACOBS LANDING, MILEPOST 105, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Partly concealed, sandy loam in upper 6 feet and layer of gravel at base 15 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Compact, dark to light gray, coarse micaceous, more or less arkosic sand. Contains some very large mica flakes 6

At Edwards Ferry the Patuxent is again exposed in unconformable relation to the overlying Miocene. The section is very similar to that near the State Farm.

SECTION AT EDWARDS FERRY, 102½ MILES ABOVE MOUTH, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Concealed except for gravel band along base, which contains, in addition to pebbles, some large quartz and crystalline bowlders. 18-20

Miocene: FEET. Dark green clay with a few casts. At base a thin line of small pebbles lies along the small but sharply defined minor irregularities of the undulating contact. At one place chunks of Patuxent material were found reworked in the base of the Miocene 0-4 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Lenses of light drab, micaceous, arkosic sand and drab to very light drab clay, both very compact and in places indurated almost to a hard rock. In places numerous speeks of iron pyrites were observed 4-8

At J. N. Smith's Landing, milepost 100, right bank, 6 feet of typical Patuxent sand and clay are exposed, overlain by 10 to 15 feet of Pleistocene terrace materials, the Miocene being entirely absent.

The last point on the river where the Patuxent formation is exposed is in the 75-foot bluff at Palmyra Landing, 79½ miles above the river's mouth.

At the base of this section, immediately below a bed of Miocene shell marl, there appears 3½ feet of very compact, dark greenish-gray, sandy clay, containing in places fine grains of iron pyrites. Along the base of the overlying marl bed and corresponding to a basal conglomerate there is present a line of quartz and phosphate pebbles up to 2 inches in diameter and an occasional broken piece of bone. Below Palmyra the river bluffs expose no materials older than Miocene.

South of Cape Fear River a number of stream and interstream localities revealing beds of the Patuxent formation have been studied. Particularly good exposures are presented by the railroad cuts in the sandhills of Harnett, Moore, and Richmond counties.

At Spout Springs, Harnett County, in cuts of the Cape Fear and Yadkin Valley Railway (A. C. L.) north and south of the station there are good exposures of compact, massive, purplish clay of the Patuxent formation overlain unconformably by arkosic sands.

The purplish clay was regarded by Professor Kerr and others as belonging to the Eocene and by Professor Ward as belonging to the Tuscaloosa formation. It resembles closely the clays of the Patuxent formation, however, and should probably be referred to that division.

Similar exposures occur in certain of the cuts to the north of Spout Springs for 3 or 4 miles, some of the cuts, however, showing only the sands of the Lafayette formation. Likewise, to the south of Spout Springs similar clays are met with in cuts to and beyond Manchester in Cumberland County.

Patuxent beds essentially the same as those described in the section on Cape Fear River at the mouth of Little River (see p. 89) are exposed along the banks of Little River at Manchester and for 1 mile below the railroad bridge to the first wagon bridge. Observations were not carried down the river beyond this point. The best section observed, exposing about 30 feet of strata, was on the left bank about ½ mile below the railroad bridge. The materials consist of compact, in places slightly indurated, arkosic, micaceous sands and sandy clays, more or less mottled with red or purple iron stain.

Exposures of the formation occur in cuts of the Seaboard Air Line Railway in southeastern Moore County, beginning near Crane Creek bridge, where they rest upon basement rocks and extending southwestward. They are here overlain with a marked unconformity by discontinuous patches of surficial Lafayette sands. The unconformable relations of the Patuxent and Lafayette formations are clearly exhibited in a cut 1⅓ miles southwest of the station at Lakeview, N. C. These relations are represented graphically in the following sketch, Fig. 9 (see, also, Plate XV, B, opposite p. 264):

In Richmond County, in the vicinity of Hamlet, good exposures occur in cuts of the S. A. L. Railway northwestward toward Rockingham for 2 miles, southeastward towards Old Hundred for 3 miles, south-southeastward at several places on the Gibson Branch, and southwestward on the main line at a number of places between Hamlet and Cheraw, S. C. The materials of the Patuxent formation in this

vicinity consist of light gray, coarse, arkosic sand, cross-bedded in places, and quite compact or even indurated to a hard rock, and of lenses of light drab or mottled red or purple, more or less finely siliceous, to coarsely sandy clay intercalated within the predominating sand mass. Here, also, discontinuous patches of Lafayette deposits are present upon the eroded Patuxent surface.

Outside of the sandhill country, perhaps the best exposures south of the Cape Fear are those in the vicinity of Hope Mills in Cumberland County.

One mile northeast of Hope Mills on the main line of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad and to the north of Little Rockfish Creek, an interesting section is revealed at the south end of a long cut. The character and relations of the materials are shown in Fig. 10.

Layer 3 is the feather edge of the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation occupying a position between the eroded surface of the Patuxent formation beneath, layer 4, and Pleistocene terrace materials above, layers 1 and 2.

Good sections of Patuxent strata similar in all respects to those occurring along Cape Fear River in the vicinity of Fayetteville are exposed on Little and Big Rockfish creeks both above and below the bridge of the road leading from Fayetteville to Hope Mills. In some of these a feather edge of the Black Creek formation occurs resting upon the Patuxent and overlain by Pleistocene terrace deposits. Detailed sections are given below. (See, also, section p. 116.)

SECTION 1 MILE SOUTH OF HOPE MILLS ON RIGHT BANK OF BIG ROCKFISH CREEK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow sand, stratified, and containing a few clay layers at base 9 Cretaceous: Black Creek formation: Tough, chocolate-tinted, carbonaceous clay with some lignite and vegetable particles 0-3 (Unconformity.) Patuxent formation: Gray, arkosic sand and clay 24-27 SECTION BELOW WAGON BRIDGE OVER ROCKFISH CREEK, NEAR BRUNT POST-OFFICE. Pleistocene: FEET. Sand and gravel 5 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Patuxent formation): Compact, light gray and greenish gray, micaceous, arkosic sand and clay, in places slightly indurated and in places cross-bedded. 40

One doubtful Patuxent exposure has been observed on Lumber River in Robeson County, just below Redbank bridge. It is described as follows:

SECTION JUST BELOW REDBANK BRIDGE, LEFT BANK. Cretaceous? (Patuxent formation?): FEET. Yellowish-brown, loamy, arkosic sand 4 Coarse, gray, compact, arkosic sand 6 Light drab, compact, sandy clay, becoming more sandy to a coarse, argillaceous sand at base 3 Very light drab, compact, slightly sandy clay 2

The materials in this section are not very characteristic, but it seems probable from their compact condition and the presence of arkosic matter that they should be correlated with the Patuxent formation.

Name.—The name Black Creek was proposed by Mr. Earle Sloan in 1907.1 It is derived from Black Creek, a tributary of Great Peedee River in Darlington and Florence counties, South Carolina.

The terrane to which he applied the name is the equivalent, as shown by both its lithologic and paleontologic characters, of the division in

North Carolina designated by the writer,2 in 1907, the “Bladen” formation. Since it appears that Sloan's usage has priority, it is given the preference in this report.

Definition.—Outcrops of the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation occur in a belt to the southeast of that described for the Patuxent formation. In the Cape Fear River region this belt has a width of some 30 or more miles, but it narrows to the northeast, the formation being last seen on Tar River, where the width amounts to about 8 miles. (See geologic map, Plate XVII, in pocket.)

Beginning in the northeast, the counties in which outcrops may be expected to occur are as follows: northern Pitt, northern Greene, Wayne, northwestern Duplin, Sampson, southern Cumberland, Bladen, and Robeson. In South Carolina the southward extension of the formation has been recognized along Black Creek in Florence and Darlington counties as far upstream as Darlington and at several other places in the eastern part of Darlington County, where it has been designated Black Creek shale, as explained in a preceding paragraph.

The beds of the Black Creek formation rest with a marked unconformity upon the eroded surface of the Patuxent formation. The contact is well exposed at various places on the Cape Fear and Neuse rivers, Contentnea Creek and Tar River. The time interval represented by this break is believed to have been of considerable duration, possibly as great as that included between the top of the Patuxent and the base of the Magothy in Maryland.

No structural break occurs between the Black Creek and Peedee (“Burches Ferry”) formations, the character of the sediments indicating a transition from the shallower water conditions of the former to the deeper water conditions of the latter. The line of division between the two formations has been somewhat arbitrarily drawn at the top of the transition beds, or at the point where the materials become finally of a true marine character. The placing of the dividing line in this position has, however, been actuated in part by certain paleontologic considerations explained elsewhere in this report.

The formation extends coastward conformably beneath the overlying Peedee formation and has been recognized in the basal portion of a well boring at Wilmington, where the thickness amounts to about 390 feet, and also in the basal portion of a boring at Fort Caswell, where the thickness, if correctly interpreted, is 400 feet.

The beveled edge of the Black Creek formation in the belt where it would otherwise appear as the surface material is everywhere concealed

from view by relatively thin overlapping Tertiary strata or by surficial Pleistocene terrace deposits, except as revealed by stream or artificial cuttings.

The Pleistocene deposits occur as a surficial covering of both the Tertiary and Cretaceous throughout the entire length of the belt. Except for certain Eocene occurrences in southern Wayne County and a number of Miocene occurrences in the vicinity of Elizabethtown and in southern Robeson County which probably exist as more or less detached basins on the surface of the Black Creek formation, the Pleistocene covering rests directly upon the Black Creek formation from Neuse River southward to the South Carolina State line. From northeastern Wayne County to the northern limit of the belt Miocene beds everywhere intervene between the Pleistocene terrace covering and the Black Creek formation, except along the stream borders, where in the process of formation of the lower terraces the Miocene beds were in places entirely removed.

The mass of the materials of this formation consist of thinly laminated, more or less ferruginous sands and clays. The character of the materials may vary abruptly, however, both horizontally and vertically, in some places the sand and at other places the clay predominating. At a number of places the clay has been observed to be replaced in a short distance horizontally by great lenses of medium-grained, highly cross-bedded sand. Not uncommonly the clay and sand laminæ are tipped at considerable angles from the horizontal, this position being due to current bedding. (See Plate V, B, opposite p. 120.) The clays are, as a rule, dark to black, due to the presence of carbonaceous matter, which explains the usual dark appearance of the exposures. The sands are commonly gray or light yellow, but may have a greenish tinge due to the presence of ferrous iron, or a slight content of glauconite. They are, as a rule, fine to medium grained in texture and almost universally contain a noticeable percentage of very fine flakes of muscovite mica. Thin lignite seams, consisting of finely comminuted vegetable particles, are very common. Pieces of lignite varying in size from small particles to that of twigs, branches, and even large trunks of trees, occur scattered irregularly through the materials of the formation. The larger pieces are in most cases flattened, but as a rule show the structure of the wood distinctly. Many of the smaller pieces appear water-worn, having their edges and ends rounded. Leaves have been found at many localities in a fairly good state of preservation, but in most cases they appear to have been subjected to maceration processes. Iron sulphide is in many places associated with the lignite, probably, as a rule, in

the form of marcasite, although possibly in some instances in the form of pyrite. This is found coating the lignite or filling the seams and cracks within the structure of the wood itself, and also in the form of irregular concretions of various sizes, not, as a rule, attaining very large dimensions. The surface which in the original position in the beds was covered with crystals of the mineral, is commonly corroded and rusty, as a result of exposure to the atmosphere. Amber has been observed at many places in the form of small particles not exceeding one-half inch in longest dimension.

Toward the upper part of the formation the laminated sands and clays become interstratified to greater or lesser extent with layers or lenses of greensand or marine clay. Likewise in the laminated portions themselves the thin sand partings and layers are noticeably glauconitic in places. These glauconitic beds constitute the transition deposits marking the passage from the more typical Black Creek formation into the greensands of the overlying Peedee formation.

The strike of the beds of this formation is approximately parallel to that of the Patuxent formation—that is, northeast-southwest.

On account of the cross-bedding and horizontal variation in the character of the materials it is impossible to determine the dip of the strata by tracing individual beds. From the position of the formation, however, between the gently inclined beds of the underlying Patuxent formation and the equally gently inclined marine beds of the Peedee formation above, it may be inferred that the dip is slight, probably not exceeding 20 feet to the mile and possibly much less.

Owing to the lack of data regarding the exact dip of the beds, it is impossible to estimate with any degree of accuracy the thickness of the formation. The width of the belt of outcrop in the Cape Fear River region is at least 30 miles. If the dip amounts to as much as 20 feet to the mile the thickness called for would be 600 feet. This estimate may be too large.

