FOSSILS. 



It is curious that the elevations called fucoids are sometimes composed of a different substance from the 

 overlying strata (for these impressions are the wrong side up for footmarks), and they rest in sockets, as it 

 were, precisely as the rock would appear if an impression having the shape of the different fragments of the 

 vegetable had been made, and the depression been filled with the material of the next stratum as it was de- 

 posited, and then, after the stone was hardened, the whole had been inverted. Often the stone is decom- 

 posed, except the fucoids, which remain exceedingly prominent. Specimens of this kind are found in the 

 Cabinet, and there are very fine specimens of it in the Geological Cabinet of Middlebury College. 



Other kinds of fucoids occur in this rock, of which there are no specimens in the Cabinet. In hastily pass- 

 ing through Monkton, we noticed a fucoid resembling somewhat the Arthrophycus Harlani of the Medina 

 sandstone group. At St. Albans we saw an obscure fucoid in fragments upon some flagging stones, differ- 

 ent from any described species. 



Of animal remains, trilobites and one or two shells have been found at Highgate; and Prof. Thompson 

 adds, "fragments of crinoidea." Prof. Adams sent specimens of these trilobites to Prof. Hall, in 1847, who 

 then communicated the following information respecting them: 



" I have examined the fossils, and, as far as I can determine, they are all of the central portion of the 

 buckler of a trilobite, with a prominent narrow lobed glabella. The cheeks have been separated at the facial 

 section, so that we have not the entire form of the head. The course of the facial section indicates that it 

 terminated on the posterior margin of the buckler, and the glabella is narrower in front than behind. These 

 two characters are inconsistent with calymene, phacops, or asaphus, the common genera (as well as with 

 several other genera) of our strata, but they belong to conocephalus and olenus. I am inclined to regard 

 this fragment as part of a conocephalus, of which I have not before detected a fragment in our rock. From 

 its isolated character, therefore, I am able to infer little regarding its real geological position. The form 

 known to me most nearly like this one, is in the Clinton group of this State. I regret that more species 

 could not have been found, or that some forms in the preceding strata could not be obtained to compare 

 with others already known. 



"The meager information of the two known species of conocephalus is likewise an objection to any geolog- 

 ical inference from the discovery of a species. All we know is that they are found in Greywacke, in Ger- 

 many or elsewhere, and the position of the Greywacke is too dubious and ubiquitous to be of any importance 

 in such a case. I regret exceedingly that I am unable to give only this meager and unsatisfactory inform- 

 ation, and also that I have not had the satisfaction of seeing the locality." 



The locality of this fossil is in flighgate, about two miles east of the springs, and the same distance from 

 Canada, directly east of the house of Jacob Church. It was discovered more than twelve years ago by 

 Messrs. S. R. Hall and Z. Thompson. The inclosing rock is a hard red sandstone, containing a very small 

 per centage of lime; for it is only where the rock has decomposed somewhat that the fossils are seen. In 

 some specimens the rock seems to be almost made up of fragments of animal remains. Besides the trilobites 

 two specimens of a shell (which were burnt up in the old State House) were obtained, resembling atrypa 

 hemispherica (now Leptoccdia hemispherica) of the Clinton Group of New York. 



Certain inorganic fossils are common in this rock, as impressions of rain drops, ripple marks, and shrink- 

 age cracks. These indicate that this rock was formed in very shallow water. 



Mineral Contents. 



Distinct minerals are seen in the red sandrock. The silicious limestone frequently contains very fine 

 limpid hexagonal crystals of quartz, disposed in geodic cavities, as at Winooski Falls. 



Rev. S. R. Hall reports a vein of red hematite in the northwest corner of Milton, upon Lake Champlain, 

 resembling that in Fairfield. 



In Colchester and Swanton there are a few deposits of the brown hematite, described under Tertiary 

 Hocks, which have been derived from the red sandrock series of strata. 



In the northwest part of Swanton a company that mined for lead discovered no lead, but threw out a 

 considerable of that variety of asbestos called mountain leather or mountain cork (Nos. T W> T&-) It is 

 on the land of a Mr. Bullard. 



