116 Scientific Intelligence. 



the neighboring shore, and occupying a space of several acres, were 

 seen in promiscuous assemblage, a multitude of boulders both large and 

 small, composed chiefly of granite, syenite, greenstone, conglomerate, 

 and red sandstone, apparently the companions of this extraordinary 

 specimen. There is no stream of any magnitude or importance nearer 

 than Elm river (three miles), which although called a river, is not more 

 than twelve or fifteen feet in breadth. All along this coast and for many 

 miles southward is a dense forest of large trees, such as white cedar, 

 spruce, hemlock, pine, poplar, birch and maple ; the growth of which, 

 must have occupied four or five centuries. 



The stratum of rock underneath this assemblage of boulders is red 

 sandstone nearly horizontal, dipping northward into the lake at an angle 

 of two or three degrees. About eight or ten miles southward is a 

 ridge of stratified greenstone, generally called trap by explorers in this 

 region. This ridge runs northeast and southwest nearly, and attains 

 a height of five or six hundred feet. In this greenstone are numerous 

 veins containing native cooper with occasional spots of silver. These 

 veins or lodes of copper, cut the above ridge at right angles and extend 

 into a formation of conglomerate which reclines immediately upon the 

 greenstone. Native copper is found also in the conglomerate. The 

 red sandstone above mentioned reposes upon the conglomerate, so that 

 there is a gradual descent from the summit of the greenstone ridge to 

 the shore of the lake (a distance of eight or ten miles) where the cop- 

 per boulder was discovered. From the adhesion of pebbles to the 

 depressed and cavernous portions of this copper boulder, there is strong 

 probability that it was derived from a vein in the conglomerate. But it 

 could not have well been removed from the neighboring ridge, since the 

 existence of the present forest; and it has evidently been deposited in 

 the place where it was discovered, since the growth of the medium 

 sized arbor vita? on which it rested. The shore of the lake at this place 

 is of moderate elevation varying from six to ten or twelve feet. The 

 island of Isle Royal with its sandstone conglomerate, porphyry, and 

 greenstone, is situated about fifty miles due north, and granite and syen- 

 ite, similar to the boulders, accompanying the copper rock, exist in 

 place on the northern shore of the lake, a distance of one hundred 

 miles or upwards. No rocks of this description are known to exist 

 nearer in situ. 



6. On Fossil Trees found at Bristol, Conn., in the New Red Sand- 

 stone. — Two fossil trees have recently been discovered by the quarry- 

 men who were excavating building stones in a sandstone quarry on the 

 banks of the Pequabuck river in the town of Bristol, Connecticut. This 

 town is on the western border of the greater secondary basin of Con- 

 necticut, and the locality where these fossil trees were found is not ft r 

 from the junction of this deposit with the western primary ranges- 

 The sandstone beds which crop out upon the banks of the Pequabuck, 

 are fine grained, argillaceous and well adapted for many architectural 

 purposes. No organic remains have before been observed in them, 

 with the exception of a few ill characterized and obscure impressions of 

 reed-like vegetation, upon the surface of a fissile stratum of argillaceous 

 sandstone which is met with at a point about four feet above the bed con- 

 taining the trees. 



