252 THE JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY. 



tury in the Purbeck beds on the Isle of Portland and at other 

 points in the South of England. Being greatly interested in the 

 discovery, I recommended that the proprietor be requested to 

 send on a specimen for examination. The request was complied 

 with, and the specimen proved to be all that I had expected. I 

 therefore made the further recommendation that negotiations be 

 entered into with a view to the purchase of the collection of six 

 specimens which were offered for sale. This was also successful 

 and the collection arrived in May.^ One of the chief features of 

 these specimens is the great size of some of them, the largest 

 measuring 30 inches in height, 2 feet in its longest diameter, and 

 weighing 900 pounds, thus far exceeding anything of the kind 

 hitherto known from any other part of the world. 



Fossil remains of cycadean trunks range from the Upper 

 Trias to the Lower Cretaceous. A number have been found in 

 the clay shales of Italy which have been referred to the Ceno- 

 manian, but will probably be found to be lower. Hot Springs is 

 located on the Red Beds in the valley of the Minnekahta creek, 

 or Fall River, and it would have been natural to suppose that 

 the cycad trunks had come either from these or from the 

 Jurassic which borders it, had it not been stated that they were 

 found "on a high hill." My interest was of course strongly 

 aroused to know the stratigraphical position of the beds in which 

 they occurred, and therefore early in September I made an expe- 

 dition to the region for the purpose of determining it if possible. 

 I had previously corresponded with Mr. F. H. Cole, of Hot 

 Springs, from whom the specimens had been purchased. I had 

 also written to Professor Jenney, who was then at Deadwood, 

 and who kindly consented to join me on my arrival and aid me 

 in the investigation. After considerable search and some dififi- 

 culty the locality was at length found. It is some four miles 

 southwest of Minnekahta Station, about two miles west of 

 Minnekahta Creek, which here has a northward course, on foot- 

 hills one and a half miles east of the divide between that and 

 Red Valley. A deep canon lies to the south, which has an east 



^See Science, Vol. XXI., No. 543, June 30, 1893, p. 355. 



