62 BULLETIN OF THE 



crossing the strike to the east, and thus mounting the monoclinal 

 sequence of beds which descend eastward with much uuitbrmity. Coarse 

 sandstones and conglomei*ates outcrop in small ridges with abrupt slopes 

 to the west, and control the local topography east of the railroad, where 

 very little drift has been deposited. The attitude of the beds is toler- 

 ably constant; the strike averages N. 30° E., and dip, 12° or 15° to the 

 east. Low ledges are plentiful over much of the distance, until the 

 Meriden-Berlin road is reached, half a mile east of the railroad ; then a 

 short ascent up a wooded slope leads to the higher ridge of amygdaloidal 

 trap (2), lying anterior to, i. e., in front of the face of Lamentation 

 Mountain. This ridge should be followed north about one tliird of a 

 mile, to the fine exposure of its bed of ashes and volcanic bombs (3),^ 

 now locally well known through the efforts of the Meriden Scientific 

 Association, at whose expense the base of the cliff has been opened by 

 blasting, to secure fresh specimens of its remarkable rock. A fine shaly 

 sandstone may be seen at a few points at the bottom of the cliflF, under- 

 Iving the ash bed. One of the bombs seems to have embedded itself 

 in the sandy mud by the force of its fall, like the examples described 

 by ^crope in the recent volcanic region of central France. 



Climbing the cliff and crossing through the woods, an old quarry (4) 

 is found at the edge of a pasture that slopes to the east with the dip of 

 the beds. The sandstone is seen here, with strike N. 25° E., and dip 

 13° to the east. Two dark layers, consisting chiefly of small rounded 

 and irregular fragments of trap, were found here by Mr. Whittle, and a 

 few feet lower, the top of the lava sheet is seen in a little ledge in the 

 woods. The lava is vesicular, and the sandstone immediately overlying 

 it contains many of its fragments. A blast lately fired has disclosed 

 this fairly well. Going eastward down the pasture, occasional outcrops 

 of shaly sandstone (5) are found with normal strike and dip, forming 

 little ridges in the valley between the anterior trap ridge and the main 

 ridge of Lamentation Mountain. They also appear occasionally in 

 benches (6), ou the steep western slope of the latter. Percival speaks 

 (Geology of Connecticut, p. 365) of a bed of impure limestone some- 

 where in this valley, but I have not been able to discover it ; in former 

 years the thin beds of Triassic limestone were burnt at a number of 

 points, but with the improvement in transportation and the bringing of 

 better lime from elsewhere, this has been given up, and the old lime- 

 stone quarries are often covered over and lost to sight. After making 



^ This interesting locality was discovered on an excursion during the spring 

 recess from college work, on April 9, 1887. 



