32 LOWER PENINSULA. 



port on Swcin Creek, the water-lime strata arc found everywhere 

 close under the surface of the level country, polished by drift 

 action. The rock is a light, drab-colored, fine-grained, absorbent 

 dolomite ; the surface of the bed is rugose, pitted, as if the strata in 

 soft condition had at one time emerged from the water and been 

 exposed to rain-drops. Seams of black carbonaceous shale sepa- 

 rate the ledges and cover their surface with a shining, thin coat. 

 Stylolitic segregations are very common ; they are evidently a 

 peculiar sort of shrinkage cracks formed by the contracting of 

 the mud mass during its consolidation into rock ; their striated 

 surface is likewise blackened with this shaly coating. In the quar- 

 ries, only about 8 feet of the strata are uncovered ; the upper 

 superficial ones are the best ; some of them break in good-sized 

 blocks about a foot in thickness, which are used as a building-stone. 

 However, most of the rock is quarried for lime-burning. The lower 

 beds in the quarries are thin, uneven slabs interstratified with 

 seams of black shale. Fissures and druse cavities in the rock mass 

 are filled with fine crystals of coelestine and of calcspar. Of 

 fossils, casts of Meristella Isevis, and vegetable stems are the 

 most common. The surface of certain seams in the rock is often 

 densely crowded with the shells, which are frequently coated with 

 asphaltum or surrounded by liquid rock oil. The vegetable re- 

 mains are of various kinds. Some are band-like, compressed stems, 

 which sometimes bifurcate, and are of jointed structure. On cer- 

 tain portions of these stems, annular cicatrices are disposed in re- 

 mote rows, in shape resembling the pores of the tube of a Favosites. 

 Another kind of stem is narrower, more remotely jointed, and 

 each joint is surrounded by a verticil of long, narrow leaves. 

 I have transmitted specimens of these remains to Prof. Leo Les- 

 quereux, of Columbus, leaving it to him to give his opinion on 

 them at pleasure. He thinks they are of considerable scientific 

 interest, and will probably say something about them in one 

 of his scientific publications. 



Three miles southeast of the Newport quarries, we find 

 alone the shore of Point-aux-Paux a very good natural ex- 

 posure of the same rock beds which here are in brecciated 

 condition, while the beds of the Newport quarry are undis- 

 turbed. The rock beds project only about 4 feet above the 

 water level, but by undulations of the strata about 15 feet 