To the northward the formation becomes thinner rapidly, the thickness on the Neuse being perhaps less than one-half that on the Cape Fear; and on Contentnea Creek and Tar River still less. The fossil remains contained in the formation are for the most part those of plants. As above stated, lignite is common, being present as particles and pieces of all sizes from comminuted fragments up to large limbs or trunks, and fossil resin or amber is in many places associated with it. Leaf remains are common, having been collected up to the present time from over 20 localities. The great bulk of the material belongs to the more resistant types of plants, especially those capable of resisting

maceration, such as the conifers. However, in places, less resistant dicotyledons have been preserved, as is shown by their occurrence in a good condition of preservation on Cape Fear River at Court House Landing. The remains of marine invertebrates are common in the upper or transitional portion of the formation, and, in the same beds, bones, coprolites, and sharks’ teeth have been observed at a few places.

(For the distribution and range of the invertebrate species of the Black Creek formation, see the table opposite page 147.)

Detailed Sections.—The most complete series of exposures of the Black Creek formation are those afforded by the Cape Fear River bluffs from a point about 101 miles above Wilmington in southern Cumberland County to Jessups Landing, 56 miles above Wilmington, or possibly as far as Donohue Creek Landing, 50⅓ miles above Wilmington, Bladen County. (See sketch map of Cape Fear River, Plate I, opposite p. 88.) In addition to the immediate river-bluff localities, there are a number of occurrences in Cumberland County which should be included in this series. The escarpment running north and south through Fayetteville just to the west of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad depot furnishes a few poor exposures of Black Creek strata. The estimated thickness at this place is 30 feet. They consist of stratified or, in places, laminated sands and clays. In position they rest unconformably upon the strata of the Patuxent formation and are overlain by Pleistocene gravels and sands. The same beds are well exposed in cuts of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad 1¼ to 2¼ miles southwest of the depot at Fayetteville. The materials at the latter place consist of irregularly bedded, white to yellow sand and light drab to black clay, with numerous thin sheets and thicker layers of ferruginous sandstone. There is one lens of black, sticky, lignitic clay several feet in thickness. They rest upon typical sands of the Patuxent formation, the exact contact, however, being somewhat obscured by talus material.

The feather edge of the formation has been observed at several places near Hope Mills in Cumberland County. Two of these occurrences have been described elsewhere. (See diagram and description of section 1 mile northeast of Hope Mills, p. 110, and description of section 1 mile south of Hope Mills, p. 111.)

A fossil plant locality in the Black Creek formation occurs on the left bank of Little Rockfish Creek about 100 yards above the Hope Mills-Fayetteville road bridge. The section is as follows:

SECTION ON LITTLE ROCKFISH CREEK, 100 YARDS ABOVE THE HOPE MILLS-FAYETTEVILLE ROAD BRIDGE, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Coarse white sand, becoming gravelly at base and containing iron crusts 3 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous: Black Creek formation: Yellow, ferruginous, stratified sand, with some thin layers, grading into dark, slightly chocolate tinted, laminated clay and sand layers, the latter containing leaf remains, lignite, amber, and pyrites 8 (Unconformity.) Patuxent formation: Typical light gray, arkosic, banded sand and clay layers 25

From the Black Creek formation in the above described section the following fossil plants were collected:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry.

Ficus daphnogenoides (Heer) Berry.

Myrsine borealis Heer.

Podozamites Knowltoni Berry.

Sequoia Reichenbachi (Gein) Heer.

Tumion carolinianum Berry.

Teredo-bored logs.

An account of the first appearance of the formation observed in descending Cape Fear River between mileposts 101 and 98, where its feather edge occurs resting unconformably upon the Patuxent formation, has already been given. (See detailed sections and illustration, p. 98, and Figs. 1 and 2.)

The materials in these exposures consist of dark laminated sands and clays which contain a large amount of lignite in the form of large logs, smaller pieces and comminuted particles, and also in some of the exposures of an abundance of large irregular concretions of iron sulphide, probably in the form of marcasite. The lignite is in part distributed irregularly throughout the deposits, but in part the comminuted particles and small pieces are collected together in the form of seams. The sand partings contain a considerable percentage of mica. Descending the river, poor exposures of laminated materials were seen at Willis Creek Landing, milepost 96, and at T. M. Sykes’ Landing, milepost 95.

Prospect Hall Bluff, just above milepost 93, presents a fine section of laminated sands and clays of this formation. The bluff is some 75 or 80 feet in height, it being one of the highest on the river. The

upper 8 or 10 feet consists of loose white sand, except where locally indurated at base to an ironstone rock, of Pleistocene age. The section, Fig. 11, is a hasty sketch of that portion of the bluff which is best exposed for study.

Several good-sized silicified logs were observed lying loose on the lower slopes of the bluff. As none of these were seen in place, it could not be determined whether they came from the Pleistocene above or the laminated beds beneath. The highest one observed rested upon layer No. 3 at about 20 or 25 feet above the base.

Phragmites Pratti Berry and Salix flexuosa Newberry were collected at this locality.

Laminated sands and clays, varying in character, but as a rule containing considerable lignite, iron sulphide concretions, and mica, are exposed at many points for the next 16 miles below Prospect Hall, for the most part in low, rather poor bluffs. At the mouth of Harrisons Creek, 83 miles above Wilmington, left bank, a 12- or 15-foot exposure of laminated materials yielded the characteristic Black Creek species Araucaria bladenensis Berry and Phragmites Pratti Berry.

The next high bluff is at Court House Landing, 77 miles above Wilmington, where the following section was made:

SECTION AT COURT HOUSE LANDING, MILEPOST 77. Pleistocene (Sunderland formation?): FEET. Sandy loam, grading down into a loose, white sand 6 Yellowish to drab, sandy clay, grading down into next layer 3 Light, yellowish to reddish, coarse sand, with a few laminæ of drab clay 1.5 Drab clay, mottled with yellow 1 Coarse sand, mottled with yellow 2 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark bluish to black, thinly laminated clay, with fine micaceous sand partings in which occur comminuted vegetable particles 4.5 Coarse, loose sand, mottled with yellow, with a few laminæ of drab clay 1 Dark bluish to black, thinly laminated clay, with fine micaceous sand partings containing finely comminuted vegetable particles, stained yellow in places with sulphur 24 Light, somewhat indurated, sulphur-stained sand 1 (The 10 or 15 feet of materials included in the preceding layer and the base of the 24-foot layer above are very variable along the exposure. For some distance along one portion of the section the materials consist of pale yellow, very coarse, cross-bedded sand, the color being due to sulphur. Near the base of this sand there is at one place a lens of brownish clay and thin layers of iron-stained sand, some 20 feet long and 2½ feet in maximum thickness. The clay contains abundant remains of fossil plants.) Gray, yellow, and red cross-bedded sand, for the most part cemented with iron to a sandstone rock, containing lignite in places 3-5 Dark to black, laminated clay, with fine micaceous sand partings, more sandy in upper 2 feet and becoming interstratified with thicker sand layers in lower 4 or 5 feet. Contains some lignite with sulphur in places 26-28 Stratified and in places highly cross-bedded, grayish to reddish sand, with thin laminæ of dark clay, containing lignite in large and small pieces and finely comminuted particles 9

The following is a list of the plants collected and identified from the fossiliferous clay lens described above:

Andromeda grandifolia Berry. Cornophyllum sp. Andromeda Parlatorii Heer. Diospyros primaeva Heer. Araucaria Clarki Berry. Eucalyptus attenuata Newberry. Celastrophyllum crenatum Heer. Eucalyptus Geinitzi (Heer) Heer (common). Celastrophyllum undulatum Newberry. Cinnamomum Heerii Lesquereux (?). Ficus, fruits.

Ficus crassipes Heer (?). Myrica elegans Berry (the most common species). Ficus ovatifolia Berry. Ficus daphnogenoides (Heer) Berry. Myrsine borealis Heer. Ficus inaequalis Lesq. Myrsine elongata Newberry. Ficus Stephensoni Berry. Phaseolites formus Lesq. Fern, undeterminable. Phragmites Pratti Berry. Hedera primordialis Sap. Pterospermites carolinensis Berry. Juglans arctica Heer. Pterospermites crednerafolia Berry. Laurophyllum elegans Hollick. Quercus Pratti Berry. Leguminosites robiniafolia Berry. Quercus sp. nov. Liriodendron dubium Berry. Salix Newberryana Hollick. Liriodendron sp. Sassafras acutilobum Lesq. Magnolia Capellinii Heer. Sequoia heterophylla Velen. Magnolia Newberryi Berry. Zonarites sp. Menispermites sp. nov.

Elizabethtown is 73¼ miles above Wilmington. In the roadway leading from the landing up to the village and at an elevation of perhaps 40 feet above the river, the following forms were obtained:

Ficus, fruits. Moriconia americana Berry. Myrica elegans Berry. Salix flexuosa Newberry.

Below Elizabethtown there are a number of good sections, although a marked difference in the character of the materials begins to appear in some of the exposures. One-half mile below milepost 73 there is exposed along the left bank about 6 or 8 feet of dark green, micaceous sand, stratified for the first few feet at base and massive and compact above, containing scattered particles of lignite and a small percentage of glauconite. It has all the essential characters of a marine deposit. In the next 3 or 4 miles poor exposures of similar materials occur at several points.

At Sand Bluff Landing, a little below milepost 70, left bank, however, the materials consist of laminated, lignitic sands and clays similar to those above Elizabethtown, rising about 25 feet above the water's edge. (See Plate V, A.) They are overlain by 20 feet or more of loose, light-colored Pleistocene sand, with the usual gravel band at base containing crystalline bowlders and some silicified wood.

At 69 miles above Wilmington, left bank, there is a 5-foot exposure, consisting of dark, micaceous sands and clays, stratified and cross-bedded, very lignitic and containing occasional pieces of bones and turtle plates. Towards the lower end of the exposure a compact bed of dark glauconitic sand, several feet in thickness, overlaps the preceding, dipping downstream and disappearing in a short distance beneath the water's edge.

The next exposure of importance is at Phoebus Landing below milepost 68, right bank. The materials here consist of laminated, lignitic, and pyritiferous sands and clays of the usual character, rising 4 or 5 feet above the water's edge. For a distance of 400 or 500 feet the overlying Pleistocene, consisting of clay loam, sand, and gravel, has been removed by erosion back from the water's edge some 50 or 60 feet, leaving a bench of dark clays of the Black Creek formation, which slopes gently toward the river. Imbedded in the clay and also lying loose upon the surface of the Black Creek beds occur numerous broken pieces of large dinosaur bones, coprolites, crocodilian teeth, turtle and gavial plates, and sharks’ teeth. The bones are badly broken and are for the most part in a poor state of preservation. Imbedded in the clay are a number of logs of lignite and silicified wood. Among the vertebrate remains from this locality which are now in the U. S. National Museum, the following forms have been identified by C. W. Gilmore:

DINOSAURIA:

Hypsibema crassicauda Cope.

Trachodon tripos? Cope.

Carnivorous dinosaur (Zatomis?).

CROCODYLIDæ:

Thecachampsa rugosa Emmons.

Polydectes biturgidus Cope.

TESTUDINATA:

Taphrosphys dares Hay.

Amyda sp.

At Big Sugar Loaf Landing, milepost 66, left bank, a fine section of Black Creek materials about one-fourth mile in length is exposed. The upper 20 feet of the section consists of very loose, white to buff, coarse and fine sand, with a gravel band at base, of Pleistocene age. The Black Creek materials underlying the loose sands vary widely in character along the bluff. They consist for the most part of dark laminated sands and clays. (See Plate V, B.) In places the clay predominates from top to bottom, while a short distance away at the same level occur great lenses of yellowish or buff sands, with very little clay. A large amount of lignite, in the form of large and small pieces of limbs, etc., in some instances teredo-bored, and comminuted particles, occurs in both the sands and clays. Some of the thin laminæ are made up almost entirely of comminuted vegetable particles. Pieces of lignite resembling charred wood are not uncommon. Both sands and clays are in places coated with yellow sulphur stain. A few

poorly preserved fossil leaves were obtained here, the following being determinable: Ficus daphnogenoides (Heer) Berry, Sequoia heterophylla Velen.

This section is essentially the same, although offering a better exposure, as that at Sand Bluff Landing, above described. The Cretaceous portion of the cliff is nearly vertical and is even undermined in places. Springs come out all along the upper surface of the Cretaceous beds, making little waterfalls along the bluff.

Materials similar to the preceding were observed at Little Sugar Loaf Landing, milepost 65; Tom Smith's Landing above milepost 63, where a few dinosaur bones were observed; at Atkinson Landing, milepost 62, where one turtle plate was obtained, and at McCays Landing, milepost 61.

Walkers Bluff, milepost 60, presents a fine section of Black Creek materials, which is described in detail below. (See Plate IV, B, opposite p. 117.)

