58 [Senate 



Prom EZRA CHAMPION junior, of Knox, Albany county. 



Seven specimens of Cyathophylla from Onondaga limestone. 



Also several stems of Encrinites and PENTACRiNiTEs,frorn the PentameruS 

 limestone* 



From lltJMPHREY HOWLAND, esquire. 



Specimens of tte Shell, Concretion, which forms the surface rock on which 

 the city of St .Augustine in Florida is built. 



The following paper accompanies the specimens t 



MEMORANDUM on the COQUINA ok SHELL^STONE of EAST^FLORIDA. 



FOB MR. ilOWLAND, WITH DR. SIMMONS-'S RESPECTS. 



!rhis singular concrete is found lying in shallow strata along a portion of the 

 coast of East-Florida; or from the head of the North river which falls into St* 

 Augustine harbor, to New-Smyrna south, where a different formation, the Coral 

 fock, commences, and extends to the extremity of the peninsula. It has never, 

 I believe, been scientifically examined; and I regret that I have neither access 

 to the books, or the geological knowledge which would enable me to describe it 

 properly, or with technical minuteness and accuracy. It does not extend wes- 

 terly beyond the St. Johns, or indeed three or four miles back from the sea. It 

 is thus singularly confined within less than a degree of latitude, and to a nar-' 

 row stripe along the seacoast. It crops out, in geological phrase, in many places 

 from under the sandhills of the shore; and its debris, or disintegrated particles* 

 give a red color to the tract of beach between St. Augustine and Smyrna, that 

 forms an indication to the mariner, who is acquainted with this circumstance, 

 of Ips position in relation to the coast, more certain than soundings, and more 

 convenient than an observation of the sun. It is composed sometimes of minute- 

 ly comminuted particles of muscles and conchs, firmly agglutinated together, 

 probably by an infiltration of lime abraded from their surfaces by the action of 

 the sea. Other descriptions of it consist of entire shells, or their unbroken valves, 

 which, being less firmly compacted, is less fit for building purposes than the 

 former. 



It is a circumstance not easily to be accounted for, that the stone is always 

 composed of the same kinds of shells; while there are others, particularly two 

 species of the puma, which, though thus never included in the rock, are found 

 in abundance along the beach. The strata are of different degrees of thickness; 

 Varying from slabs of a few inches, to beds of several feet in depth. 



The specimens herewith sent to Mr. Howland will enable the scientific geo- 

 logists of the North to describe more accurately, and determine the character of 

 this unique species of stone. The old Spanish Fort of St. Marco, which com- 

 mands the harbor of St. Augustine, and which was built more than a hundred 

 years ago, is constructed of this stone, and is still in good repair. This serves to 



