238 IS IT TERTIAKY ? 



other countries, and which are found in no other formation. And as the coal in Brandon 

 is connected with the iron, as well as the clays and gravel and manganese, if this be a ter- 

 tiary deposit so is it reasonable to presume others are where the same materials are asso- 

 ciated without the coal. Mr. Lesley imagines that the Brandon deposit is in a hole, like 

 that in Belymacadam, in Ireland. But if he will visit the former, he will find it no more 

 and perhaps rather less in a hole than the other analogous deposits scattered for two 

 hundred miles along the west base of the Green Mountain range. They generally occur 

 in depressions in the limestone floor, or in sheltered valleys, and this is probably the rea- 

 son why the drift agency did not sweep them away. 



The heights of several of the Vermont deposits above the ocean attached to the 

 preceding lists, excluding the Hartwellville locality as doubtful, show a difference of 

 level of 735 feet from 433 to 1168. We wish that similar facts had been ascertained in 

 other parts of the United States. But taking these numbers as our guide, and supposing 

 that the hematite and clay deposits could have been formed only at a certain depth in the 

 ocean or estuary, would a vertical movement of the continent of 700 feet have been an 

 impossibility during the pliocene tertiary period ? If not, all these deposits, though 

 superimposed upon rocks of different ages, might have been made during that period. 



We see not then why we should give up the opinion that these deposits might have 

 been of tertiary age. It is certain that they are not post-tertiary, we believe, and if we 

 cannot conclude from such characters as we find them to possess, that they were arranged 

 in their present form during the tertiary period, though disintegration and decomposition 

 might have prepared the materials to be sorted, transported, and re-deposited by water 

 much earlier, then it seems to us that no deposit lying between drift and silurian or 

 devonian rocks, where the intervening formations are wanting, can be pronounced tertiary, 

 unless it contain fossils specifically like those of other tertiary strata. We are not 

 prepared to take such ground. We have more confidence in geological principles. 



We are not prepared to say that hematite beds, with clays and lignites, may not be 

 found in the United States of an age older than the tertiary. But where we find by 

 combining the facts from different localities, such strong proofs of identity and 

 synchronism, as in the deposits stretching along the Appalachian chain, we cannot but 

 regard them as of the same age till the contrary is proved. At any rate, if these strata 

 are not tertiary, no such exist in Vermont. Brown coal is certainly dug out in Brandon, 

 and it is interesting to see how well it drives the steam engine that pumps the water 

 from the mine. We regret not being able to give a more satisfactory account of the 

 fossil fruits. But having in vain brought them under the notice of some of the most 

 eminent botanists in our country, and obtaining but little light, we can do little but give 

 the brief description above, leaving the full development of the subject for those that 

 come after us. The fossil botany of the newer rocks is now receiving more attention. 

 But many years of study will be required to master it. 



From one eminent microscopist, however, we did obtain some valuable facts relating to 

 the lignite and fruiis of the Brandon deposit. We sent specimens, seven years ago, to 

 the late Prof. J. W. Bailey, of West Point, and received the following answer : 



