8 Twenty-fourth Report on the State Museum. 



The year opened very auspiciously, and during the month of Janu- 

 ary, 1870, we obtained from Gilboa, in Schoharie county, several of 

 the beautiful trunks of fossil tree-ferns which now occupy a conspicu- 

 ous position at the east end of the first floor of the Museum. 



In a letter to the Secretary of the Board of Regents, on the 29th 

 of January, 1870, I gave some account of what had at that time been 

 accomplished (a copy of which letter for reference is appended). The 

 collections were continued from that date as long as the weather 

 permitted, and the work was resumed in May, Mr. Yandeloo making 

 very extensive collections from the same locality. From the 

 later collections we have parts of several other trunks or bases of 

 these fossil plants (Psaronius), and a large number ot fragments of 

 these and other plants, some of which cover slabs of two or three 

 feet in length and breadth. Both in the first and in the later collec- 

 tions we obtained some large slabs of the under clay or plant-bed in 

 which the bases of the trunks rested. The greater part of the 

 smaller vegetation, however, was found imbedded in the strata 

 enveloping the upright trunks and lying above their bases. 



The condition of the strata, which are gently dipping to the south- 

 east, leave no doubt that these trees had grown in the position and in 

 the places where they were found. 



The material in which the bases were imbedded was originally a 

 soft mud, which in its present condition shows little evidence of 

 lamination ; and this probably formed the substratum of a low level 

 marsh or swamp bordering the ancient sea, or extending seaward from 

 the bolder shores, upon which grew the ancient forest of Psaronius. 

 It would appear that this marsh or forest bed had afterwards been 

 slowly submerged, and the influx of coarser sediment surrounded 

 and enveloped the still standing trunks, while the broken and drifted 

 foliage, together with the remains of other vegetation, had become 

 imbedded in the accumulating sand, silt and clay now constituting 

 the alternating coarser and finer beds of the formation. 



The occurrence of these trunks in this undisturbed position, would 

 seem to demonstrate that the eastern shore of the Devonian sea, at 

 the close of the Hamilton epoch, was near the eastern limit of the 

 State of E'ew York, and that the dry land gradually encroaching 

 from the east, here supported a vegetation as luxuriant as that of the 

 coal period. (See note, page 15.) 



During the year, the Museum has acquired a large collection of 

 the iron ores of the Lake Supei'ior iron region, in Marquette county, 



