38 Putnam Hill Strata. 



taining a great many broken and some whole shells of the genera spi- 

 rifera and gryphea. The shells retain their calcareous material, effer- 

 vescing freely with acids. The upper portion of the bed is intense- 

 ly hard, but breaks into fragments, and is gathered up below the falls 

 and used in the manufacture of iron. This deposit forms the bed 

 of the rapids or falls at this place. The black flint contains numer- 

 ous cells, as if it had consolidated suddenly after being deposited in 

 a very hot state, as nothing less than a powerful heat can hold it in 

 solution. — 1 foot. 



17. Fine compact ferruginous sandstone, filled with very perfect 

 vegetable impressions, of several feet in length. Figures No. 17 

 and 18 (page 7, woodcuts) are from this deposit. No. 17 is a portion 

 of a " calamites dubius," which is most beautifully and perfectly im- 

 pressed, leaving a thin coat of bituminous matter in its place. No. 

 18 appears to be a fragment of the foliage of some palm, or arundi- 

 naceous plant. Portions of arborescent ferns, and the flowers of 

 some vegetable resembling an aster, are very commonly impressed 

 on the same fragment of rock. This deposit can be approached 

 only at low stages of the water, as it lies in the bed of the river a 

 little below the falls. The most distinct and perfect impressions of 

 fossil plants in all this vicinity are found in this bed, as if nature jeal- 

 ous and careful of her choicest productions had placed them in a 

 spot difficult of access, enveloped in numerous stony coverings, and 

 protected by water from the prying curiosity of man. — 3 feet. 



18. Limestone — dark colored and carbonaceous — in beds of four 

 and six inches in thickness — containing fossil encrini and broken 

 shells. — 1 foot. 



I am informed that a few feet below this limestone there is 

 a deposit of very fine coal, much thicker than any of the upper 

 beds. A spot containing a more interesting series of fossils 

 and rock strata, can hardly be found, than this in the vicinity of 

 Zanesville. The sand rocks, on Monongahela creek, a few miles 

 S. W. of this, are filled with the most perfect fossil casts of Palm 

 trees, calamites, the roots of aquatic plants, &;c. Figures No. 19 

 and 20, (page 7,) are from this place. No. 19 is a very fine sand- 

 stone. No. 20 is replaced by siliceous material. They are differ- 

 ent species of the stems of arborescent ferns. No. 33, (page 9 of 

 the wood cuts,) is from stratum No. 17, and is probably a monocotyle- 

 donous plant. 



