the Dan River in North Carolina, and towards the northeast 

 through Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, forming what 

 is usually called the New Red Sandstone Belt. 



Eastern and Middle Belt of Virginia and Eastern Belt 

 OF North Carolina. From an examination some twelve years 

 ago of the fossil plants of the most eastern of the Virginia belts 

 here designated, Prof. Rogers had been led to refer this group of 

 rocks to the Oolite series on or near the horizon of the carbona- 

 ceous deposits of Whitby and Scarborough in Yorkshire. Some 

 years later he discovered many of the same plants in the middle 

 belt of Virginia, and, in the summer of 1850, he found several 

 of these plants in the coal rocks of Deep River, in North Caro- 

 lina. In each of the latter districts we meet with Equisetum 

 columnare, Zamites, and a plumose plant referred to Lycopodi- 

 tes, and strongly resembling L. Williamsonis of the Yorkshire 

 rocks. These are among the usual forms occurring in the east* 

 ernmost of the Virginia belts. 



Besides the fossil plants common to these three areas, they 

 contain two species of Posidonomya and two of Cypris. Of the 

 Cypridse, one species has a smooth, the other a beautifully gran- 

 ulated carapace. They are both very small, seldom exceeding 

 ^^ an inch in length and yL- in width. Both species of Posido- 

 nomya differ in proportion from the P. minuta of the Euro- 

 pean Trias, but one of them strongly resembles the P. Bronniioi 

 the Lias, although of larger dimensions. 



Prof. Rogers remarked upon the uncertainty which exists as 

 to the true nature of the small shell-like fossils, which being as- 

 sumed as molluscs, have been referred to Bronn's genus Posido- 

 nomya. But, whatever may be their zoological affinities, the 

 fossils now under consideration have great interest, as affording 

 further means not only of comparing together the mesozoic 

 belts of North Carolina and Virginia, above referred to, but of 

 approximating more justly than heretofore to the age of the so- 

 called New Red Sandstone, or Triassic rocks which form the 

 prolonged belt lying further towards the west. 



In the report of Prof. Emmons, published in the autumn of 

 1852, mention is made of the remains of Saurians in the Deep 

 River deposits, as well as of the Posidonia and Cypris, and of 



