368 “R. P. Whitfield—Age of Bernardston rocks. 
Art. XXXVIII.— Observations on the fossils of the Metamorphic 
rocks of Bernardston, Mass.; by R. P. WHITFIELD. 
I HAVE received from Professor J. D. Dana, and from Pro- 
fessors Emerson and Clark, of Amherst and Northampton, 
Mass., collections of fossils from metamorphic sandy shales at 
Bernardston, Mass., and also some from a bed of crystalline 
limestone below them, with a request to examine them with a 
view to determining their age. : 
In the shales I find many casts and impressions of Brachio- 
of which might be classed with Meristella, but are extremely 
uncertain. There is also a cast of a species of Petraia or Strep- 
telasma, which might represent equally well the species from 
the Niagara, Lower Helderberg and Hamilton groups. — 4 
From the limestone I recognize two species of Favosites, 40 
several stems of Crinoids of large size; also from specime 
sent to the American Museum of Natural History, by. S 
fessor C. H. Hitchcock, a form strongly resembling a species © 
Syringopora, but somewhat doubtful. 
avosites are not in a condition to be identified s 
cally with certainty. One of them, however, has many charac 
ters resembling F. favosa, and forms a mass about four inches 
in diameter by about two in height. The other form 1s age 
sitic around a large crinoid stem, and has cells of about — 
size and form of Astrocerium venustum Hall; yet 
distinguish in it the peculiar features of that genus. id 
rom the evidence furnished by these specimens I shou! 
conclude that the limestones may be of Middle Silurian 23% 
and that the shales were most probably of Middle Devon'#® 
ecifi- 
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