INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE, PHILADELPHIA. 13 



Bay, where fossil remains were reported to be abundant, but at Braiden- 

 town we were informed that a fossiliferous exposure was presented 

 a few miles (5-6) above the town at a locality known as Rocky Bluff, and 

 we accordingly determined to visit that spot. The " bluff" we found to 

 be a ledge of rock, rising about two or three feet above water-level at the 

 time of our visit, and consisting of at least two well-defined layers a 

 basal white " marl " and yellowish sandstone, and an overlying siliceous 

 conglomerate. The latter is almost entirely deficient in organic remains, 

 whereas the marl is densely charged with them. Among the recogniz- 

 able forms occurring here I determined a number of well-known and dis- 

 tinctive Miocene species of mollusks, such as Pcctcn Jcffersonim, P. 

 Madisoniits, Pcrna maxillata, Venus alveata, Area incongrua, etc., which 

 left no doubt as to the age of the deposits in which they were imbedded. 

 The existence of a Miocene formation in this portion of the peninsula 

 was entirely unlocked for, and its discovery, therefore, the more significant 

 and interesting. A further exploration of this bed was made on the suc- 

 ceeding day, but without adding much that was new to our stock of 

 information obtained the day previous. The white bed thinned out and 

 disappeared after a short distance, but the yellow sand-rock, largely 

 honeycombed, and containing much fewer fossils, many of them identical 

 with the forms of the marl, continued up the river to the furthest point 

 reached by us. I observed and collected many fragments of manatee 

 bones, ribs principally, but am not prepared to say that any of these were 

 of a fossil character, although their position might have led one to sup- 

 pose that they had been washed from the bank. Mr. Willcox, however, 

 assures me that he observed several pieces concerning the fossil nature 

 of which there could be no doubt. 



In the hope of discovering a more extended outcrop in the interior, 

 and of securing a position whence a general survey of the region 

 could be obtained, I attempted to penetrate the dense growth of palmetto 

 that here descends to the river's bank, but owing to the obstruction pre- 

 sented by the large fan-leaves, and the difficulty of determining landmarks 

 in a tract where the component vegetable elements so greatly resembled 

 one another, was compelled to desist after wandering about three-quarters 

 of a mile. The forest is here evidently largely of second growth, but 

 few of the trees, mainly palmettos, attaining to more than mediocre 

 proportions. Mr. Brock secured two alligators before leaving the river, 

 the larger of which measured about nine feet in length. About a mile 

 above the point where we made our geological examination the river- 

 bank was packed with the remains of dead fish, which were lying 

 heaped up in windrows of tens of thousands of individuals. No such 

 wholesale destruction of the shore-fishes appears to have been known to 

 any of the inhabitants. 



