Fossil Plants, ^c. 107 



tirenaceus;" at least it resembles this. This fragment Is eight feet 

 in length, and eighteen inches by nine inches, in diameter; being con- 

 siderably flattened, the whole must have been twenty five or thirty 

 feet long ; cicatrices, five inches long by three and a half wide, raised 

 in the center and of an oval shape, are placed obliquely across the 

 stone. There were two of them on this fragment, near one extrem- 

 ity ; the succeeding ones were probably on the next piece, left in the 

 rocks ; this had tumbled out and lay on the side of the hill near the 

 foot.' The surface is striated with five lines, running longitudinally, 

 in interrupted series. The cast is sandstone, similar to the rock in 

 which it was imbedded, with some portion of it still adhering; a little 

 coal is seen about the raised cicatrices. Numerous fragments of 

 branches, and parts of other fossil plants, are lying across and along side 

 of this trunk. No. 55, is a^'Calamites dubius," from the same spot. 

 No. 56, may be a fragment of Calamites remotus, all composed of 

 sandstone beautifully preserved. No. 58, is from the same place and 

 is a portion of some testaceous animal. The lobes are too much 

 lengthened for a trilobite and the stone is too recent. It may be a 

 part of some flying insect, with the annular portion of the abdomen ; 

 lying on it in the stone, is something which might pass for elytra, 

 or wing covers. No. 57, is the Impression of a delicate, arundina- 

 ceous leaf, in slate. No. 50, is a portion of an impression, or cast, 

 in the same rock, but higher up the stream, near Kelly's Creek, and 

 it is now in my collection. The figures are one half the natural size. 

 The trunk of the palm tree, or arborescent fern, (which it is I am 

 unable to say,) was between thirty and forty, feet in length, and 

 nearly three feet in diameter, in the longer-axis, and eighteen inches 



■ 



in the shorter, being flattened or oval, with a large indentation, as 

 represented in fig. 51, which is an imaginary section of the trunk as 

 described to me by the man w^ho assisted in removing it from the 

 quarry. The cast of the trunk was replaced by an ash colored marly 

 rock, that was decomposed on exposure to the weather. No. 52, 

 is from the same deposit, in sandstone rock. The figures on the 

 surface are raised, and separated by lines an eighth of an inch deep; 

 the figures are one half the natural size. This was probably im- 

 pressed by the scales of a large palm tree. 



This deposit abounds in rare and curious fossils, and when it shall 

 be more extensively opened will afford a rich treat to the geologist- 

 A fragment of this sandstone rock five feet long and two feet wide, 

 was dressed out and used a number of years for a hearth stone. It 