SECTION AT WALKERS BLUFF, MILEPOST 60, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Sunderland formation (?): Sandy loam 2 Mottled, reddish, and yellowish, arenaceous clay 1.5 (Unconformity.) Pliocene: Sand, clay, and shell marl 25 Cretaceous: Black Creek formation (?): Indurated layer of calcareous, fossiliferous sand rock. This is seen at the lower end of the bluff immediately below the Pliocene marl. Farther upstream it appears to be represented at the same level by loose, unconsolidated sand. Still farther upstream, where the slope is covered with vegetation, the river bank at low water is seen to be strewn with bowlders of this fossiliferous rock which have fallen down from above. The fossils are mostly in the form of casts and are difficultly determinable 1 Black Creek formation: Loose, gray, cross-bedded sand, interstratified with fine layers of drab clay 2 Orange to yellow, cross-bedded sand, with a few thin laminæ of drab clay 5 Thinly laminated drab clay, and orange, red, and drab cross-bedded sands, the sands predominating in the lower 5 feet 7 Thinly laminated, dark-blue clay, and dark drab to greenish-gray sand, very compact. The upper surface is nearly level, and the beds present an appearance strikingly different from all the

FEET. materials above. The latter, however, are probably conformable upon the former. Lignite is present in greater or lesser amount throughout the mass, the surface is stained with sulphur in places, and a few gypsum crystals were observed 24 Indurated layer of sand containing rounded pellets of drab clay 1 Light gray to yellow, compact, homogeneous sand, in places slightly indurated 3 Thinly laminated, dark-blue to black clay, with thin layers and larger lenses of gray sand, in places colored yellow with sulphur, the whole containing more or less lignite 7

The indurated fossiliferous layer at the top of the Cretaceous portion of the section is questionably referred to the Black Creek formation, the forms present apparently indicating a position very close to the dividing line between the Black Creek and overlying Peedee formations. From this layer the following were identified:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 3354, 4145, 5338. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Cardium longstretti Weller. Cucullaea antrosa Morton. Cardium sp. Arca sp. Aphrodina sp. Trigonoarca? Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Ostrea sp. Tellina sp. Exogyra sp. Gastrochaena americana Gabb. Trigonia sp. Lunatia obliquata M. & H. Anomia lintea Conrad? Turritella trilira Conrad. Pholadomya occidentalis Morton? Anchura sp. Veniella lineata Shumard? Pugnellus sp. Crassatellites sp. Undetermined pelecypods and gastropods. Cardium spillmani Conrad. Lamna texana Roemer.

Three miles below Walkers Bluff, at milepost 57, right bank, a marine bed with a few shells in close association with overlying laminated materials was observed from the deck of a passing steamboat.

At Jessups Landing, milepost 56, the following section occurs:

SECTION AT JESSUPS LANDING, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Light colored, loose, coarse, cross-bedded sand, with cobbles and bowlders of crystalline rock at base 16 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Laminated, dark-blue clay, and light gray, cross-bedded, glauconitic, micaceous sand, the whole mass quite lignitic, the lignite occurring as pieces of limbs, smaller fragments and comminuted particles, the latter aggregated in the form of seams in places. Some fragments resembling charred wood were observed. Some of the larger pieces of lignite are teredo-bored. Iron sulphide concretions are present in association with the lignite 12

In the autumn of 1905 this section was observed from the deck of a passing river boat. The water was then very low and there was revealed beneath the laminated materials a bed of Cretaceous shell marl in a matrix of compact marine sand or clay, several feet in thickness, which was not exposed when the above section was made. This is the last exposure of undoubted Black Creek materials observed in descending the river.

Just below Whitehall Landing, 53½ miles above Wilmington, right bank, about 8 or 10 feet of dark greenish clay is exposed above the water's edge. This is questionably regarded as belonging to the Black Creek formation.

At Deep Water Point, 51½ miles above Wilmington, left bank, there is exposed at extreme low water a layer of greenish-gray, calcareous and fossiliferous rock about 1 foot in thickness, of marine origin. It is underlain by a dark, unconsolidated shell marl containing many sharks’ teeth and fragile Cretaceous fossils, about 1 foot being exposed above the water. These materials are questionably referred to the Black Creek formation. The rock forms a shelf along the cove side of the bend, and passes back under a covering of Pleistocene terrace materials.

Ten feet of dark-blue laminated clay forming the base of the bluff at Donohue Creek, 50⅓ miles above Wilmington, should perhaps be regarded as the top of the Black Creek formation, their lithologic character favoring this view. It is reasonably certain that the overlying strata in this section should be referred to the Peedee (“Burches Ferry”) formation, the reference being based upon the presence of the fossils Ostrea subspatulata Forbes and Exogyra costata Say. (See section on page 147.)

In Sampson County a few poor exposures of weathered laminated sands and clays have been observed on one of the headwater tributaries of Black River between Roseboro and Clinton, which are believed to belong to the Black Creek formation. No work was done in the Black River Valley between these occurrences and Clear Run. One exposure of dark laminated beds was examined about 4 miles west of Tomahawk on South River, which forms the western boundary of Sampson County. On Black River outcrops of the formation have been studied from Clear Run in Sampson County to Horrell Landing in Bladen County. Throughout this distance as observed in the river bluffs the formation is everywhere overlain by Pleistocene terrace materials.

The Black River occurrences are described in detail on the following pages. (See sketch map of Black River, Fig. 12, p. 124.)

Below the wagon bridge at Clear Run there appears at low water about 12 feet of dark to black, laminated clay, with partings of fine micaceous sand and seams of lignite, mostly in a comminuted condition. Occasional larger pieces of lignite and small concretions of iron sulphide are present, scattered somewhat irregularly throughout the materials. The only determinable fossil plant obtained here was the characteristic Black Creek (“Bladen”) form, Araucaria bladenensis Berry.

At Sugar Loaf Bluff, 2¾ miles below Clear Run, there is a 25-foot exposure of Black Creek materials, consisting of dark, thinly laminated lignitic sand and clay.

At Bradshaws Landing, about 3 miles below Clear Run, the following section was made:

SECTION AT BRADSHAWS LANDING, 74¾ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow sandy loam, grading down into yellow sand, with a thin bed of gravel at base 7 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): FEET. Dark, carbonaceous clay interlaminated with greenish-gray glauconitic sand, containing amber, lignite, and comminuted vegetable particles. Contains an occasional leaf of Araucaria bladenensis Berry and the seed of Cephalotaxospermum carolineanum Berry. A few bone fragments, probably turtle plates, and one coprolite were observed 2.5

At Sykes Landing, 74 miles above Wilmington, left bank, a section similar to the preceding is exposed, from which the following fossil plants were collected:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry.

Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer.

Cunninghamites elegans (Corda) Endl.

Cephalotaxospermum carolineanum Berry.

Near the site of an old mill one-fourth mile northeast of Sykes Landing, on land owned by C. S. Bradshaw, a few shell prints were obtained from fragments of sandstone which according to the owner were dug from a rock layer closely underlying the surface in the immediate vicinity of the mill. This rock is probably a lens in the Black Creek formation. The forms include Glycymeris (?), Cardium sp., Tellinimera (?), etc. (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 5355.)

The next interesting exposure observed was at Big Bend, where the following strata appear:

SECTION AT BIG BEND, 73¾ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loam, clay, and sand, with a pebble band along base 7 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark greenish-gray, tough, carbonaceous clay, in places laminated with thin sand partings. Contains amber, pyrites, lignite, and fossil leaves 6

The following fossil plants were collected from this outcrop:

Andromeda novae-caesareae Hollick. Salix flexuosa Newberry. Araucaria bladenensis Berry. Salix Lesquereuxi Berry. Araucaria Jeffreyi Berry. Cephalotaxospermum carolineanum Berry. Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer. Cycadinocarpus circularis Newberry.

For the next two miles there are numerous low exposures of laminated Black Creek materials.

At the upper end of a low terrace bluff at Mossy Log Landing, 71½ miles above Wilmington, the following section occurs:

SECTION AT UPPER END OF BLUFF AT MOSSY LOG LANDING, 71½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET . Loose gray sand 3 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark greenish-gray, slightly arkosic, compact, argillaceous and in places ferruginous sand, containing soft shell casts 4 Laminated, dark to black clay and gray or ferruginous sand, in which were observed a few poorly preserved specimens of Araucaria bladenensis 7

The fossils listed below were obtained from the greensand layer.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5357. Serpula sp. Cymella bella Conrad. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Cardium longstreeti Weller. Arca sp. Cardium sp. Trigonoarca sp. Isocardia cliffwoodensis Weller. Trigonia (probably new species). Linearia metastriata Conrad. Pecten n. sp. Leptosolen biplicata Conrad. Pholadomya sp. (specimen destroyed). Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Undetermined pelecypods.

Between Mossy Log Landing and Gummers Cove 60⅔ miles above Wilmington there are a number of low exposures of marine beds consisting of dark green or greenish-gray, fossiliferous sand with an occasional indurated, calcareous layer likewise fossiliferous. Collections of fossils were made wherever possible, and on the following pages are given lists of the forms identified.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5356—BLACK RIVER, N. C., 69 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C., RIGHT BANK.

Cymella bella Conrad.

Corbula carolinensis Conrad.

Undetermined pelecypods.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5358—BLACK RIVER, N. C., BRYANT NEWKIRK'S MARL HOLE, 66 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Ostrea cretacea Morton. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Trigonia sp. Pecten n. sp. Arca sp. Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Cucullaea antrosa Morton? Cardium longstreeti Weller. Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Cardium eufaulense Conrad. Trigonoarca n. sp. Cardium spillmani Conrad. Glycymeris subaustralis (d'Orbigny). Cardium sp. Pinna sp. Cyclothyris sp.

Linearia metastriata Conrad. Turritella sp. Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Undetermined gastropods. Gastrochaena? (same as at Whiteley Creek Landing). Lamna texana Roemer. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Undetermined pelecypods. Corax falcatus Agassiz. Lunatia sp. Turtle plate.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5359—BLACK RIVER, N. C., 64 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Hamulus major Gabb. Cymella bella Conrad. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Etea carolinensis Conrad. Veniella conradi (Morton). Arca sp. Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad? Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Cardium longstreeti Weller? Trigonoarca (probably new species). Cardium eufaulense Conrad. Glycymeris subaustralis (d'Orbigny). Cardium sp. Ostrea cretacea Morton. Undetermined pelecypods. Trigonia eufalensis Gabb? Gyrodes crenata Conrad. Pecten n. sp. argillensis Conrad. Turritella vertebroides Morton? Anomia lintea Conrad. Undetermined gastropods. Pholadomya occidentalis Morton? Lamna texana Roemer.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5360—BLACK RIVER, N. C., CORBITT'S BLUFF, 63¼ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Hamulus major Gabb. Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad? (same as at Whiteley Creek Landing). Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Crassatellites (probably new species; same as at Whiteley Creek Landing). Glycymeris subaustralis (d'Orbigny). Ostrea cretacea Morton. Cardium sp. Pecten n. sp. Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Anomia argentaria Morton. Undetermined pelecypods. Anomia lintea Conrad. Hamulus major Gabb. Cymella bella Conrad. Turritella vertebroides Morton? Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5361—BLACK RIVER, N. C., 62½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Hamulus major Gabb? Cymella bella Conrad. Trigonoarca triquetra (Conrad). Veniella conradi (Morton). Trigonoarca n. sp. (same as at Kerr's Cove). Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad? Crassatellites (probably new species). Glycymeris sp. Cardium sp. Ostrea cretacea Morton. Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Pecten n. sp. Undetermined pelecypods. Anomia lintea Conrad. Turritella vertebroides Morton?

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 4156 AND 5362—BLACK RIVER, N. C., KERR'S COVE, 62¼ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Bryozoa. Anomia n. sp. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Cymella bella Conrad. Hamulus major Gabb. Veniella conradi (Morton). Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Crassatellites pteropsis Conrad. Leda n. sp. (same as at Blue Banks Landing). Cardium sp. (large). Isocardia sp. Nemodon eufalensis Conrad? Cyclothyris carolinensis Conrad. Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Aphrodina? Trigonoarca n. sp. (same as at Black River, 62½ miles above Wilmington, N. C.). Linearia metastriata Conrad. Legumen planulatum (Conrad). Solyma? Arca sp. Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Ostrea cretacea Morton (very abundant). Undetermined pelecypods. Turritella vertebroides Morton? Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Gyrodes? Ostrea plumosa Morton. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Ostrea n. sp. (with fine striations). Portheus sp. indet. (same as at Snow Hill, N. C. Identified by J. W. Gidley). Trigonia n. sp. Pecten n. sp. Anomia lintea Conrad.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 3355—BLACK RIVER, N. C., GUMMERS COVE, ¼ MILE ABOVE DELTA, N. C., 60⅔ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C.

