6 TRANSACTIONS OF THE WAGNER FREE 



flowers were confined to a limited number of water or marsh-plants 

 lily, flag, etc. 



At Loenecker's, a short piece beyond the outer border of the woods, 

 is the locality whence Mr. Willcox obtained the nummulites described 

 by me some four years ago as Ninnmiilitcs WUlfoxi, the first representa- 

 tives of the genus that had up to that time been found on the North 

 American continent. The exact spot is a ploughed field, cleared from 

 the bush, about five minutes from the right bank of the river, and 

 elevated, according to a rough estimate made by us, about 4-6 feet above 

 the surface of the water. The rocks containing the fossils occur loose 

 in the soil, and, doubtless, have in great part been thrown up by the 

 plough. No trace of a solid outcrop was anywhere visible. While, 

 therefore, the presumptive evidence is that these rocks have been moved, 

 and are, consequently, no longer in their normal positions, yet it is highly 

 probable that the parent rock is not far distant. Indeed, I am assured 

 by Mr. Willcox that he has observed the " Nummulitic " in situ at a 

 locality distant some fifteen miles in a N. K. direction. We found the 

 rock at Loenecker's literally charged with the tests of nummulites and 

 orbitoides, so much so, in fact, as to present the appearance of being 

 built up almost entirely of the hard parts of this lowest group of 

 animal organisms. Many of the larger fragments or boulders, as on 

 John's Island, were encased in a newer matrix of considerably darker 

 color, in which the remains of the recent shells already referred to, and 

 some others Mytilus ? were found embedded in a beautiful state of 

 preservation. To what extent this newer freshwater formation extends, 

 or if it constitutes but a mere strip formed as a fringe to the older 

 (marine) deposits, our means did not permit us to determine. But 

 manifestly, there must have been considerable changes in the topography 

 of the region since the river limestones, of comparatively recent date, 

 were added to, and united with, the marine limestones of the Nummu- 

 litic (Oligocene) period. 



In company with one of our boatmen I ascended the river for a 

 further distance of about a mile and a-half, in the hope of discovering an 

 outcrop. This we found in a mass of rock jutting out from the bottom 

 of the channel, but barely reaching the surface of the water, and in a 

 number of rounded ledges whose outlines we could distinguish through 

 the limpid waters. With the assistance of a mattock we succeeded in 

 detaching several fragments, but the toughness of the rock, and the 

 difficulty of striking below the water, prevented us from obtaining as 

 many specimens as we should have desired. Much to my surprise 

 the rock contained not a fragment of either of the two forms of Foram- 

 inifera which were so abundant at Loenecker's, and so eminently serve 

 to characterize the formation in which they occur. Indeed, the only 



