1894.1 ^^"^ [Lyman. 



The Virginia fossils mentioned by Fontaine, forty-two species of plants, 

 all appear to have occurred within the extreme limits of the coal-bearing 

 beds of the middle member of the Richmond and Farmville basins ; that 

 is, within a thickness of about 150 feet, and, beyond a doubt, within what 

 corresponds to the Gwyuedd shales. 



In North Carolina, the composition of the Mesozoic would seem to be 

 very like what it is in Virginia, with three members in the eastern Deep 

 River coal field and three in the western Dan River coal field, each field 

 with its middle member comparatively blackish or greenish and slatelike, 

 with conglomerates and sandstones below, gray, brown and red, and with 

 similar soft and hard red, brown and mottled sandstones above. The 

 description applies more particularly in the Deep River field, but the 

 rocks of the Dan River field are said to be similar and to consist of the 

 same members (see Emmons as reported in Macfarlane' s Coal Regions 

 of America, pp. 518-520, 526). Moreover, the geographic position of the 

 two fields would seem to malce it highly probable that the Deep River 

 rocks would correspond to those of the Richmond coal basin, and Fon- 

 taine considers them to do so. The Dan River beds, however, would 

 seem to correspond with those of the Farmville basin, that is, to be tlie 

 same beds as the Richmond and Deep River beds, but on the western side 

 of an anticlinal. Both the Deep River coals and the Dan River coals 

 would then belong among the Gwynedd shales. It is true, Emmons later 

 considered the lower part of the Deep River darker member to be uncon- 

 formable and much older, even Permian, and called it the Chatham 

 series ; but Fontaine finds nothing in the fossils to confirm such a sus- 

 picion. 



The North Carolina fossils mentioned by Emmons all come from the 

 Deep River coal field. Only four of them come from what he calls the 

 bituminous slate group of the Chatham series, beds most closely con- 

 nected with the coals and corresponding, in Fontaine's opinion, to the 

 beds associated with the Richmond coals, the same probably as the mid- 

 dle member of the Richmond coal basin and a part of the Gwj'nedd 

 shales. The thirty-six other fossil plants all come from higher up, but 

 from what seems to correspond to the middle or upper part of the Gwyn- 

 edd shales within, say, at most 2000 feet above the coal beds, and below 

 the thick, "red marly sandstones," that may correspond to tlie upper 

 part of the Gwynedd shales or to the lower part of the Lansdale shales. 

 The North Carolina fossils then all appear in any case to belong to the 

 Gwynedd shales. 



As regards the New Red in New Jersey, it was suggested in the previ- 

 ous communication already referred to that possibly a careful study of the 

 topography as set forth in the valuable maps of the New Jersey State 

 Geological Survey might enable the New Red main subdivisions to be 

 traced quite across the State. Later, on actual trial, it did seem possible 

 to accomplish so much rather satisfactorily, and the accompanying map 

 of the New Jersey and New York New Red gives the result. The geo- 



PROC. AMER. PHILOS. SOC. XXXIII. 145. Z. rRINTKD JUNE 7, 1894. 