Ostrea cretacea Morton (abundant).

Anomia argentaria Morton.

This horizon probably occupies a position very nearly the same as that at Kerrs Cove.

At the A. C. L. Railroad bridge, milepost 58, laminated plant-bearing beds again appear, as described in the following section:

SECTION AT A. C. L. R. R. BRIDGE, 58 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Sand with thin gravel band at base 12 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark to black, laminated, carbonaceous clay, containing fossil leaves, lignite seams and layers, larger lignite fragments, iron sulphide concretions, and amber, alternating with sand layers from thin seams up to layers 1 foot in thickness. The sand is micaceous and more or less glauconitic 27

A list of the determinable plant remains, from the above-described Black Creek formation is given below:

Andromeda novae-caesareae Hollick. Malapoenna horrellensis Berry. Araucaria bladenensis Berry. Cephalotaxospermum carolineanum Berry. Araucaria Jeffreyi Berry.

The next exposure, ¼ mile below the preceding, at Corbits (Old Union) Bridge, presents 5 feet of laminated materials essentially like the preceding and furnishes a closely similar assemblage of forms. The list follows:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry. Malapoenna horrellensis Berry. Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer. Cephalotaxospermum carolineanum Berry. Cunninghamites elegans (Corda) Endl. Kalmia brittoniana Hollick?

Near Ivanhoe, 56⅞ miles above Wilmington, left bank, the Black Creek species Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer was obtained in close association with the following scarcely determinable pelecypod casts, etc.: Leda sp., Pecten sp., Crassatellites sp., Cardium sp., undetermined pelecypods, crab claws. (U. S. G. S. Locality No. 5363.) The material containing these forms is similar to that at the two preceding localities.

One-eighth mile below the preceding, marine beds again make their appearance, a section of which is given below:

SECTION AT 56¾ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow sand 10 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark-green, finely micaceous, sandy, glauconite clay with scattered bits of lignite, vegetable particles and amber, and containing soft casts of shells 4 Yellow, sulphur-stained sand 2 Concealed to water's edge 5

A list of the determinable casts from the greensand layers is given below:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5364. Bryozoa. Venielia conradi (Morton). Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad? Cardium longstreeti Weller? Leda cliffwoodensis Weller? Cardium eufalense Conrad? Arca? Undetermined pelecypods. Trigonoarca cliffwoodensis Weller. Turritella sp. Anomia lintea Conrad? Ammonite (indeterminable fragments of cast). Cymella bella Conrad.

At Hatchers Reaches, 54½ miles above Wilmington, left bank, an indurated layer of gray, calcareous, fossiliferous limestone, barely exposed at extreme low water, yielded the following forms:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5365. Bryozoa. Modiola? Hamulus major Gabb. Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Serpula cretacea (Conrad) ? Cardium longstreeti Weller. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Cardium eufaulense Conrad. Cyprimeria depressa Conrad. Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Isocardia cliffwoodensis Weller. Nemodon eufalensis Conrad? Linearia metastriata Conrad. Arca sp. Undetermined pelecypods. Ostrea sp. Turritella sp. Exogyra sp. Lamna texana Roemer. Anomia argentaria Morton. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Anomia lintea Conrad. Corax falcatus Agassiz.

At Iron Mine Landing the following section is presented:

SECTION AT IRON MINE LANDING, 51 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Dark brown, rather coarse, ferruginous sand 8 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark greenish-gray, sandy, micaceous, compact clay, with a few soft casts 7 Indurated layer of gray, calcareous sandstone 1½ Layer of rotten shell marl with gray sand matrix 2½ Indurated, siliceous, shell marl layer 1

The list of forms obtained at the above locality is given below:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5366. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Cardium eufaulense Conrad? Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad? Cardium longstreeti Weller. Glycymeris subaustralis (d'Orbigny). Cardium spillmani Conrad. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Cardium sp. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Aphrodina regia Conrad. Ostrea n. sp. (fine striations). Aphrodina? Exogyra ponderosa var. erraticostata Stephenson. Cyclothyris alta Conrad. Legumen planulatum (Conrad). Trigonia (probably new species). Leptosolen biplicata Conrad. Pecten n. sp. Schizodesma? Anomia n. sp. Undetermined pelecypods. Pholadomya n. sp. Lunatia sp. Anatimya? Anchura sp. Etea carolinensis Conrad. Turritella trilira Conrad. Veniella conradi (Morton).

The last exposure of the Black Creek formation observed in descending Black River is at Horrell Landing, where the following section is exposed:

SECTION AT HORRELL LANDING, 48¾ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loamy sand, becoming coarse at base 5 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Laminated, dark, carbonaceous, lignitic clay and greenish-gray sand, well preserved leaf remains 1-1½ Dark greenish-gray, marine sand and clay 4

The following is a list of the plant remains collected from the fossiliferous portion of the above section:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry. Cunninghamites elegans (Corda) Endl. Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer. Malapoenna horrellensis Berry.

In the southern part of Johnston County, at Bentonville, and on the side of the valley of Stone Creek where it is crossed by the Smithfield and Wilmington wagon road, there have been observed a few poor exposures of white to yellow sand with lenses and laminæ of drab, purple, and chocolate clay, which are believed to form a weathered phase of the Black Creek formation.

Exposures of the Black Creek formation occur in the bluffs of Neuse River from Blackmans Bluff, 117½ miles above New Bern, in Wayne County, to Whiteley Creek Landing, 60 miles above New Bern. From the first-named point to the A. C. L. Railroad bridge southwest of Goldsboro the formation rests unconformably upon the undulating surface of the Patuxent formation, which at the latter point passes finally below water level. It is overlain unconformably by Pleistocene terrace deposits and by several basin-like occurrences of Eocene strata. Below Whiteley Creek Landing the beds are believed to pass conformably beneath the overlying Peedee formation. (See sketch map of Neuse River, Fig. 4, p. 96.)

In descending the river from Smithfield the first high land observed approaching close to the river banks was at Blackmans Bluff. Here the Black Creek formation was first seen. The lower 20 feet of the section was exposed at the time, the water being 4 or 5 feet above normal.

SECTION AT BLACKMANS BLUFF, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Concealed by vegetation 30 Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Drab to brownish drab, sandy, micaceous clay 12 Stratified, iron-stained sand, and drab to dark or brownish drab clay, containing leaf impressions, comminuted vegetable particles, small pieces of lignite, a few concretions of iron sulphide, occasional bits of amber and pieces of silicified wood. Near the base the sand lenses are in places indurated 8

About ½ mile farther downstream the same upland bluff is cut by the river and a section essentially the same as the preceding is revealed. The same species of plants were found at about the same level. It is probable that the Patuxent formation occurs a short distance below the water level here, and might be exposed at a low-water stage.

In the two preceding sections the following fossil plants were collected:

Acerates amboyense Berry. Eucalyptus nervosa Newb. Andromeda novae-caesareae Hollick. Kalmia brittoniana Hollick? Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer. Liriodendron cf. primaevum Newb. Dewalquea groenlandica Heer. Planera cretacea Berry.

At a spring a few hundred yards back from the river and at a higher level than the materials revealed in the preceding sections a poor exposure of Eocene limestone occurs, which, although the contact was not seen, probably overlies and rests directly upon the Black Creek formation.

In a section at milepost 105, right bank, 10 feet of Black Creek materials appear resting unconformably upon the Patuxent formation and overlain by questionable Tertiary beds. A detailed account of this section is given on page 97. The materials here are irregularly bedded, consisting in part of dark drab, thinly laminated clay with some lignite, and in part of large lenses of yellowish stratified sand.

At about milepost 104, a few feet of laminated Black Creek materials were observed at the base of a low bluff on the right bank.

At 97½ miles above New Bern the following section was made:

SECTION AT 97½ MILES ABOVE NEW BERN. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow sandy loam, grading down into coarse yellow sand with a thin band of gravel at base containing quartz and crystalline pebbles 14 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation?): Gray, sandy, carbonaceous clay, in places near the base interstratified with rather coarse sand, and containing some good-sized logs of lignite, partly in the condition of brown lignite, and an abundance of iron pyrites in the form of irregular concretions 9

A section essentially the same as the preceding occurs at 95½ miles above New Bern.

The unconformable relations of the Patuxent and Black Creek formations are well exhibited in an exposure at the county-road bridge 2 miles southwest of Goldsboro and 94¾ miles above New Bern. The

details of this section are given on p. 98. (See, also, Plate III, B, opposite p. 98.) The Black Creek materials here consist of dark to black laminated clay with partings and thin layers of fine, micaceous, slightly glauconitic sand, the whole more or less lignitic. Similar material appears in a section at the A. C. L. Railroad bridge ¾ mile below the preceding. (See section, p. 99.) Here, also, they rest upon the Patuxent formation. This is the last place at which the Patuxent formation appears above water level.

At milepost 93 a low-water stage reveals about 3 feet of laminated, lignitic sand and clay of the Black Creek formation. The thin sand partings contain grains of glauconite.

At milepost 92, ⅛ mile above Arringtons Bridge, 6 feet of Black Creek materials similar to the preceding is exposed along the left bank. They contain lignite, grains of amber, and pyrites. In a lens of dark clay about 4 feet above the base the following plant species were collected:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry.

Araucaria Jeffreyi Berry.

Podozamites sp.

Sequoia Reichenbachi (Gein) Heer.

Associated with the plant remains were a few indeterminable casts of pelecypod shells.

Between the preceding and a point 87⅝ miles above New Bern there are occasional exposures of characteristic Black Creek materials in most places rising only a few feet above low-water level. At several places the beds present a slightly more marine aspect than is exhibited by typical Black Creek materials, as shown by the occurrence of glauconite grains in the thin sand layers and partings. At the last-named point there is a 2-foot exposure of black clay with fine sand laminæ in which the writer collected a few leaf remains associated with poor casts of Leda, Cardium, etc. (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 5350.) The plant species are as follows:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry.

Araucaria Jeffreyi Berry.

Ficus daphnogenoides (Heer) Berry.

A short distance below the preceding Araucaria bladenensis Berry and a large undetermined leaf were obtained.

Between the last-named locality and the Sarpony Hills, 83¼ miles above New Bern, there are several occurrences of Black Creek materials presenting no unusual characters.

At the latter point the river touches the base of a hill whose height exceeds 100 feet. From the water's edge to a height of at least 83 feet this bluff consists of Eocene limestone, which appears to fill a deep depression in the eroded Cretaceous surface.

At milepost 83, 4 feet of laminated, dark greenish-gray, glauconitic sand and clay appears at the base of a low Pleistocene terrace section. At Broadhurst Bridge, 82¼ miles above New Bern, a few feet of Eocene limestone is again seen at the water's edge. About 100 yards below Broadhurst Bridge, milepost 82, the following section was obtained:

SECTION AT MILEPOST 82, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loam and sand with gravel band at base 8 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark greenish-gray, micaceous sand, in places coarse, and in places interlaminated with dark clay layers and elsewhere with lighter sand layers 8

Essentially the same kind of materials are exposed almost continuously along the right bank for the next two-thirds mile.

The first marine materials observed containing determinable fossils were at a point 79¼ miles above New Bern. The section is as follows:

SECTION 79¼ MILES ABOVE NEW BERN, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loam and sand with a band of gravel at base 6 Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Greenish-gray, marine sand containing pelecypod casts as follows: Nemodon eufalensis Conrad?, Trigonia sp., Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad, Isocardia cliffwoodensis Weller, Cyprimeria depressa Conrad, Cyclothyris alta Conrad?, Leptosolen biplicata Conrad. (U. S. G. S. Locality No. 5418) 6

Dark greenish-gray, glauconitic sand appears a short distance below milepost 77, left bank, beneath about 10 feet of Pleistocene materials. From this was obtained indeterminable pyrites casts of the genus Perna (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 5351).

