Alabama, where it intersects the Mobile and Montgomery Division of the Louisville and Nashville Railroad, 44.54 miles; in Alabama, one-tenth of a mile; part of the Louisville and Nashville system; general offices, Pensacola, Florida, and Louisville, Kentucky.

Pensacola and Selma Railroad, Upper Division—Selma, Alabama, to Pine Apple, in Wilcox county, Alabama, 35 miles. Lower Division-Flomaton, Alabama, to Repton, in Conecuh county, Alabama, 32.39 miles; constructed since the war; owned and operated by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company; gauge four feet nine inches; general office, Louisville, Kentucky.

South and North Alabama Railroad-Montgomery, Alabama, to Decatur, Alabama, 182.66 miles; gauge four feet nine inches; opened in 1872; operated by the Louisville and Nashville Railroad Company, which owns a controlling interest in its capital stock; general office, Montgomery, Alabama.

STATEMENT

PART ELEVENTH.

SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF ALABAMA.

By Eugene Allen Smith, l'h. D., State Geologist.

The five great divisions, based upon the peculiarities of the organic life of each, into which, according to Professor Gekiei, the geological record has been classified are: (1) the Archæan, sometimes called the Azoic (lifeless) or Eozoic (dawn of life); (2) the Paleozoic (ancient life) or Primary; (3) the Mesozoic (middle life) or Secondary; (4) the Cenozoic (recent life) or Tertiary, and (5) the Post-Tertiary or Quaternary.

The following table shows the order of succession of the stratified formations of Alabama, together with the position in the geological column of those formations either wanting or not yet recognized as occurring in the State:

In giving the details concerning these formations, it will be, for many reasons, most convenient to consider them in historical order.

ter.

These rocks occupy a somewhat triangular shaped area in the eastern part of the State, bounded by a line running approximately as follows: From the Georgia line, near the northeastern corner of Cleburne county, southwestward through Clay and Coosa into Chilton, and thence eastward through Elmore, Tallapoosa, Macon and Lee to the Georgia line again, about opposite Columbus. These rocks differ from the other rocks of the State in being made up of distinct, often well crystallized minerals, of which quartz, feldspars, micas, and hornblende form the great mass of the rocks in question, while subordinated to these, other minerals occur, either forming rock varieties of limited distribution, or as ores of valuable metals, as minerals of economic value, or otherwise of interest.

As before stated, the great mass of these crystalline rocks are aggregates of the minerals, quartz, feldspar and mica, often associated with hornblende. Of these the quartz and hornblende alone sometimes form great rock masses. Granite, gneiss, mica schist, quartzite and hornblende schist, or slate, are the most abundant of these rocks, while soapstones, or steatites, and limestones, are of much more limited occurrence. They are all disposed in beds of varying thickness, which are seldom in horizontal position, but are usually tilted at some considerable angle to the horizon, the dip or slope of these beds being prevalently to the southeast, while the trend or strike of their upturned edges is, as a rule, to the northeast and southwest. In crossing this country from the northwest to the southeast, it can not fail to strike the observer that, as he approaches the southeastern border, he has evidences of constantly increasing amount of decay among the rocks. Along this southeastern border they are often nothing more than stratified clays, which are the result of their decay from the action of the atmospheric forces. This decay often reaches to a depth of fifteen or twenty feet from the surface, as may be seen in many of the railroad cuts. In these clays, ledges or thin sheets of quartz, which is practically unaffected by the weather, may be seen protruding; or broken down by alterna