296 Remains of Megatherium, Mastodon, &c. 
eral points, which after having bet used some time, wear off be- 
low the branches and leave but a single transverse cutting edge, 
This tooth is four inches longer than those described by Dr. Buck- 
land.* This and a part of a tusk, the fragment of a molar tooth, | 
with a few pieces of bones, referable to the Mastodon, are all the 
fossils of this kind, which to my mee tedees have been found in 
this part of the country. 
It may not be amiss to say a few words in relation to our posi- 
tion in a geological point of view. This and several of the ad- 
joining counties, and indeed a considerable portion of the eastern 
side of this state, and the western part of the state of Ohio, belong 
to that formation or group, called by some geologists the Silurian. 
From the nature of the country, which in its general features is 
almost a level plain, it is impossible to examine the rocks toa 
greater depth than four hundred and fifty or five hundred feet. 
The valleys and ravines seem to have been wholly formed by 
the streams which pass through them, for the various strata upot 
either side of all of them, are opposite to each other and nearly 
horizontal, showing that they were deposited in the situation 
ley now occupy in seas or oceans comparatively calm, 
and that they have never been disturbed, except by the gradual 
wearing of these streams, since their deposition upon each othe 
The sides of the hills, or more properly the sides of the valleys, 
are composed of thin strata of limestone varying from half an inch 
to two feet, and in some rare instances, many feet in thickness, 
alternating with clay and clay slates of various thickness, and 
each of these strata throughout the whole group abound, indis- 
criminately, with-innumerable organic remains. Amongst the 
most numerous may be reckoned the Terebratula, Producta, Cy- 
athophyllum, Orthoceratite, Paradoxoides Tessini, Spirifer, trilo- 
bites, (rare,) corals and corallines without number, moniliform 
encrinites, pentacrinites, &c. &c., and a single species of spiral 
univalve shell, but so imperfect that Ihave not been able to - 
termine its name or place. 
Spread all over the country, we have erratic blocks or boulders 
consisting of almost every species of primary rocks, but prinel- 
pally granite and granitic gneiss. These are the principal evi 
dences of drift which we have in this neighborhood, having dis 
covered no moraines which are so common in your section of the 
Union, according to Dr. Hitchcock. 
* ‘Bridgewater Treatise, Vol. I, p. 119. 
