34 



The deposit was thirty-six feet wide, and forty feet long, and 

 was covered by sand and gravel, which had a slope towards the 

 Lake. Lignite has been discovered at Brandon, Vt., fifty feet 

 below the surface, and is said to have been covered by true drift. 

 In the northern part of Burlington is a stratum of sand and clay 

 sixty feet below the surface, filled with the shells of Sanguino- 

 laria. This circumstance goes to show the former limit of the 

 neighboring waters, as Sanguinolaria is only found within the 

 sweep of the tide, never below low water mark. 



Mr. Thompson also presented specinfieiis of wood which 

 had evidently been cut by beavers' teeth, taken from a bed 

 thirteen feet below the surface on Mount Holly, in close 

 proximity to the fossil elephant teeth discovered in 1849. 



This deposit is an acre and a half in extent, and about fifteen 

 feet thick in the centre. It was laid open by a railroad cut. 

 The height of the deposit is 1,360 feet above the sea. It rests 

 partly upon solid rock and partly on rounded masses of rock 

 closely compacted together. 



In reply to a question as to the exact position of the 

 elephant remains, Mr. Thompson said, that it was his 

 opinion they were not found in the drift but above it. A 

 portion of them had been said to have been found beneath 

 it, but he was inclined to believe the circumstance acci- 

 dental, and to be accounted for by the superincumbent mass 

 having rolled down from an adjoining bank subsequent to 

 the deposition of the remains. 



Mr. Ayres presented to the Society two specimens of 

 a rare fish, Aspidophorus monopterygius, taken from the 

 stomach of a halibut. The only specimen hitherto obtained 

 on the coast of the United States was taken by Dr. Storer, 

 in 1834, at Provincetown, Mass. 



Mr. Desor presented a number of specimens of Cyclas 

 and Valvata taken from the clay used as plaster in an old 

 beaver dam. 



Dr. Durkee presented to the Society a book of preserved 

 specimens of Alg®, from the coast of Massachusetts, col- 

 lected by himself during the past two years. 



