OLDEST PETRIFIED FOREST — GOLDRING 317 



directly at the spot where the dam was being built, was uncovered 

 and seven stumps were found, some of them too badly broken to 

 permit removal. One specimen taken weighs nearly a ton and has 

 a circumference of nearly 12 feet (diameter about 4 feet). In a 

 quarry about half a mile (2,300 feet) downstream from the old 

 locality, trees were found at a level of 960 feet above tide, 60 feet 

 below the oldest or middle locality, 160 feet below the highest level 

 where trees were found . This quarry, known as " Riverside Quarry " 

 (see pi. 3, fig. 2, and pi. 4, fig. 1), has yielded the greatest number 

 and also, on the whole, the largest stumps found. During one period 

 18 specimens were taken from an area 50 feet square, not counting 

 those destroyed in quarrying- One of the largest specimens of this 

 group has a circumference at the base of approximately 11 feet 

 (diameter approximately 3.5 feet), a height of 22 inches, and a 

 diameter at that height of 211/2 inches; stumps of greater height, but 

 of smaller girth, have been obtained. At all the three tree horizons 

 the stumps were found with their bases resting in and upon shale 

 and in every case in an upright position with the trunk extending 

 into the coarse sandstone above. The shale beds representing the 

 muds in which the trees stood vary in thickness from 6 inches to 2 

 feet, more often thin than thick. 



By the spring of 1924 with the additions to our collection, which 

 we owe to the courtesy of the commissioners of the New York Board 

 of Water Supply and the various engineers connected with the work, 

 we had in our museum a total of nearly 40 stumps, partial or com- 

 plete, and a number of broken pieces. We have not added to our 

 number of fossil trees since then; but they have been distributed 

 among various museums and some even have gone into private 

 hands. Taking into consideration with all these, those still at the 

 quarry, the weathered stumps discarded, and those destroyed in 

 quarrying, the number of stumps taken from these primeval forests 

 must run into the hundreds, and continued quarrying will bring 

 more to light. Riverside Quarry is not included in the area covered 

 by the Gilboa reservoir, but its value as a fossil tree locality will be 

 greatly lessened with the cessation of quarrying operations. Now 

 that the rock layers containing the stumps have been located, it is 

 quite possible that they can be traced around the hills and found out- 

 cropping elsewhere. In the area known, the tree localities have been 

 found stretching over a distance of something more than a mile 

 and two thirds. No forest as old and as extensive as this has any- 

 where been reported up to date. We therefore have in eastern New 

 York, up to date, the oldest known forest in the world, and in our 

 museum a unique and unmatchable exhibit. 



Except for the discovery of the seeds, which was quite accidental 

 as many very important discoveries are, we would still have been 



