14 BULLETIN OF THE 
ment of interbedded conglomerates, shaly slates, and sandstones, the 
whole separated from the other detrital deposits of this region by 
peculiarities of color. While the Coal Measure conglomerates have 
generally a grayish or blackish hue, these more western deposits of 
puddingstone are generally of a red color, while the intercalated shales 
vary in hue from a brilliant red to an olive-green. Various conjec- 
tures have been made as to the age of these deposits. They have 
been thought by one observer to resemble the Trias, while others, 
owing partly to their position, have assigned them to the Devonian age. 
Until I began my studies upon this district, the strata had afforded no 
fossils, and the determinations above noted were purely conjectural. 
As it appears to me that there is a lesson of some value afforded by 
the conditions of my inquiry, I venture to set forth the methods under 
which it was pursued. After carefully traversing all the roads in this 
district, with the hope of obtaining geological data on those lines, I 
became convinced that results of value could not be yielded by track- 
ing these paths, for the reason that here as elsewhere in an accidented 
country the public ways avoid the outcrops. Inspecting a portion of 
the field, I found that almost all the available exposures were covered 
by brushwood, and thus hidden from a hasty glance. I therefore re- 
solved to trace the country on foot in such a manner that I should 
obtain sight of every exposure. A preliminary inquiry showed that, 
even where the rocks were covered by drift, a careful consideration of 
the fragmentary matter in the glacial deposits would give very clear 
evidence as to the nature of the deposits below the covering. Pursu- 
ing this latter inquiry in a methodical way, I found that at any point 
whatsoever the boulder clay as distinguished from the kame deposits 
was to the extent of at least three fourths its mass composed of mate- 
rial which had not been carried for a greater distance than half a mile. 
Pursuing my further inquiries in this close manner, I found in a very 
short time that these apparently barren deposits of shales and con- 
glomerates afforded at certain points a good number of fossils. Within 
an area of a single square mile, three important localities have already 
been discovered from which, as will be seen in the sequel, we have ob- 
tained over a score of recognizable fossils. It is likely that further 
research on these beds will increase the list of organic remains to thirty 
species or more. 
My studies on the Narragansett field were begun in 1865. The first 
of the fossil localities was not found until 1883. The pressure of other 
work and the lack of good topographic maps made it impossible to work 