At a point locally known as “The Cliffs,” 76½ miles above New Bern and just above Ivys Landing, the river again strikes against high land, and the following fine section is exposed:

SECTION AT “THE CLIFFS” ABOVE IVYS LANDING, 76½ MILES ABOVE NEW BERN. Pleistocene: Sunderland formation (?): FEET. Light-yellow sand 12 Band of small pebbles with sand matrix 1.5 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous: Black Creek formation: FEET. Light greenish-gray sand, mottled with yellow 5 Dark to black clay, chocolate-colored where weathered, with seams of fine sand and seams of peaty material in which occur small amber grains, the whole mottled with yellow 4 Chocolate-colored, sandy clay, mottled with sulphur and iron stain 1.5 Pale greenish-yellow, fine-grained, cross-bedded sand, with a large percentage of brown, partially weathered, glauconite grains 4 Chocolate-colored, sandy clay, with laminæ of sand at base, mottled with sulphur and iron stain 2.5 Pale greenish-yellow, glauconitic, cross-bedded sand, with some clay laminæ. The glauconite grains are weathered brown 1.5 Chocolate-colored, glauconitic, coarse, sandy clay, becoming more sandy at base 3 Chocolate-colored clay interlaminated with green and yellow glauconitic sand 2.5 Light argillaceous sand, mottled with chocolate tints 3.5 Dark, chocolate-colored, slightly indurated, argillaceous sand 4 Pale greenish yellow, and darker chocolate-colored sands, more or less argillaceous in different layers, mottled with iron and sulphur stain, and containing some indeterminable shell casts 25 Yellow and purple, coarse, ferruginous, cross-bedded sand, for the most part indurated to sandstone 11

Between this point and Seven Springs (milepost 75) there are two other bluffs presenting sections essentially like the preceding, though not so high. In the first of these (milepost 76) a layer of sand about 20 feet above the base contains soft casts of shells, among which were recognized the following genera: Pinna, Cardium, Aphrodina, Mactra?, Pugnellus, large fusiform gastropod, Nautilus, etc. (U. S. G. S. Loc. 4163).

At Seven Springs, milepost 75, a few feet of dark greenish-gray, glauconitic sand appears overlain by about 10 feet of Pleistocene sand. The greensand contains some small pieces of lignite.

About ½ mile west of Seven Springs a few rods below what is known as the “Ninth Spring” and back from the river about ¼ mile, there is a 3-foot exposure of dark green marine clay, one layer of which contains an abundance of soft clay casts. The elevation of this layer above the water level in the river, as nearly as could be determined by rough leveling, is 15 feet. The following is a list of the forms identified:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 5352. Nemodon brevifrons Conrad. Pecten n. sp. Glycymeris congesta Conrad. Anatina? Glycymeris sp. Cymella bella Conrad. Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Veniella conradi (Morton).

Etea carolinensis Conrad. Leptosolen biplicata Conrad. Cardium sp. Schizodesma appressa Gabb. Isocardia cliffwoodensis Weller? Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Aphrodina sp. Turritella sp. Cyclothyris? Gyrodes? Legumen planulatum (Conrad). Anchura sp.

Augur Hole Landing, milepost 73, left bank, presents the following section:

SECTION AT AUGER HOLE LANDING, MILEPOST 73, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow loamy clay and sand, with a band of gravel at base 3-7 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark greenish-gray, more or less argillaceous sand, with an indurated layer 1 to 2 feet thick near base. Very fossiliferous, the fossils being in the form of shells and casts. The shells are for the most part fragile. Locally, just above the indurated layer, the shells are fragmentary, constituting a loose coquina material 6

The following is a list of the fossils collected at the above locality:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 4160 AND 5353. Hamulus major Gabb. Etea carolinensis Conrad. Serpula sp. (straight tube). Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Lucina glebula Conrad. Cardium longstreeti Weller. Cucullaea antrosa Morton? Cardium eufaulense Conrad? Nemodon eufalensis Conrad. Cyprimeria depressa Conrad. Arca sp. Cyprimeria densata (Conrad). Glycymeris congesta (Conrad). Aphrodina regia Conrad? Breviarca sp. Tellina sp. Trigonoarca n. sp. Legumen planulatum (Conrad). Gervillia ensiformis Conrad. Cymbophora lintea (Conrad). Ostrea cretacea Morton? Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Corbula crassiplica Gabb. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Anchura (probably new species, same as at Snow Hill, N. C.). Exogyra ponderosa Roemer. Pecten n. sp. Ataphrus kerri Gabb? Plicatula sp. Undetermined pelecypods and gastropods. Lima oxypleura (Conrad). Lima reticulata Forbes. Fish vertebra. Lima pelagica (Morton). Lamna texana Roemer. Anomia n. sp. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Cymella bella Conrad. Corax falcatus Agassiz. Veniella conradi (Morton).

Of the 35 or more determinable species, about 25 are identical with species occurring at Snow Hill, N. C., and it is probable that this bed is approximately synchronous with that horizon.

At milepost 72, 22 miles above Kinston, left bank, the following forms were obtained in a low exposure: Leda sp., Nemodon?, Arca sp., Cymella bella Conrad, Lunatia?, Anchura?, Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 4138.) From this point to milepost 60 there are occasional low exposures of greensand or dark marine clay, the latter in places containing soft casts of shells, and both the sand and clay in places contain poorly preserved fossil shells.

At 62½ miles above New Bern (12½ miles above Kinston), left bank, the following forms were obtained: Cymella bella Conrad, Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad, and Corbula sp.? (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 4135.)

At Whiteley Creek Landing, milepost 60, the river bank presents a section about ⅓ mile in length which is essentially the same in character throughout and which may be represented by the following general section:

SECTION AT WHITELEY CREEK LANDING, MILEPOST 60, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow sandy clay loam, grading down into coarse sand with a thin band of gravel along base 6-10 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark greenish-gray, rather coarse, glauconitic sand, with several more or less discontinuous indurated layers between top and bottom. Very fossiliferous, the fossils being soft except in the indurated layers 8-10

The contained fauna, which is listed below, indicates that this horizon occupies a position very close to the dividing line between the Black Creek and Peedee formations. The absence, however, of such forms as Ostrea larva Lamarck, the typical form of O. subspatulata Forbes, and Belemnitella americana Morton, points to its being somewhat older than the typical Peedee formation, and it is therefore tentatively referred to the upper part of the Black Creek formation.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 4136 AND 5354—NEUSE RIVER, WHITELEY CREEK LANDING, N. C., 60 MILES ABOVE NEW BERN, N. C. (EXPOSURE EXTENDS ⅓ MILE ABOVE LANDING.) Stephanophyllia sp. (near S. bowerbankii M. E. & H. Iden. by T. W. Vaughan.) Ostrea subspatulata Forbes? Ostrea plumosa Morton. Ostrea n. sp. (same as at Blue Banks Landing, N. C.). Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Cucullaea antrosa Morton. Ostrea n. sp. Nemodon brevifrons Conrad. Exogyra sp. Arca rostellata Morton? Trigonia n. sp. (probably same as at Snow Hill, N. C.) Glycymeris subaustralis (d'Orbigny). Perna n. sp. Pecten n. sp.

Anomia linifera Conrad. Aphrodina tippana Conrad? Anomia argentaria Morton. Aphrodina regia Conrad. Crenella n. sp. Aphrodina sp. Dreissensia sp. Linearia (Liothyris) carolinensis Conrad. Pholadomya? Etea carolinensis Conrad. Tellina? Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Gastrochaena? (same as at Bryant Newkirk's Landing, N. C.) Crassatellites (probably new species). Brachymeris alta Conrad. Undetermined pelecypods and gastropods. Cardium eufaulense Conrad. Cardium spillmani Conrad. Fish vertebra. Cardium dumosum Conrad. Lamna texana Roemer. Cardium sp. Otodus appendiculata Agassiz. Isocardia n. sp.

The width of the belt of outcrops of the Black Creek formation where it crosses Contentnea Creek Valley is nearly 10 miles, the exposures occurring from a point about 2 miles below Speights Bridge to the vicinity of the twenty-fifth milepost, or about 6 miles below Snow Hill. For the first few miles of the distance the formation rests with unconformable relations upon the Patuxent formation. The exposures are all low, not exceeding 12 or 14 feet above water level. Except where removed by Pleistocene terracing processes, the overlying beds are believed to be of Miocene age, although no good exposures showing these relations were observed. (See sketch map of Contentnea Creek, Fig. 4, p. 96.)

At the locality indicated about 2 miles below Speights Bridge, right bank, the Black Creek formation first makes its appearance, the materials consisting of typical, dark drab to black, laminated clays, with partings of fine micaceous sand, the whole more or less lignitic. There it rests unconformably upon the Patuxent formation, and for several hundred yards along the bank the undulating upper surface of the latter is observed to rise and fall 4 or 5 feet above and below water level. For the next few miles the only Cretaceous materials appearing in the river banks belong to the Patuxent formation, but at a point about three-fourths of a mile above Fools Bridge the Black Creek formation again appears.

SECTION ¾ MILE ABOVE FOOLS BRIDGE (CONTENTNEA P. O.), FALKLAND QUADRANGLE, RIGHT BANK, CONTENTNEA CREEK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loamy clay 4 Reddish, iron-stained, coarse, cross-bedded sand, with a band of gravel at base 2 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): FEET. Laminated, dark drab to black clay, with partings and lenses of fine sand, containing a large amount of lignite in form of logs, which are in places teredo-bored, smaller pieces and comminuted particles. Irregular iron sulphide concretions are also present. Near the base the sand lenses are in places indurated with iron oxide and in places the surface of the exposed materials is coated yellow with sulphur stain 6

From here to a point about 4 miles below Fools Bridge (Contentnea P. O.) similar laminated materials are exposed at frequent intervals, rising to a maximum height of 8 or 10 feet above the water. Lithologically these materials resemble in all respects the laminated sands and clays of the Black Creek formation exposed in the bluffs of Cape Fear and Neuse rivers.

At Snow Hill no exposures of Cretaceous materials were observed along the immediate river banks. Professor Kerr,1 however, observed such exposures, as shown by the following quotation: “And at Snow Hill, in Lenoir County, on Contentnea Creek, is a line of bluffs on the south side of the stream, several hundred yards in length, and 20 to 40 feet high, the lower portion of which to the height of 10 or 12 feet is a Cretaceous sandy marlyte, filled with shells, . . .” At the time visited the water was several feet higher than extreme low stage, and it may be the outcrops referred to were thus concealed; or vegetation may have since taken possession of the slopes. However, in a ravine near an old schoolhouse, in the scarp bordering a swamp to the west of town, a small fossiliferous exposure was found in which were collected a large number of fossils, including the larger part of the species described by Conrad in Kerr's report, to which reference has just been made. The matrix here consists of dark green, glauconitic, argillaceous sand or sandy clay. The fossil layer is perhaps 10 to 15 feet above medium low-water level in Contentnea Creek. In 1891 a collection was made by Dr. T. W. Stanton from the same horizon somewhere along this scarp to the west of town. These have not previously been studied or reported upon. The list of fossils as given below has been compiled from Conrad's list, from a list furnished by Gabb,2 from Dr. Stanton's collection, and from the recent collection made by the writer.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 785 AND 5348, KERR'S REPORT, 1875, GABB'S LIST AND STANTON'S COLLECTION. LOCALITY—SNOW HILL, N. C. Hamulus major Gabb. Tenea parilis Conrad. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Arena carolinensis Conrad. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Cardium eufaulense Conrad. Cardium carolinensis Conrad. Leda sp. indet. Cardium (related to C. alabamense Gabb). Cucullaea carolinensis Gabb. Nemodon eufalensis Conrad. Protocardium carolinensis Conrad. Nemodon brevifrons Conrad. Cyprimeria depressa Conrad. Barbatia (Plagiarca) lintea Conrad. Cyprimeria densata (Conrad). Barbatia (Plagiarca) carolinensis Conrad. Aphrodina regia Conrad. Cyclothyris alta Conrad. Trigonoarca (Breviarca) umbonata Conrad. Cyclothyris carolinensis Conrad. Linearia (Lyothyris) carolinensis Conrad. Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad. Trigonoarca (Breviarca) perovalis Conrad. Linearia (probably new species) (a). Linearia, n. sp. (b). Trigonoarca (Breviarca) carolinensis Conrad. Legumen planulatum (Conrad). Leptosolen biplicata Conrad. Trigonoarca n. sp. Baroda carolinensis Conrad. Glycymeris congesta (Conrad). Hercedon ellipticus Conrad. Inoceramus proximus Tuomey? Oena plana Conrad. Gervillia sp. Cymbophora lintea (Conrad). Pteria petrosa (Conrad). Corbula crassiplica Gabb. Ostrea sp. Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Gryphaea sp. Corbula n. sp. Exogyra ponderosa Roemer. Pholas n. sp. Trigonia n. sp. Pholas sp. indet. Pecten n. sp. Dentalium? Lima oxypleura (Conrad). Cadulus obnutus (Conrad). Lima reticulata Forbes. Ataphrus kerri Gabb? Anomia linifera Conrad. Chemnitzia? Anomia lintea Conrad. Trichoptropis sp. indet. Anomia n. sp. Callonema carolinensis Conrad. Mytilus condecoratus Conrad. Gyrodes crenata Conrad. Mytilus nasutus Conrad. Lunatia sp. indet. Lithophaga carolinensis (Conrad). Turritella quadrilira Johnson. Inoperna carolinensis Conrad. Anchura n. sp. (incorrectly identified as A. rostrata Morton by Conrad).. Cymella bella Conrad. Veniella conradi (Morton). Pugnellus densatus Conrad? Etea carolinensis Conrad. Pyropsis sp. indet. Eriphyla conradi (Whitfield). Liopeplum thoracica Conrad. Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad. Placenticeras placenta De Kay. Crassatellites pteropsis Conrad. Lamna texana Roemer. Lucina glebula Conrad. Portheus sp. indet. (possibly P. molussus). Identified by J. W. Gidley. Brachymeris alta Conrad.

