Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VI.djvu/685

 EON DE BEAUMONT subdivided into lower, middle, and upper eo- cene, called also in the United States the Clai- borne, Jackson, and Vicksburg epochs. It extends along a great portion of the S. E. coast of the United States, principally in Maryland, Virginia, the Carolinas, and the gulf states. The beds reach their most complete and dis- tinct development in Mississippi and Alabama. Those of the Claiborne epoch or lower eocene, near Olaiborne, Ala., consist of about 25 ft. of clay overlaid by a bed of lignite 4 ft. thick, and succeeding this marl with oysters, then marly arenaceous limestone, again succeeded by marl with oysters, upon which is sand with shells showing beach origin, the whole being about 125 ft. thick. In Mississippi the beds reach a thickness of 425 ft. The epoch is rep- resented on the Pamunkey river in Virginia, and at Marlborough in Maryland, by dark greensands. In the upper Missouri there is a great lignite group 2,000 ft. thick, containing much lignite, numerous leaves of plants, and shells of mollusks ; and a lignite formation also occurs in Texas. The beds of the Jackson epoch, or middle eocene, are represented at Jackson, Miss., and consist of lignitic clay and beds of white and blue marls, containing nu- merous marine shells, and remains of the zeu- glodon, and extinct species of whale supposed to have been about 70 ft. long, whose large vertebrae, 18 in. long by 1 ft. in diameter, are found in such quantities in some places as to be used in making walls. The Jackson beds cross the state as a narrow band about 80 ft. thick, E. K. E. through Jackson and Scott counties. The beds of the Vicksburg epoch, or upper eocene, are represented at Vicksburg, Miss., and consist of: 1, lignitic clay, 20 ft. thick; 2, ferruginous rock of Red Bluff, containing numerous marine fossils, 12 ft. thick ; 3, com- pact limestones and blue marls, with marine fossils, 80 ft. thick ; making a total thickness of 112 ft. The Vicksburg group occurs in Munroe, Clarke, and Washington counties, Ala. ; as limestone at Tampa Bay, Fla. ; and as gray marl on Ashley and Cooper rivers, S. C. In the upper Missouri region there are fresh- water beds 1,000- ft. thick, consisting of white and drab clays, layers of sandstone, and local beds of limestone; but they are considered by Leidy as miocene. In them are found the remains of the titanotlierium, an herbivorous animal, somewhat resembling the modern ta- pir, and about twice the size of a horse. EON DE BEAUMONT, harles Genevieve Louis Angnste Andre Timothee d', commonly called the chevalier d'Eon, a French diplomatist, who owes his notoriety to doubts which long exist- ed as to his sex, born in Tonnerre, Burgundy, Oct. 5, 1728, died in London, May 21, 1810. He was of good family, was well educated, became a doctor of canon and civil law, and an advo- cate before the parliament of Paris, and at the outset of his career applied himself with some success to literature. In 1755 Louis XV. em- ployed him in a delicate diplomatic mission to EOS 6T3 Russia in company with the chevalier Douglas. Favored by a beardless face, he assumed the dress of a woman, and, blending a woman's tact with a politician's cunning, gained the good graces of the empress Elizabeth, became her reader, and having bent her mind to the wishes of the French court, went back to Paris to announce his success. He immediately re- visited St. Petersburg in male attire, passed himself upon Elizabeth as the brother of her former favorite, was again successful in his ne- gotiations, and on his way back to France ap- peared as envoy at Vienna. Having held a commission in the army, he was promoted to a captaincy of dragoons in 1759, served with the forces on the Rhine, and acted as aide-de- camp to Marshal de Broglie during the latter campaigns of the seven years' war. He was then secretary of embassy, and afterward min- ister plenipotentiary, at London; but being superseded in 1763 by the count de Guerchy, and mortified by being named secretary to his successor, he published a complete account of all the negotiations in which he had been en- gaged, exposed many secrets of the French court, and reflected with equal severity upon friends and enemies. Among the victims of his slander was De Guerchy, who brought an action in the court of king's bench, in which D'Eon was convicted of libel in July, 1764, and was finally outlawed. He continued, however, to reside in England, subsisting for a time by borrowing and various expedients, and afterward on a pension which Louis XV. allowed him for se- cret services ; and after the return of De Guer- chy to France, he acted as the representative of the court of Versailles, though not officially recognized as such. About 1763 rumors re- specting his sex, which received color from his adventure in St. Petersburg, his appearance, his manners, and the reports spread by De Guerchy, became common topics of conversa- tion in the British capital ; bets to a large amount were laid that he was a woman, and a wager of this sort became matter for a law- suit, in which the plaintiff, having brought witnesses to swear that D'Eon was a female, obtained a verdict for 700. In 1777 he went to Versailles, where Louis XVL, for reasons which have never been made known, forced him to adopt a woman's dress. He re- turned to England in this garb in 1783, and supported himself in London by the sale of his library, by giving exhibitions of his skill in fencing with the famous M. St. George and Mr. Angelo, and by a pension from George III. On the outbreak of the revolution he offered his services in a military capacity ; but they were declined, and he passed the rest of his days in poverty in England, retaining till his death the garb which had been forced upon him 33 years before. A post mortem examination left n doubt of his being a man. He wrote a number of historical, political, and other works. The Memoires attributed to him are spurious. EOS. See AUEOEA.