Review of the New York Geological Reports. 371 



The Triarthus Beckii, one of these, does not seem to differ 

 essentially from a small trilobite found in great abundance in a 

 gray marlite near high water of the Ohio River at Newport, op- 

 posite Cincinnati. 



The Graptolites dentatus is another of these.* At Cincinnati 

 there are two Graptolite strata ; one some ten or fifteen feet above 

 high water, and one near the reservoir, some two hundred and 

 twenty-five feet higher, containing probably two distinct species; 

 and all probably differ slightly from the Utica slate species here 

 figured. 



Some of the state geologists regard this curious fossil as a ma- 

 rine plant. Mr. Mather in his Report, (p. 393,) speaking of this 

 organic remain of the Utica slate says, "These are mostly plants 

 (Graptolites) of which there are at least five species. One species 

 is serrated on one side, another on both sides like the teeth of a 

 saw. One species is serrated with a long and extremely delicate 

 awn-like appendage, extending from the smaller extremity of the 

 serrated leaf, and one of them is branched." Mr. Conrad recog- 

 nizes two species as the Fucoides serra and F. dentatus. Two 

 other species slightly resemble F. lineatus and F. ramulosus. 



And Mr. Yanuxem has the following paragraph regarding them, 

 (p. 63 ;) " The illustration of this rock by its Graptolites, is there- 

 fore left for the geologist of that district. We shall merely state 

 .that the ramose nature of two of the species of these singu- 

 lar bodies, found at Alexander's bridge below Schenectady, at 

 Norman's-kill below Albany, and at Hudson City, shows that 

 their origin is vegetable, not animal as conjectured by some nat- 

 uralists. Their chemical composition confirms their vegetable 

 nature ; no animal ever existed whose material was almost en- 

 tirely carbon, as is the case with these fossils." 



These gentlemen view these organic remains in a very differ- 

 ent light from all former naturahsts who have described them, as 

 will appear from the following extract from Mr. Murchison's work 

 on the Silurian System, (p. 694.) 



" Graptolites. — These fossils have been alluded to as good tests 

 of the age of the strata in which they occur. It has further been 

 shown that they are usually found in deposits, which from their 



* This fossil has occasionally been found in the slaty part of the Trenton lime- 

 stone. 