The above list includes about 69 or more distinct species of invertebrate remains. This is the largest number yet obtained from any single

locality in North Carolina. That the horizon should be regarded as occupying a position lower than the Peedee sand is indicated by the conspicuous absence of such forms as Ostrea larva Lamarck, the typical forms of Ostrea subspatulata Forbes and Exogyra costata Say, and Belemnitella americana Morton, and by the presence of a considerable number of forms which are not known to occur in the Peedee formation or its equivalents, but which are found at numerous other localities in the upper part of the Black Creek formation and its equivalents. Of these the following are the more common: a new species of Nucula related to N. percrassa Con., Trigonoarca triquetra Conrad, Exogyra ponderosa Roemer, Crassatellites carolinensis Conrad, and Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Of the total number of species included in the above list, twenty or more have not previously been reported from other than this locality, although collections from some of the North Carolina localities which are described for the first time in this report, all of which occur in the upper part of the Black Creek formation, include a few of these species.

At Snow Hill and in the immediate vicinity the Black Creek beds, which as far as observed do not rise more than 15 or 20 feet above water level, are overlain unconformably by Miocene sands and clays.

The next exposure observed on Contentnea Creek revealing Cretaceous strata was at a point about 1 mile below the Snow Hill bridge. The section is given as follows:

SECTION 1 MILE BELOW SNOW HILL, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loamy sand, grading down into coarse, loose sand with a gravel band at base 9 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark green, very sandy, glauconitic, micaceous clay 2

For several miles below this there are occasional low exposures of Cretaceous greensand or marine clay, but with the exception of some soft casts no fossils were observed.

At 27½ miles above the mouth of the stream, right bank, a poorly exposed bluff reveals only Miocene sands.

Within the next one-half mile there are several low occurrences of characteristic marine Cretaceous sands and clays belonging to the Black Creek formation. Figure 13, p. 142, shows the undulating character of the Cretaceous surface as it appears in a bluff above milepost 26.

At milepost 25, 6 miles below Snow Hill, left bank, the following forms were collected from a 4-foot exposure of greensand, the lower

portion of which, where it passed beneath the water, is filled with an abundance of fragile, fragmentary shells, with some perfect though fragile specimens, as follows:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4142. Exogyra ponderosa Roemer. Anomia n. sp. Trigonia n. sp. (same as at Snow Hill, N. C.) Cyprimeria depressa Conrad. Corbula crassiplica Gabb. Pecten simplicius Conrad. Bone fragment.

The presence of Exogyra ponderosa Roemer and of the Trigonia indicates that this horizon should be regarded as occupying a position about the same as that at Snow Hill.

Tar River exhibits the beds of the formation interruptedly from near Parker Landing, 12 miles above Greenville, to Randolph Landing, 6 miles above Greenville, Winterville quadrangle. (See sketch map of Tar River, Fig. 7, p. 101.)

The first exposure to be seen in descending the river is at a low bluff about one-fourth mile above Parker Landing. Here the Black Creek beds, which consist of dark to black laminated, lignitic clays, with fine micaceous sand partings, containing iron sulphide concretions, rest with unconformable relations upon Patuxent beds. A detailed section is given on page 103.

The next occurrence is about one-eighth mile below Parker Landing. At the base of this section a few feet of Patuxent clay appears above the water, overlain by several feet of poorly exposed Black Creek materials. These consist of laminated, dark to black clay, with partings and thin layers of micaceous sand, containing an abundance of lignite in the form of seams and comminuted particles, iron sulphide concretions, and occasional small pieces of amber. In certain of the layers and seams plant remains occur in considerable numbers. The forms listed below were collected:

Araucaria bladenensis Berry. Malapoenna horrellensis Berry. Araucaria Jeffreyi Berry. Myrica cliffwoodensis Berry. Chondrophyllum Nordenskioldi Heer. Sequoia minor Velen. Eucalyptus Geinitzi (Heer) Heer. Cephalotaxospermum carolineanum Berry? Sequoia Reichenbachi (Gein) Heer.

At Center Bluff Landing, 9 miles above Greenville, fairly typical laminated materials were observed rising about 2½ feet above water level.

The greatest thickness of Black Creek beds occurring in one exposure on Tar River is at Blue Banks Landing. (See Plate IX, B, opposite p. 209.) The section is described as follows:

SECTION AT BLUE BANKS LANDING, 7 MILES ABOVE GREENVILLE, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene (Wicomico formation): FEET. Very coarse, light yellowish to white, arkosic sand 8 (Unconformity.) Miocene: Sand and clay layers 20-25 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Black Creek formation): Dark green, glauconitic, finely micaceous, argillaceous sand 4-9 Stratified, dark green to black, finely micaceous, arenaceous clay, containing some finely comminuted vegetable matter 4.5 Dark green, glauconitic, finely micaceous and arenaceous, calcareous clay, containing fossils 6 Dark green, finely micaceous, argillaceous glauconitic, calcareous sand, containing fossils 4

The following fossils were obtained from the fossiliferous portion of the above section:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 4144 AND 5347—BLUE BANKS LANDING, TAR RIVER, N. C., 7 MILES ABOVE GREENVILLE, N. C. Bryozoa, encrusting. Cymella bella Conrad. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Veniella conradi (Morton). Hamulus major Gabb. Crassitellites carolinensis Conrad. Hamulus squamosus Gabb. Lucina glebula Conrad. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Cardium eufaulense Conrad. Cardium sp. indet. Leda (probably n. sp.) (a). Isocardia n. sp. Leda (probably n. sp.) (b). Cyprimeria depressa Conrad. Cucullaea carolinensis Gabb. Aphrodina? Nemodon eufalensis Conrad. Legumen planulatum (Conrad). Nemodon brevifrons Conrad. Cymbophora lintea (Conrad). Trigonoarca (Breviarca) umbonata Conrad. Corbula crassiplica Gabb. Corbula carolinensis Conrad. Inoceramus proximus Toumey? Corbula sp. indet. Gervillia ensiformis Conrad? Pholas cf. P. cithara Morton. Ostrea n. sp. Gyrodes, sp. indet. Gryphaea sp. Anchura n. sp. (the same as at Snow Hill). Exogyra ponderosa Roemer. Trigonia eufalensis Gabb. Baculites sp. indet. Pecten simplicius Conrad. Placenticeras placenta De Kay. Pecten n. sp. Undetermined pelecypods and gastropods. Lima oxypleura (Conrad)? Lima reticulata Forbes? Lamna texana Roemer. Anomia n. sp. (same as at Snow Hill).

Of the 35 or more determinable species enumerated in the above list, at least 25 are identical with species present at the Snow Hill locality. The evidence seems to be reasonably conclusive that the Snow Hill and Blue Banks Landing horizons are approximately synchronous.

About one-fourth mile below Blue Banks Landing a dark-green clay which contained a few fossils of the Black Creek formation was observed exposed to a height of 6 feet above water level.

A poor exposure of dark-green sand was observed at Randolph Landing 6 miles above Greenville, and this was the last place at which the Black Creek beds were seen in descending the river.

South of Cape Fear River there are but few exposures of Black Creek materials within the limits of the State. The lack of natural exposures is due to the fact that the stream incisions are shallow, and consequently the valley slopes are gentle and covered with vegetation.

The descriptions given by well owners and drillers of the materials penetrated in various borings in western Bladen and the southeastern half of Robeson counties furnish evidence, however, of the widespread occurrence of the Black Creek formation at shallow depths beneath the surface in these areas.

The buried coastward extension of the Black Creek formation has been recognized in two deep well borings. The first of these is at the Clarendon Waterworks plant at Wilmington, where the thickness amounts to 389 feet, extending from a depth of 720 feet to granite at 1,109 feet below the surface. The correlation is based upon the occurrence of Ostrea cretacea Morton at several horizons between the top and bottom of the strata indicated (see well section, p. 163). The second well is at Fort Caswell, near the mouth of Cape Fear River (p. 169), where a thickness of 400 feet of supposed Black Creek beds makes up the section from a depth of 1,140 feet to basement rocks at 1,540 feet below the surface. This correlation is based partly upon the occurrence of Ostrea cretacea Morton, which was found at two horizons, namely, 1,200-1,237 feet, and 1,365-1,380 feet, respectively. The strata not included between these horizons are largely of marine origin, and it seems best to tentatively regard them as belonging to the Black Creek formation.

The equivalency of the Black Creek formation as described by Earle Sloan in South Carolina with the “Bladen” formation has been proven by the discovery of the characteristic “Bladen” species Araucaria bladenensis in typical laminated materials at a locality 3 or 4 miles north of Florence, Florence County, a few hundred yards above the mouth of a small branch of Black Creek.

Name.—The name Peedee was proposed by Edmund Ruffin1 in 1843. It is derived from Great Peedee River, which crosses the eastern part of South Carolina from northwest to southeast. The terrane described by Ruffin under this name is essentially the same as that for which Earle Sloan2 employed the name “Burches Ferry marls” in 1907. The exposure at Burches Ferry on Great Peedee River, which is Sloan's type section, is mentioned by Ruffin as one of the typical occurrences of the Peedee “bed.” Ruffin's name, therefore, has priority over Sloan's. Both the lithologic and paleontologic character of this terrane are such as to indicate its equivalency with the division in North Carolina which the writer3 in 1907 designated the “Ripley” formation.

The latter term is inappropriate, however, for, as the result of recent investigations, it has been found that the Peedee is the equivalent of only the upper part of the Ripley formation of Alabama, the equivalent of the lower part of that formation being included in the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation of this report.

Definition.—Exposures of the strata of this formation occur in a belt to the east and southeast of that of the Black Creek formation. As in the case of the Black Creek formation, the widest part of the belt is in the southern counties in the Cape Fear River region, where it reaches or perhaps exceeds 37 miles. To the north of Cape Fear River it extends in a north-northeasterly direction, the most northerly known occurrence being at Greenville in Pitt County. To the south of Cape Fear River it extends into South Carolina in a southwesterly direction with approximately the same width as in the Cape Fear River region, to and beyond Great Peedee River, where it disappears beneath the overlapping Eocene beds of the Charleston basis. (See geological map, Plate XVII, in pocket.)

The counties in which outcrops have been observed are as follows: Pitt, Greene, Lenoir, Duplin, Pender, Bladen, New Hanover, Columbus, and Brunswick.

The Peedee (“Burches Ferry”) sand rests with conformable relations upon the Black Creek (“Bladen”) formation. The relation of its upper surface to overlying Tertiary and Quaternary deposits is everywhere one of unconformity.

In the vicinity of Wilmington and northeastward at least as far as Neuse River, Eocene strata have been shown to occupy more or less disconnected basin-like depressions in the undulating Cretaceous surface. To the eastward of this portion of the belt the Eocene thickens and probably forms a continuous sheet, as shown by well records. Beneath this sheet the Peedee beds pass coastward, becoming deeper and deeper beneath the surface for an unknown distance. From the South Carolina line northeastward to Neuse River, thin, more or less discontinuous sheets of Miocene and Pliocene deposits occur resting unconformably upon the Peedee formation, except where the above-mentioned Eocene strata intervene. In Greene and Pitt counties Miocene beds probably intervene continuously between the Peedee surface and the overlying Pleistocene deposits. Throughout the belt of outcrop of the Peedee formation wherever the above-mentioned Tertiary strata are absent the Peedee beds are overlain by thin, surficial Pleistocene deposits.

The great mass of the materials of the Peedee formation consist of dark-green or gray, finely micaceous, more or less glauconitic and argillaceous sands, many layers of which are calcareous and some of which are sufficiently calcareous to form an impure limestone. Irregular concretionary masses of impure calcium carbonate occur in places. These are either scattered irregularly through the sands, or are arranged in layers parallel to the bedding, producing nodular-like bands along the river bluffs. Such concretions have been observed as large as 4 or 5 feet in their longest diameter. Dark marine clays are present to some extent interstratified with the sand beds. The materials as a whole are quite compact. Fossils, principally invertebrates, occur either scattered irregularly through the deposits or arranged in layers 1 to 3 or more feet in thickness. Where the lime carbonate of the shells remain, as is commonly the case, the materials may be classed as shell marl. The content of glauconite in the greensands of North Carolina appears to be less than that of the greensand marls of New Jersey. A number of analyses of the greensands are given by Ebenezer Emmons in his report of the North Carolina Geological Survey, 1858, entitled “Agriculture of the Eastern Counties,” pp. 89-100.

