62 BULLETIN OF THE 
crossing the strike to the east, and thus mounting the monoclinal 
sequence of beds which descend eastward with much uniformity. Coarse 
sandstones and conglomerates outcrop in small ridges with abrupt slopes 
to the west, and control the local topography east of the railroad, where 
very little drift has been deposited. The attitude of the beds is toler- 
ably constant ; the strike averages N. 30° E., and dip, 12° or 15° to the 
east. Low ledges are plentiful over much of the distance, until the 
Meriden—Berlin road is reached, half a mile east of the railroad ; then a 
short ascent up a wooded slope leads to the higher ridge of amygdaloidal 
trap (2), lying anterior to, 7. e, in front of the face of Lamentation 
Mountain. This ridge should be followed north about one third of a 
mile, to the fine exposure of its bed of ashes and volcanic bombs (3),? 
now locally well known through the efforts of the Meriden Scientific 
Association, at whose expense the base of the cliff has been opened by 
blasting, to secure fresh specimens of its remarkable rock. A fine shaly 
sandstone may be seen at a few points at the bottom of the cliff, under- 
lying the ash bed. One of the bombs seems to have embedded itself 
in the sandy mud by the force of its fall, like the examples described 
by Scrope in the recent volcanic region of central France. 
Climbing the cliff and crossing through the woods, an old quarry (4) 
is found at the edge of a pasture that slopes to the east with the dip of 
the beds. The sandstone is seen here, with strike N. 25° E., and dip 
13° to the east. Two dark layers, consisting chiefly of small rounded 
and irregular fragments of trap, were found here by Mr. Whittle, and a 
few feet lower, the top of the lava sheet is seen in a little ledge in the 
woods. The lava is vesicular, and the sandstone immediately overlying 
it contains many of its fragments. A blast lately fired has disclosed 
this fairly well. Going eastward down the pasture, occasional outcrops 
of shaly sandstone (5) are found with normal strike and dip, forming 
little ridges in the valley between the anterior trap ridge and the main 
ridge of Lamentation Mountain. They also appear occasionally in 
benches (6), on the steep western slope of the latter. Percival speaks 
(Geology of Connecticut, p. 365) of a bed of impure limestone some- 
where in this valley, but I have not been able to discover it ; in former 
years the thin beds of Triassic limestone were burnt at a number of 
points, but with the improvement in transportation and the bringing of 
better lime from elsewhere, this has been given up, and the old lime- 
stone quarries are often covered over and lost to sight. After making 
1 This interesting locality was discovered on an excursion during the spring 
recess from college work, on April 9, 1887. 
