102 E. Hitchcock on a Brown Coal Deposit in Brandon, Vt. 
is said to be well known to geologists. The piece of wood just 
referred to, had been bored by the Teredo 
“The above are the only instances about which I would speak 
with any confidence. I have, also, from the same locality, a 
large mass of fossil resin. The vegetable fossils there found, 
with the teeth of Phyllodus, Cetacea, reptiles, sharks, &c., show 
a close resemblance of the Richmond formations to the London 
clay. Ihave in preparation a short notice in which the animal 
fossils of the two are to be compared.” 
CONCLUSIONS. 
Although the specific character of the Brandon fossils are thus 
imperfectly known, the facts detailed will warrant several infer- 
ences of importance in American geology. 
L. The Brandon feos belongs to a tertiary formation. The 
in are the pro 
. It lies below ie ari, and for the most part, is not consoli- 
Fi Its position as to the drift is seen at the openings made 
near the carbonaceous deposit ; and the degree of induration,—or 
rather in general the want of induration »—corresponds to that of 
most tertiary deposits. 
2. It contains all the important varieties of rock found in ter- 
tiary deposits. We have here white and variegated clays—water- 
worn beds of sand and gravel, beds of CTT matter not 
bag sg and deposits of iron and mangane 
I e carbonaceous matter in this depagil as Ye di anal- 
ogous to that of the brown coal formation in Europe. 
1. The lignite has the deep brown nits and coal-like irate 
of the brown coal deposits that hav t been affected b 
proximity of igneous rocks, as is hy case at Meisner in eh 
Yet the woody texture usually remains distinct. 
2. While this coal is distinguished from peat by burning wit 
a bright flame, it does not give off a bituminous odor, an 
it differs from ‘bituminous coal. 
3. The degree of carbonization of the fruits, corresponds 0 
Pa in the brown coal formation, as a comparison of specimens 
show 
4.. The sand and clays, associated with the brown coal of the 
Rhine valley, oceur also at Brandon. 
HL The fruits and lignite of this deposit, appear to have been 
transported by water, and probably the accumulation took place 
in an ancient estu 
1. No example has occured in which these fruits have been 
found in cous or attached to the branches on which they grew, 
or to their nvelops. Nor have I found more than a sing 
imperfect example of a leaf. 
2. The lignite is in broken and usually bruised masses, a8 if bat- 
tered by contact with one another when floating down stream. 
SERIE tag 
