CRETACEOUS FORMATIONS. 73

CLARK, WM. B.—Results of a Recent Investigation of the Coastal Plain For-
mations 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.

THE CRETACEOUS FORMATIONS.
By L. W. StTepHenson.

HISTORICAL REVIEW.

The earliest account of strata now classed as Cretaceous, in the State
of North Carolina, was furnished by William Bartram! in 1791. In
the course of his travels through the Southern States he came to Ash-
wood 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 lamin,
Separable by means of very thin, almost imperceptible veins or strata of fine
micaceous particles * * *; other places present to view strata of hetero-
seneous 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., com-
bined or united with a calcareous cement; * * *. And again we observe
Shells, marcacites, belemnites, dentes carcharise, with pieces of wood trans-
mhuted, 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 Olmsted? in 1827. He describes a deposit of so-called cop-
peras at Spring Bank, 7 miles below Waynesborough (Goldsboro of
to-day) in Wayne County, as follows:

 

'Travels through North and South Carolina, ete. Philadelphia, 1791; London, 1794.
*Geology of North Carolina, Pt. II, 1827, pp. 87-141 (especially pp. 98-99).

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