270 



IDENTITY OF THE WESTERN FORMATIONS 



the road from Stow to Cuyahoga Falls, and in the vicinity of the 

 former village. Just below the falls its junction with the shales 

 and sandstones of the next group is well exhibited. In the lower 

 part of the conglomerate at this place, my friend, I\Ir. Newberry, 

 has obtained a large number of fossil plants, with the fruit of 

 several species. They are imbedded in a friable brown sand- 

 stone, highly stained by iron, and though mostly casts, are in a 

 state of good preservation. I afterwards obtained some similar fos- 

 sils from conglomerate near Deer creek, below Leavenworth, la. 



Although usually destitute of fossils, this conglomerate pos- 

 sesses some characteristic marks which may serve to distinguish 

 it at very distant points. Among these, in New York, are thin 

 seams, often apparently concenti'ic, of hydrated peroxide of iron, 

 crossing the mass at various angles, or curved and contorted. 

 Sometimes these appear as small nodules which desquamate on 

 exposure, or when struck with the hammer. In such cases the 

 outer portions only are composed of the hydrated per-oxide, while 

 the inner part is still a carbonate of iron, the change having 

 probably been effected by the percolation of water. At Cuyahoga 

 Falls, I saw some beautiful exhibitions of these iron seams, which 

 the annexed diagram will serve to illustrate. The black lines. 



1. 2. 3. 



represent the iron ore, and the lighter parts the sand. These ap- 

 peared in the perpendicular face of the cU/1', where the stream had 

 excavated its channel. The central mass in most cases is sand, 

 and each concentric lamina of ore is separated from the other by 

 a band of the same, apparently exhibiting a tendency to become 

 nodules, but the particles being resisted by the greater weight of 

 sand, were prevented from forming a common mass. This illus- 

 trates very plainly the process by which spheroidal masses are 



