500 G. H. PERKINS — TERTIARY LIGNITE OF BRANDON, VERMONT 



specimens in the Journal.* Both of these papers are reprinted in the 

 Vermont Geological Report of 1861. 



Nothing further concerning the lignite appeared until in 1902 Doctor 

 F. H. Knowlton published in Torrey Bulletin f an account of the lignite 

 and of some of the fossils, 4 species of which are figured on plate xxv of 

 this article, and also several microscopic sections of lignite and fossils. 



A much larger amount of material than had been obtained before 

 having come into the possession of the writer, he was able to publish in 

 his Fourth Report as Vermont State Geologist, in 1904, a more extended 

 account of the deposit and its fossils than had previously been possible. 

 As the edition of this report was not large, and hence copies could not 

 be as widely distributed as might have been desirable, it is hoped that a 

 summary of the results obtained from a careful study of a large quantity 

 of the lignite will not be without value. Since the report was published 

 considerable new material has been studied and the following pages 

 should be regarded as a revision rather than a reprint of the account 

 given in the report. 



Location and Extent of the Lignite Deposit 



The accompanying sketch map, made by Professor T. N. Dale, after an 

 examination of the locality, shows the position of the lignite and asso- 

 ciated deposits so far as known. 



It is to be noted that the lignite does not occupy nearly all of the 

 small shaded area, but only a small part of it, as mo3t of the space indi- 

 cated is occupied by clays, limonite, kaolin, etcetera. Doctor Hitch- 

 cock's account indicates that in hi3 time there was some outcropping of 

 lignite at the surface, but for many years this has not been true, and 

 now the bed is covered by from 10 to 60 feet of drift. For this reason 

 the lignite is never seen except as it is brought to the surface through a 

 shaft. At present the only shafts from which it has been obtained are 

 one near the upper end of Professor Dale's shaded area and another 

 about 600 feet south of it. These two shafts have afforded quite unlike 

 material and do not appear to enter the same deposit. All of the fossils 

 found have come from the shaft near the upper end of the shaded area 

 seen in figure 1, a few rods above the crossing of the roads, while the shaft 

 on the southern part of this area has produced a more compact and harder 

 lignite, apparently more completely carbonized, and yielding not a single 

 fossil. 



It will be seen readily that the real extent of the lignite deposit is not 

 known, but it seems certain that it can not be very great. The thickness 



*Vol. xxxii, 1861, pp. 3 r >5-363. 

 t November, 1902, pp. 636-641. 