The strike of the formation may be assumed to be approximately parallel to the direction of the belt of outcrop. To the north of Cape Fear River this direction is north-northeast and south-southwest. In the region of Cape Fear River it swings around northeast-southwest and extends into South Carolina in that direction.

The Peedee beds have a gentle southeastward dip, the amount of which can be determined only approximately. Calculations based upon

surface observations along Cape Fear River and upon data obtained from the deep well borings at Wilmington and Fort Caswell, give results pointing to a dip of between 20 and 25 feet to the mile.

The greatest known thickness of the formation in North Carolina is that presented by the section of the Fort Caswell well (p. 169). The base of the Eocene is at 254 feet and the lowest occurrence of characteristic Peedee fossils is at 1,140 feet, making a thickness of 886 feet of undoubted Peedee beds. In the deep well at Wilmington the Peedee beds were penetrated from the surface to a depth of 720 feet (p. 163).

That a comparable thickness of Peedee beds would probably be encountered in wells sunk near the coast elsewhere in North Carolina is indicated by records of wells at Charleston, S. C., and at Norfolk, Va. At the former place marine Cretaceous strata were recognized from a depth of about 600 feet to 1,980 feet, and at the latter from 715 to 1,320 feet. It is probable that in each case the greater part of the Cretaceous strata penetrated should be referred to the Peedee sand.

The formation is quite generally fossiliferous. Marine invertebrates constitute the bulk of the contained fossil remains. Among vertebrates, however, sharks’ teeth are not uncommon, and fragments of bones occur at rare intervals. The invertebrates occur either scattered irregularly through the deposits or aggregated in layers. In places the shells have been preserved, but elsewhere the shell material has been dissolved away, leaving casts of impure lime, clay, sand, pyrite, or phosphate. Collections were made at many places, lists of which will be found in the detailed accounts of localities.

The table opposite shows the geographic distribution and range of the invertebrate species of the Peedee formation in North Carolina.

Detailed Sections.—The bluffs of Cape Fear River furnish the best series of exposures of the Peedee formation in the State. These occur from Donohue Creek Landing, 50⅓ miles above Wilmington, to near the mouth of Black River. At several places in this distance the Peedee beds are overlain by a few feet of Miocene or Pliocene sand or marl, but for the greater part of the distance a surficial Pleistocene terrace covering rests directly upon the Cretaceous surface. (See sketch map of Cape Fear River, Plate I, opposite p. 88.)

A detailed section of the exposure at Donohue Creek Landing is given below.

SECTION AT DONOHUE CREEK LANDING, 50⅓ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellow loam, grading down into sand with gravel band at base 1 foot in thickness 7 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous: Peedee sand: FEET. Rusty, iron-stained sand, grading down into next layer 2 Dark, almost black, marine sand with some fine irregular laminæ of clay 8 Dark, calcareous clay indurated at base to a rather hard rock 1 foot in thickness 3 Dark to black marine sand, with some fine irregular laminæ of clay. Fossiliferous 4.5 Arenaceous limestone rock with fossils 1 Dark to black marine sand, with fine irregular laminæ of clay. Fossiliferous 3 Hard limestone rock, very fossiliferous, Cardium being the principal form 3 Grayish and yellowish, loose, stratified sand with some irregular lime concretions 2 Concealed 3 Black Creek formation (?): Dark blue, thinly laminated clay with fine sand partings, poorly preserved fossils near the top 10

The fossils obtained at the above locality, all of which occur above the dark laminated clay, are as follows:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 4158, 5369, 5369a. Serpula sp. Cardium longstreeti Weller. Arca sp. Cardium sp. (large cast). Trigonoarca cliffwoodensis Weller? Lunatia obliquata M. and H. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Gyrodes sp. Ostrea sp. Volutoderma? Ostrea larva Lamarck. Crocodilian tooth. Ostrea sp. (large). Fish vertebra. Exogyra costata Say. Lamna texana Roemer. Anomia argentaria Morton. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Anomia lintea Conrad. Corax falcatus Agassiz. Etea carolinensis Conrad.

From Donohue Creek Landing to Magnolia Landing, which is 15½ miles above Wilmington, the Peedee formation is exposed in many bluffs, rising to a maximum height of 40 to 50 feet above the water level. The materials consist of compact, dark green or dark gray, fine micaceous, more or less glauconitic sand, as a rule somewhat argillaceous and in many places calcareous, with occasional indurated layers. The compact nature of the beds renders them resistant to erosion, so that the bluffs are in most places steep and in some places even vertical. In many of the sections a few fossils occur scattered irregularly through the deposits and an occasional fossiliferous layer occurs.

Miocene shell marl occurs resting directly upon the upper surface of the Cretaceous at the following places: Robinsons and Browns landings between mileposts 50 and 49, and Black Rock Landing, milepost 37. Pliocene shell marl occupies a similar position at Neills Eddy Landing, milepost 28, and at Bryants Landing, milepost 27.

Lists of fossils from various localities below Donohue Creek Landing, all of which belong to the Peedee sand, are given below:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 3356 AND 5419—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., ROBINSONS LANDING, 49½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Cucullaea antrosa Morton. Trigonia eufalensis Gabb? Arca? Anomia argentaria Morton. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Anomia lintea Conrad. Ostrea sp. Cardium sp. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Lamna texana Roemer. Ostrea larva Lamarck. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Exogyra costata Say.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 3353—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., KELLYS COVE, 46 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Exogyra costata var. cancellata Stephenson. Ostrea sp. Exogyra costata Say. Anomia argentaria Morton.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 3450, 4157, 5370—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., INDIAN WELLS LANDING, 41 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Ostrea sp. Anomia argentaria Morton. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Cardium sp. Exogyra costata Say. Otodus appendiculatus Agassiz. Exogyra costata var. cancellata Stephenson.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4154—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., DANIELS LANDING, 40 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Ostrea larva Lamarck. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Anomia argentaria Morton. Exogyra costata Say.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 3448—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., KINGS BLUFF, 38½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Aphrodina? Exogyra costata Say. Gyrodes sp. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Turritella sp.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 3449 AND 5371—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., BLACK ROCK, LANDING, 37 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Cucullaea sp. Cardium spillmani Conrad. Exogyra costata Say. Cardium sp. Exogyra costata var. cancellata Stephenson. Gyrodes sp. Rostellites sp. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Anchura? Anomia argentaria Morton. Belemnitella americana Morton. Crassatellites sp. Reptilian tooth.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 3452—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., HUDLERS LANDING, 30½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Fine specimen of crab, probably undescribed. Exogyra costata Say. Anomia argentaria Morton.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 3451—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., NEILLS EDDY LANDING, 28 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C.

Ostrea subspatulata Forbes.

(NO NUMBER.) LOCALITY—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., BRYANTS LANDING, 27 MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C.

Ostrea subspatulata Forbes.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4155—CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., WANETS LANDING, 25⅔ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C.

Ostrea subspatulata Forbes.

The last exposure of Peedee beds observed in descending the river was at Magnolia Landing. The section is as follows:

SECTION AT MAGNOLIA LANDING, 15½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, RIGHT BANK. FEET. Pleistocene: (poorly exposed) 6-7 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Hard, fossiliferous, limestone rock 1.5 Dark blue to greenish, argillaceous sand, with some limestone concretions 1 foot or more in diameter 2 Concealed to water's edge 1.5

A list of the fossils from the preceding locality is subjoined:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4151. Cassidulus sp. Exogyra costata Say. Echinoid (a regular form). Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck? Membranapora? Lima sp. Serpula cretacea (Conrad). Anomia argentaria Morton. Cucullaea antrosa Morton. Paranomia? Arca sp. Cardium spillmani Conrad. Inoceramus sp. Cardium dumosum Conrad? Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Cardium sp. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Aphrodina sp. Ostrea sp.

On Black River several exposures of typical Peedee materials have been observed between Goff Landing, 41¼ miles, and Point Caswell, 36 miles, respectively, above Wilmington. (See sketch map of Black River, Fig. 13, p. 124.) These are all low occurrences, the beds nowhere rising more than 2 or 3 feet above water level. The overlying materials

are of Pleistocene age. Specimens of Exogyra costata Say were obtained at Goff Landing, and, near Sparkleberry Landing, 39¾ miles above Wilmington, specimens of Exogyra costata Say and Exogyra costata var. cancellata Stephenson were obtained.

The banks of Northeast Cape Fear River exhibit the Peedee formation from Deep Bottom Bridge, 75 miles above Wilmington, where it is overlain unconformably by supposed Eocene beds, at numerous places to a point about 44 miles above Wilmington, and at Hilton Park, Wilmington. After the first exposure seen in descending the river where only a few feet of Peedee strata appear at the base of a 40-foot section made up principally of Eocene (?) beds, the occurrences are all low, not exceeding 10 or 15 feet, the overlying materials constituting Pleistocene terrace deposits. Between the last point mentioned and Wilmington the Peedee beds were not observed above water level, being transgressed for a part if not all the distance by Eocene deposits. At Hilton Park, Wilmington, however, the Cretaceous again appears, overlain at this particular place by Pleistocene terrace deposits. Beyond this point the formation passes finally beneath the Eocene, having been detected only in well borings at points nearer the coast. (See sketch map of Northeast Cape Fear River, Fig. 14, p. 152.)

With one or two exceptions the observations on Northeast Cape Fear River were made at a time when the water was 6 or 8 feet higher than the normal stage. Peedee beds were first observed in descending the stream near Deep Bottom Bridge, about 75 miles above Wilmington. The river here swings against a bluff 25 to 40 feet in height, along whose base it continues for about ⅜ of a mile to a point ⅛ mile below Deep Bottom Bridge. The face of the bluff is partially free from vegetation at several places, but the best section is at the lower end of the bluff, where it is exposed from top to bottom. The section in detail is as follows:

SECTION BELOW DEEP BOTTOM BRIDGE, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Yellowish loam, grading down into light drab, sandy clay, mottled with pink and red 10 Eocene? Alternating sand and clay layers with a pebble band at base 29 (Unformity.) Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Dark green, coarse, glauconitic, micaceous sand with many small white pebbles as large as peas, containing Pecten (?), a few small sharks’ teeth and numerous individuals of Ostrea subspatulata Forbes in a thin layer (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 4134). This layer first appears above the water's edge a few rods above where the section was taken and gradually rises to a height of 4 or 5 feet a few rods below 1½

The Peedee greensand was seen only at and near where the section was taken, the only materials appearing at other portions of the bluff belonging to the Tertiary and Pleistocene.

Between Deep Bottom Bridge and milepost 62 a number of low exposures, not exceeding 5 feet, of Peedee materials were observed, consisting of dark green, glauconitic, micaceous, more or less argillaceous sand, certain layers of which were indurated to a firm rock. A few characteristic fossils were collected at two of these exposures, as follows:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4131—NORTHEAST CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., ABOUT 67½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C., RIGHT BANK.

Exogyra costata Say.

Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4161—NORTHEAST CAPE FEAR RIVER, N. C., 66½ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, N. C. Bryozoa. Lima pelagica (Morton). Exogyra costata Say. Anomia argentaria Morton. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck? Paranomia scabra Morton. Pecten tenuitestus Gabb.

At Johnsons Cove, 61¾ miles above Wilmington, the following section was taken:

SECTION AT JOHNSONS COVE, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loose, light sand 6 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Firmly indurated, dark gray, calcareous, glauconitic sand, containing many fossils 2 Dark green, argillaceous, micaceous, rather coarse sand, containing a few fossils 7

A list of the forms obtained at the above described locality is given below.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4133. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Pecten sp. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Lima reticulata Forbes. Ostrea larva Lamarck. Lima pelagica Morton. Exogyra costata Say. Turritella sp. Gryphaea sp. Belemnitella americana Morton.

A section was studied at milepost 61, left bank, as follows:

SECTION AT MILEPOST 61, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loose white sand 8 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous (Peedee sand): FEET. Dark green glauconitic sand 1 Greenish-gray, glauconitic and calcareous standstone, containing numerous fossils 1½ Dark greenish-gray, glauconitic sand, containing a few fossils 2

A list of the fossils obtained is subjoined:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4130. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Lima reticulata Forbes. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Anomia argentaria Morton. Exogyra costata Say. Belemnitella americana Morton.

