REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR I913 39 



The " Cryptozoon ledge " in the town of Greenfield, Saratoga 

 county. The geologists of the Survey have long been aware of the 

 occurrence on the property now owned by Mrs Mabel A. Wesley, 

 but generally known as the " Hoyt quarry," of a remarkable ledge 

 of Cambric rocks exposing in most extraordinary fashion a reef of 

 the fossil known as Cryptozoon, which is believed to be an algoid 

 plant secreting a calcareous skeleton. This exposure is to be seen 

 along the roadside from Saratoga Springs to Greenfield and the 

 fact that the ledge has been smoothed down by glacial action renders 

 it all the more conspicuous and interesting. These great circular 

 Cryptozoon masses are often many feet in circumference, made up 

 of concentric layers of algoid growths, and it is quite probable 

 (indeed, it is so stated freely by geologists who have studied these 

 ancient organisms in various parts of the world) that this exhibit is 

 altogether unique. Especial interest attaches to these organisms 

 from the fact that it is now thought that such reefs of algae or water 

 plants, either marine or of fresh water, were present in the rocks of 

 the Precambric and were among the first of known forms of life. 

 This peculiar ledge of Cryptozoon is so out of the ordinary, so 

 impressive to the student and even to the casual visitor, that an 

 effort is now being made to bring it also under the control of the 

 State as a public reservation. This is fully justified by the fact 

 that the ledge is extraordinary, unique and teaches an interesting 

 lesson which could well be explicated on the spot in case it can 

 thus be brought under the control of the State Museum. 



Mormon hill. Reference has been made to the production of a 

 relief map of Mormon hill, in Wayne county near the village of 

 Palmyra. This glacial drumlin or melon-shaped hill deposited by 

 the melting ice sheet on its retreat to the north, is the spot where 

 Joseph Smith, on a dark night in 1827, is alleged to have dug up 

 the golden plates of the Book of Mormon. It is thus the Mecca of 

 the Mormons and is visited by their distinguished members with 

 frequency. In the history, therefore, of this State, it stands as a 

 monument to a religious and civic enterprise which has now taken 

 on an influential form, both of quality and circumstance; and it 

 is well, therefore, that the place should be preserved. Doubtless 

 the time will come when the disciples of this growing religious cult 

 will themselves desire to possess and to protect the place ; and 

 should this ever happen, it is still to be remembered that its pre- 

 eminent place as a factor in the history of the State is as one of the 

 Series of great glacial drumlins from a region in western New York 



