PALAEONTOLOGY : EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. 43 



CANTON JUNCTION. 



Route. — By rail, N. Y. , N. H. & H. railroad (Park square station) to 

 Canton Junction, 14.5 miles; fare $.30. Walk back on railroad track, 

 to rock cut, about half a mile north of station. 



The fossils found here were mentioned originally by W. W. 

 Dodge, in his " Notes on the geology of eastern Massachusetts." 1 

 He speaks of them as " dark cylindrical forms which appear 

 to be branching stems of some kind." According to Woodworth, 

 the fossiliferous beds belong to the "Carboniferous gray series," 

 and appear about 2500 feet north of the granitite exposure of the 

 cut. The rocks are " greenish and grayish slates, originally fine 

 muds, with interlaminated sandy layers. The strike is about 

 N. 60° E. and the dip 65° to 70° S. ; the cleavage dips north about 

 70° " (Woodworth). The plant remains occur in the fine shaly 

 partings between the sandy layers. They are Calamites (cf. C. 

 aistii Brongniart) and Sigillaria. In some of the lower slaty and 

 sandy beds, exposed farther north, occur stems of ferns and 

 Calamites impressions. 



The most recent discovery of Carbonic fossils in this region 

 is by Mr. M. L. Fuller, who found plant remains considered to 

 be Calamites and probably Sigillaria in arenaceous and conglom- 

 erate beds, in the railroad cut about a quarter of a mile north- 

 east of the railroad station at Brockton (N. Y., H. H. & H. rail- 

 road, Plymouth div., Kneeland street station, 20 miles, fare $ .45.) 

 Fuller states that "in most of these cases the bark has been 

 changed to a layer of highly ferruginous anthracite, surrounding 

 a core of sand" (p. 197). In a few cases the entire trunk has been 

 preserved " . . as a black, fibrous substance, closely resembling 

 ordiuary charcoal." This is friable, and consists of a mixture of 

 carbonaceous material with spicules and fibres of a whitish sub- 

 stance, which on analysis proved to be calcium carbonate. This 

 constitutes over eighty percent of the mass. 



TRIASSIC. 



To study the Triassic formation and its fossils, the Connec- 

 ticut valley must be visited. (See Emerson's excursions in 

 the Connecticut valley, p. 33.) The most prominent organic 



1 Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist, vol. 17, 1875, p. 414. 