At about 58¾ miles above Wilmington a section was examined as follows:

SECTION 58¾ MILES ABOVE WILMINGTON, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loamy sand grading down into argillaceous sand 9 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Dark greenish-gray, glauconitic, micaceous, slightly argillaceous sand with two indurated layers, one at base and the other a few feet above base, each 1 foot thick. Fossiliferous 9 Light gray, soft, glauconitic, calcareous sand with an indurated layer 1 foot at base and another ½ foot thick a few feet above base. Fossiliferous 9

The following fossils were collected at this locality:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4149. Bryozoa. Trigonia thoracica Morton? Inoceramus sp. Pecten? Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Lima sp. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Anomia argentaria Morton. Exogyra costata Say. Gyrodes sp. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Turritella trilira Conrad. Trigonia eufalensis Gabb. Belemnitella americana Morton.

Jacksons Hole is near milepost 58. This locality was visited in the early spring of 1906 when there was a medium low stage of water. There was then exposed about 3 feet of Peedee greensand indurated at the water's edge to a firm rock, while just beneath the indurated layer and covered by the water there was a soft shell marl. The whole was fossiliferous, and the following forms were obtained:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4140. Bryozoa. Exogyra costata Say. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Anomia argentaria Morton. Ostrea sp. Belemnitella americana Morton.

The Jacksons Hole locality is probably not more than a mile from the Lewis Creek locality near South Washington, visited by Hodge in 1840 and later by Lyell in the early forties.

Lewis Creek enters the Northeast Cape Fear a short distance above Jacksons Hole. At a point about ½ mile above its mouth, near the site of an old water mill, a few fossils were obtained, all of which were found at the Jacksons Hole locality, and it is probable that the two localities represent exactly the same horizon. It is also possible that this is the exact locality visited by Hodge and later by Lyell. The following forms were obtained:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4168. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Anomia argentaria Morton. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Belemnitella americana Morton. Exogyra costata Say.

Continuing down the river, occasional low exposures of Peedee greensand were observed to a point about 44 miles above Wilmington. A few specimens of Ostrea subspatulata Forbes (U. S. G. S. Loc. No. 4166) were obtained at Krooms Bridge, milepost 56; but otherwise no fossils were seen.

Between the occurrence at milepost 44 and Hilton Park, Wilmington, there is no place where Peedee beds are known to rise above water level in the river. Sections at points 41¼ and 30⅛ miles above Wilmington, respectively, show only Eocene strata. However, at Lanes Ferry (Rocky Point), 35 miles above Wilmington, and at Castle Hayne, materials which would correspond to the Peedee beds as here defined have been reported by Dr. Stanton1 in rock quarries at the base of Eocene limestone, and it is probable that at no place in this region is the surface of the formation more than a few feet below low-water level.

The lowest point on the Northeast Cape Fear at which the Peedee beds have been observed in surface exposures is at Hilton Park at the northern edge of the city of Wilmington, New Hanover County. The following section was made a few rods below the pump station of the Clarendon Waterworks Company:

SECTION AT HILTON PARK, WILMINGTON, N. C. Pleistocene: FEET. Coarse, light gray to yellowish, loose, somewhat loamy sand soil 1½ Yellowish-brown, medium-grained sand 4 Concealed 5 (Unconformity.)

Cretaceous: Peedee sand (?): FEET. Fine grained, light gray to white, almost pure sand, slightly argillaceous in places, more compact than the Pleistocene above, and delicately mottled with chocolate tints and in places with light yellow. Probably a leached-out phase of marine Cretaceous materials 8 Peedee sand: Dark green, compact, finely micaceous, glauconitic clay 2 Dark green, very compact, glauconitic, very calcareous, arenaceous, slightly micaceous clay, indurated in places with lime cement to hard rock layers or concretions; contains characteristic fossils; partially concealed by high tide 4-5

The lowest Cretaceous layer in the section appears interruptedly for several hundred yards along the left bank of the river below the pump station. The following forms were obtained:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4143. Hemiaster sp. Pecten simplicius Conrad. Bryozoa. Lima sp. Serpula sp. Anomia argentaria Morton. Cucullaea sp. Crassatellites? Perna sp. Panopea decisa Say. Exogyra costata Say. Nautiius dekayi Morton.

Exposures of Peedee beds occur interruptedly on Neuse River from near Williams Landing, 52 miles above New Bern, to within a few miles of the mouth of Contentnea Creek. With the exception of two occurrences of Eocene strata which are indicated on following pages, the deposits observed overlying the Peedee beds along this stream are of Pleistocene age. A detailed account of the Neuse River exposures is given below. (See sketch map of Neuse River, Fig. 4, p. 96.)

Two miles above the steamboat landing at Kinston (51¾ miles above New Bern), near Williams Landing, a dark green, argillaceous greensand of the Peedee formation forms a bluff 12 or 15 feet in height along the left bank, and this overlain by several feet of Pleistocene material. The following species, several of which are characteristic of the Peedee sand, were collected, occurring mostly in a layer near the base:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4152. Ostrea subspatulata Forbes. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Ostrea larva Lamarck. Lima reticulata Forbes. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Anomia argentaria Morton. Exogyra sp.

Below the steamboat landing at Kinston, Peedee greensand rises several feet above the water on the left bank, and at the next bend below similar materials may be seen at low water for some distance along the right bank.

From the wagon bridge above milepost 48 to the Norfolk Southern Railroad bridge below milepost 47 there are almost continuous exposures of compact greensand along the right banks of the stream, rising in places 8 or 10 feet above the water, the undulating surface being everywhere overlain by a surficial covering of Pleistocene terrace deposits. At the latter bridge Exogyra costata Say and Anomia were collected. (U. S. G. S. Locality No. 4132.)

A low exposure of greensand was seen at 45½ miles above New Bern. At 44¾ miles an exposed thickness of 7 or 8 feet of Peedee greensand is overlain by 2 feet of shaly clay with a pebble band at base probably of Eocene age.

The last exposure of marine Cretaceous observed in descending the river was at a ferry 34⅔ miles above New Bern, or 3⅓ miles above the mouth of Contentnea Creek. The strata are not well revealed, the examination being made in the ditch along the side of the road leading down to the ferry. The section obtained is as follows:

SECTION AT FERRY 34⅔ MILES ABOVE NEW BERN, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Sand and loam poorly exposed 15 Eocene: Thin-bedded shale with conglomerate band at base 7 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Dark green, very compact, arenaceous, glauconitic, micaceous clay, containing numerous shells and casts 11 Concealed to water's edge 3

The fossils listed below were collected from the greensand.

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY Nos. 4169 AND 4137. Hemiaster sp. Exogyra costata Say. Bryozoa. Pecten simplicius Conrad. Serpula sp. Lima sp. Nucula sp. Anomia argentaria Morton. Cucullaea sp. Turritella vertebroides Morton. Ostrea tecticosta Gabb. Belemnitella americana Morton. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Crab claws.

That a very marked unconformity exists between the Cretaceous and Eocene is shown by the fact that a few rods below where the section

was made the conglomerate was observed down almost to the water's edge, and still farther down the stream, 100 yards or more, the Peedee beds again rise some 7 or 8 feet above the water. The Eocene thus appears to occupy a basin-like depression in the undulating surface of the Cretaceous.

The bluffs of Contentnea Creek expose Peedee beds at a number of places from a point about 6½ miles below Snow Hill, Greene County, to Grifton in Pitt County. The occurrences are all low, the thickness of the beds exposed above water level nowhere amounting to more than 12 or 15 feet. Pleistocene terrace deposits form the overlying materials, except at two places, where Miocene sands were observed resting upon the Cretaceous beds. A detailed account of the Contentnea Creek exposures is given below. (See sketch map of Contentnea Creek, Fig. 4, p. 96.)

About 24½ miles above the mouth of Contentnea Creek, right bank, Peedee greensand appears to a height of 10 feet above water level in a 25-foot bluff, the upper 15 feet of which is Pleistocene. A layer of lime concretions occurs near the base. A mile below this, 23½ miles above the mouth of the stream, the following section was made:

SECTION AT 23½ MILES ABOVE THE MOUTH OF CONTENTNEA CREEK, RIGHT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Sand with thin gravel band at base 12 (Unconformity.) Miocene (?): Light gray, loose, stratified sand, stained yellow in places with iron, and in places slightly glauconitic 20 Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Dark green, glauconitic sand 3

Between here and the bridge at Hookerton there are a number of low exposures of Peedee greensand. A short distance below this bridge the greensand is overlain by 12 feet of light colored, stratified sand, similar to the supposed Miocene sands described in the preceding section. At several points below this low exposures of greensand were observed, and at milepost 20, right bank, the greensand rises about 12 feet above the water. At the base of this latter section the following forms were collected:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4148. Nucula n. sp. (aff. N. percrassa Conrad). Trigonia (probably a new species). Anomia argentaria Morton. Ostrea sp. Cardium sp. Ostrea plumosa Morton. Bone fragment.

One mile above Edwards Bridge (which is just on the western edge of the Ayden quadrangle) the Peedee strata show a slight variation from the usual lithologic character. The section is as follows:

SECTION 1 MILE ABOVE EDWARDS BRIDGE, LEFT BANK. Pleistocene: FEET. Loam and sand with thin gravel band at base, rusty brown in lower 2 feet 6 (Unconformity.) Cretaceous (Peedee sand): Coarse, very green, very glauconitic sand with a mealy texture, containing the highest percentage of glauconite of any of the greensands observed in the State 4 Layer of concretions of all sizes up to several inches in diameter, consisting of greensand cemented with lime 1 Dark brownish, argillaceous, glauconitic sand 3

Between here and Edwards Bridge the greensand appears in several low exposures. Below Edwards Bridge nothing was seen until milepost 7 was reached, between which point and Grifton the greensands and clays of the Peedee appear at a number of places rising not more than 6 or 7 feet above the water.

At milepost 6, left bank, 1½ miles above Grifton, Ostrea subspatulata Forbes and Exogyra costata Say were collected from upper Peedee beds. (U. S. G. S. Locality No. 4153.)

The most northerly occurrence of the Peedee formation is at Greenville, in Pitt County. Although no surface exposures have been seen by those who have recently worked in that vicinity, the existence of the beds there are known from an account given by Conrad in 1871.1 He describes the occurrence of the characteristic fossil Belemnitella americana Morton in Cretaceous sand in the bottom of a marl pit beneath a Miocene shell bed. From this account it is reasonably certain that in places at least in the vicinity the Peedee beds are present at no great depth beneath the surface.

South of Cape Fear River valley the only surface occurrence of Peedee strata known within the State is on the north shore of Waccamaw Lake in Columbus County. To the east of the pumping station of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad a low bluff is formed by the outcrop of an indurated layer of Miocene shell marl or limestone. The base of the Miocene is revealed at one place only, which is at the west end of the bluff near the pumping station. Immediately beneath the indurated layer there is a loose conglomerate consisting of rounded pebbles and irregular nodules of phosphate, internal phosphate casts of

gastropods and pelecypods, shells of Exogyra and guards of Belemnitella, all in a matrix of yellowish brown, calcareous sand. The shore near-by is strewn with casts, phosphate nodules, etc., which appear to have been washed from this conglomerate. The following forms were collected in place in the conglomerate: Belemnitella americana Morton, and undetermined casts of pelecypods and gastropods. (U. S. G. S. Locality No. 4051.) In addition, a number of forms which had been washed from this conglomerate were picked up loose on the shore, as follows:

U. S. G. S. LOCALITY No. 4146. Cucullaea antrosa Morton. Cardium sp. Cucullaea sp. Cyprimeria sp. Exogyra costata Say. Gyrodes sp. Gryphaea vesicularis Lamarck. Rostellites sp. Anomia argentaria Morton. Belemnitella americana Morton. Veniella sp. Fish vertebra. Crassatellites sp.

The deposit is a basal conglomerate of the Miocene, the fossils being derived from the underlying Cretaceous. Beneath the conglomerate there is exposed at low water 2 or 3 feet of compact, dark gray, calcareous and micaceous sand, referable to the Peedee formation. This sand is exposed along the shore for a few rods only.

Sets of well samples have been examined from a number of wells in the southeastern part of the State in which Peedee beds were penetrated, and from these the sections given on the following pages have been prepared. The figures to the left in the sections indicate sample numbers.

Section of well at Bolton, Columbus County, N. C., owned by the Waccamaw Land and Lumber Company, and drilled in 1906 by Lowry and Faulkner, prepared from samples furnished by Mr. John D. Lowry.

Pleistocene: THICKNESS IN FEET. 1. Missing 1- 10 2. Pale yellowish, very sandy clay 10- 30 3. Yellow, coarse, very argillaceous sand 30- 40 Miocene: 4. Light gray, calcareous sand with numerous shells 40- 50 Cretaceous (Peedee sand): 5. Gray, very calcareous, arenaceous clay 50- 70 6. Same as No. 5 70- 90 7. Similar to Nos. 5 and 6, but a shade darker 90-110 8. Greenish-gray, very calcareous, arenaceous clay 110-130 9. Similar to No. 8, but a shade lighter 130-140