iT2 > NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



While constructing the road bed of the Malone & Mohawk 

 Eailroad^ numerous deposits of diatomaceous remains were dis- 

 covered in the small lakes and ponds of the region adjacent to the 

 line of the road. A careful investigation of the largest of these 

 was made during 1893 and 1894 bj Mr D. C. Wood, engineer in 

 charge of Dr W. S. W^ebb's Nahasane park. The results of his 

 investigations were published by Mr C. F. Cox in a paper read 

 before the New York Academy of Science in 1894.^ The survey 

 was made with the idea of the development of these deposits on 

 an economic sbasis, and Mr Wood reported eight ponds as contain- 

 ing these remains in sufficient quantity to be worked at a prob- 

 able profit. The material in these eight ponds was exceedingly 

 clean and covered from 2J to 3 acres in each pond, ranging in 

 depth from 1 foot to 12 feet. 



In specimens of the material from the various localities dis- 

 covered by Mr Wood, Mr Cox found 16 genera and 40 species of 

 diatoms, the most abundant being Stauroneis, Cymbella, Eutonia, 

 Navicula, Surirella, Melosira, Gomphomena and Epithemia. 



In a previous paper^ Mr Cox discusses the deposit at White 

 Lead lake near Hinckley in Herkimef county. Here he found the 

 same genera as in the other deposits. The remains of the genus 

 Surirella were not so numerous as in the deposits to the north. 



Mr Cox inferred from the presence of both fixed and free 

 swimming forms that the deposits were not entirely lacustrine in 

 their origin, the inflowing streams having contributed a portion 

 of the deposit represented by the skeletons of the fixed fonn^, 

 Melosira, Gomphomena, Epithemia etc. 



Millstones 

 MateTial suitable for millstones is found in the Shawangunk 

 grit (Oneida conglomerate) of Ulster county, N. Y., in Lancaster 

 county. Pa., where it is called Cocalico stone, and in Montgomery 

 county, Va., where it is known as Brush mountain stone. The 

 New York material is sold under the name of Esopus stone. The 



^N. Y. Acad. Sen. Trans. 1894. 13:98. 

 ^N. Y. Acad. Sci. Trans. 1893. 12:219. 



