184 



GEOLOGY OF THE THIRD DISTRICT. 



a common centre ; the breadth of rays enlarging for a certain distance from the point of de- 

 parture, beyond which they are slightly variable. These rays are crossed by a second series, 

 parallel to each other, the whole compressed together, resembling the geographic lines of a 

 globe ; and were they lines and not surfaces, they would be perfectly comparative excepting 

 for the distances between the two series. Having the appearance of woven tape, it has been 

 named Uphantenia, from iipavroe, woven, and tcBnia, tape, and specifically chemungensis, after 

 the rock in which it is found. The specimen is evidently not entire in any of its parts. When 

 whole, it formed in all probability a large portion of a circle. Doubtless it was a marine plant, 

 but wholly different from any thing which has come under notice. The engraving, though 

 sufficiently accurate, is much inferior in effect to the original. The scale is the same, but 

 some of the extreme parts were left out to suit the block. 



There is another extraordinary fossil, as regards the position in which it is found. It belongs 

 either to the lower part of this group, or the upper part of the Ithaca. It is sufficiently well 

 preserved to show that the echinides are its associates. It is circular in form, measuring two 



inches and seven-tenths in diameter. Its five ambulacrae are very 

 distinct and simple in thejr structure, consisting of two furrows 

 quite near to each other, passing from the centre to the circum- 

 ference ; on both sides of which are a series of short parallel lines 

 or furrows, perpendicular to the former ones, the whole breadth 

 of the ambulacrae being four-tenths of an inch. There appears 

 to be the remains of two if not three others upon the same slab, 

 which shows innumerable slender spines, about half an inch in 

 length, strewed over parts of its surface. Should this fossil be- 

 long to the genus Echinus, its name will be E. drydenensis, or 

 Dryden echinus ; having been brought from a quarry in the town 

 of Dryden, with other stones, to Ithaca, and found by Mr. B. G. 

 Ferris of that village, who loaned it to the State, subject to his 

 order. 



The last fossil to be noticed in this group, is the one figured in 

 wood-cut 51. It was found in Allen's quarry, near the village of 

 Owego, by Mr. Car, an assistant of the survey. It was without 

 doubt a terrene plant, in parts showing small portions of bark or 

 surface being converted to coal. Its surface is quite peculiar ; 

 the cast, as in the engraving, being covered with hexagonal forms 

 like those of columnaria, but far more regular, showing a con- 

 nection of structure between corallines and plants. The centres 

 of the cells were depressed, one end rather more than the other, 

 which appears as a protuberance in its mould. The surface of 

 the part in the wood-cut, which represents the stem of the plant, 

 is altogether imaginary, its structure being entirely obliterated, 

 whereas the bed or matrix which surrounded it is well preserved. 



