26 Section on Yellow CreeTc. 



four inches in length, and from half an inch to one inch in diameter 

 at the base. I can describe the form and structure no better than 

 by saying they resemble a mass of conical " candle extinguishers," 

 one placed within the other, and so arranged as to make a compact 

 bed, four inches thick, and extending over an indefinite space. The 

 thickness of the sides of the cones, varies according to size, from an 

 eighth to a twelfth of an inch. The form resembles some of the 

 species of Belemnites, more than any other fossil. Its geological 

 position, according to Blainville, is favorable to this supposition, be- 

 ing near the tertiary or recent secondary deposits. Its composition 

 is calcareous, effervescing strongly with dilute sulphuric acid, when 

 pulverized and mixed with it. It is not a deposit, but a regularly 

 organized substance, like coral or madrepore, and I have no doubt 

 formed through animal agency. It is also peculiar to the calcareous 

 deposits of the coal series, and 1 believe found only on the outer 

 margins of the great coal basins, in the valley of the Mississippi, 

 where they approach the tertiary deposits. I have in my cabinet 

 specimens of the same fossil, from the coal region on the Osage 

 River, in the vicinity of Harmony, the missionary station, presented 

 to me by the Rev. Mr. Boynton, who collected them with his own 

 hands from the bed of the river, in place. It is there from four, to 

 eight inches in thickness, and is named by the hunters " coal blos- 

 som," as where that is seen coal is usually found in the vicinity. 

 When exposed to the air, the fossil separates easily, and can be 

 taken out whole, in the same way that a package of thimbles, or a 

 pile of tin cones, placed one within the other, may be separated. I 

 have the same fossil, but much larger and thicker, from the Gauly 

 River, in western Virginia, found imbedded in bituminous shale, in 

 rolled masses ; also, from near Chilicothe, found in excavating the 

 Ohio Canal, resting on gravel, at the depth of eight or ten feet. 

 These last specimens are siliceous, about four inches thick, and were 

 broken from a water-worn mass, a foot across the face, much resem- 

 bling the transverse section of a log of wood. They were probably 

 brought from the northern borders of the coal deposits, at the same 

 time that the granite bowlders were scattered over the tertiary re- 

 gion of the great valley, and by the same catastrophe. An appro- 

 priate name for this organized stratum, might be Belemnita-Madre- 

 pora, provided it should, on further examination, be proved to be 

 of the family of Belemnites. Additional aid to this conjecture is 

 found in the fact, that the deposit on which this stratum rests, is 



