A34 Scientific Intelligence. 
space of about thirty feet in diameter. This had hardened by ex- 
posure, and was covered and mingled with dust and sand, which 
quickly adheres to its clean and. _ surface. The outer portions were 
hard as a pavement; and the mass was highest towards the centre, 
where it was soft and fluid, like sinstiel pitch. It was _ evident that 
all the hard portions had risen in a — state, and by the heat of the 
sun had been gradually spread out over the surface. Bein constantly 
exposed to the dust, it had become so ecm incorporated with the 
asphalt that the compound had all the consistency of an artificial ad- 
mixture. 
er spring that I have described is one of several similar att on 
ank of a small brook about seven miles from Los Angele 
I gtr up and resin the stream just mentioned ead a_ short 
distance, on each side, and found one or two natural exposures of 
the edges of nearly horizontal shales of a light color, and very 
thinly stratified. The lowest layers were charged with bitumen, and 
were of various shades of brown and black. 
These shales were pone silicious, and were overlaid by a stra- 
and san bably beach-shi 
7. Notes on some Fossils of the so-called Taconic System described 
by Dr. Emmons; by James Haut, (from a letter to one of the Editors 
of this Journal.) —Nemapodia, Emmons. Some years since it was dis- 
covered by Dr. Fitch that the Nemapodia was the track of a slug or 
worm over the rusty-looking surface of the rock. To the naked eye 
the surface appears simply of a brownish or grayish brown color, the 
lor ne due to granules which are removed by the passage of the 
nima 
Nereites.—The Nereites are from Maine, ne belong to slates prob- 
ably of carboniferous or devonian age. None of the fossils of the 
Maine slates referred by Dr. Emmons to the Fcaplee eg are iden- 
tical with those of the one Taconic rocks of New Yor 
some mollusc, which was afterwards filled with mud. Dr. Fitch in 
1848, in his wpe poe Survey of Washington Co., demonstrated that 
it was the track of some marine animal, and pro oposed for it the un- 
wieldy name Helminthoidichnites, calling one species, a line wide, H. 
marina, and another half as wide, H. tenuis. He shows that the worm 
has pushed before it sometimes a grain of sand, until the ma was piled 
2 as to be an obstruction and then the animal rose over 
_ Trilobites.—The Trilobite Olenus ( Elliptocephalus) Asa heidi and 
ancther species, have lately been found in the slates of Vermont in such 
: a Felatixe position to the limestones below, as to leave no doubt as to 
‘their age. Dr. Fitch found Trinucleus concentricus int ' sof Mt. 
in Washingtor Co., reputed Taconic ; and. Prof. Adams found 
other Hudson River fossils i in the same paar 
s 
