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June 6, 1855. 



The President in the Chair. 



The President exhibited a large and fine specimen of 

 Quartz, from Bey rout, Syria. 



The President also exhibited a Gray Sandstone Slab 

 from the Connecticut River, having impressions on both 

 surfaces. 



The slab was about two feet square, and an inch thick, and 

 displayed interesting markings on both its surfaces. One of 

 these was covered with three different kinds of impressions ; the 

 first consisted of striee, such as would be made by sweeping the 

 whole surface with a broom, or a mass of sea-weed resting on 

 it ; the second consisted of two sets of tracks, one of them very 

 strongly expressed, the other faintly, which might have been 

 made by the progression of a crustaceous animal, a crab ; these 

 tracks were composed of oblong eminences and depressions, 

 the whole extent of which was about two feet, by an inch 

 and a half in width; they might have been made by sea-weed, 

 or the passage of fishes. The third set of impressions was of 

 large, faintly expressed eminences, probably half-obliterated rip- 

 ple marks. Besides these, there were two or three sets of deep 

 impressions in pairs, apparently of some animal, and long ele- 

 vated lines, probably of mud-cracks, so called. No bird-tracks 

 were visible on this surface. 



The other surface was less regular, but smooth, bright, and 

 shining; the principal impression, or appearance, consisted of an 

 excavation about fifteen inches long, and an inch wide, dividing 

 into two branches. This has been suggested by Mr. Field, on 

 the ground of an idea of Mr. Lea, the distinguished Geologist, of 

 Philadelphia, to be the trace of some mollusc as Unio, in its pas- 

 sage across the strand. There were also various rounded emi- 

 nences, some of them an inch in diameter, which may have been 

 fossil fruits, — some excavations, apparently made by organic 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H. VOL. V. 14 SEPTEMBER, 1855. 



