176 



would take speedy and proper measures to secure its 

 deposition by government in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution. 



Prof. W. B. Rogers made some remarks on the geology of the 

 neighborhood of St. John, New Brunswick, and described, by the 

 aid of a section, the stratigraphical features exhibited at the junc- 

 tion of the older and less ancient groups of strata on the St. John 

 and Kennebecasis rivers, a few miles above the city, as observed 

 by Prof. Robb and himself during the past summer. Here the 

 steep-dipping slates and limestones of the older group may be 

 seen suddenly giving place to nearly horizontal beds of reddish 

 conglomerates, which abutting against them, and in part resting 

 on their upturned edges, present a very striking example of un- 

 conformable contact. 



Referring to the probable ages of the two groups. Prof. Rogers 

 mentioned the fact that hitherto the only fossils discovered in the 

 belt of metamorphic slates and limestones ranging along the 

 northern side of the Bay of Fundy, and on which St. John was 

 built, consisted of vegetable impressions of a rather vague kind 

 found by Prof. Robb at several localities, and of which specimens 

 may be seen in the olive slate of the hill near the cathedral. To 

 these Prof. Rogers w\as now able to add a fossil which he hoped 

 might prove more definite in its indications. In his explorations 

 around the city he had found loose pieces of silicious slate, con- 

 taining black scald-like fragments of shells, and had afterward dis- 

 covered, at several points, the layers of rock, in place, crowded with 

 these remains, the more entire of which presented the form and 

 markings of a Lingula. 



Mr. Charles H. Wing, of Boston, was elected a Resi- 

 dent Member. 



December 7, 1859. 



The President in the Chair. 



Prof. Rogers presented the following communication on 

 the meteor of August 11, 1859, by Mr. David A. Wells : 



