68 FOSSILS OF THE TACONIC SLATE. 



FOSSILS PECULIAR TO THE TACONIC SLATE. 



At the time of tlie publication of my Report for the Second or Northern Geological 

 District, I was not satisfied that the rock now under consideration contained fossils. It is 

 true that obscure traces of fucoids had been discovered in beds of slate in Cambridge, 

 Washington county, and those of a more perfect character were known in the roofing 

 slate ; yet the strong prejudice which then existed to the plan of separating these slates 

 from the Hudson river series, led me to retain them in the New-York system, considering 

 the roofing slate of Hoosic in particular as an outlier of this series. However, no doubt 

 now exists as it regards the place these beds occupy : a full and careful examination has 

 established the fact that they are varieties of Taconic slate, and appear only as subor- 

 dinate beds. We are not now so limited in organic bodies as at the time referred to. I 

 have since discovered at least three genera of the red-blooded worms in the slates of 

 Washington county, in addition to the trilobites of the black slate ; and I had an oppor- 

 tunity to inspect five or six species of JYereites, and two species of Myrianites, during my 

 visit this season to Waterville, Maine. I now feel confident that we have much additional 

 evidence in these peculiar fossils, not only of the propriety of separating this rock from the 

 shales of Hudson river, but of the independence of the Taconic system ; and how strong 

 this evidence might be considered if it stood alone, and without the proof from other 

 sources of the inferiority of its position, I am not prepared to say ; but, without question, the 

 fact itself is one of the most interesting in geology. For how remarkable it is that those 

 curious organic bodies of the nereitoid family should characterize a group of rocks ; and 

 certainly it is not too much to say this, when we find them in the same rock in New- 

 York, Maine, and Wales in Great Britain, three places so distant from each other ! It is 

 true that the number of species at present known is comparatively small, still this ought 

 not to be considered a strong objection, inasmuch as but little search has yet been made ; 

 and besides, their peculiar forms, and the mode in which they are preserved, are such as 

 to leave them obscure and very liable to be overlooked. 



As the fossils here referred to appear to be new, I have been obliged to propose new 

 genera for their reception. The inspection of the figures, I have little doubt, will satisfy 

 most geologists and naturalists that they belong to the family of JYereites, closely allied to 

 the Llampator fossils figured by Mr. Murchison and determined by Mr. M'Leay. At any 

 rate, they do not appear so aberrant in their types as to exclude them from this family. 



Plate XIV. fig. 1. I have called JVemapodia tenuisslma.* It is found in the fine green 

 laconic slate of Salem, Washington county. New- York. It is quite abundant. 



Fig. 2. Gordia mari7ta. It resembles the Gordius, a freshwater worm, usually called 

 Hair-worm. No joints or swellings can be discovered in the fossil. It is in the fine flagging 

 stone of Mr. M' Arthur, in Jackson, Washington county. 



• JVema, a thread ; pous, a foot. 



