68 FOSSILS OF THE TACONIC SLATE. 



KOSSILS PECULIAR TO THE TACONIC SLATE. 



At die time of the publication of my Report for the Second or Northern Geological 

 District, I was not satisfied that the rock now under consideration contained fossils. It is 

 true that obscure trace- of fucoids had been discovered in beds of slate in Cambridge, 

 Washington county, and those of a more perfect character were known in the roofing 

 slate; yet the strong prejudice which then existed to the plan of separating these slates 

 from the Hudson river series, led me i<> retain them in the New-York system, considering 

 the roofing slate of Hoosic in particular as an outlier of tbis series. However, no doubt 

 now exists as it regards the place these beds occupy: n full and careful examination has 

 established the fact that they are varieties of Taconic slate, and appear only as subor- 

 dinate beds. We are Dot now so limited in organic bodies as at the time referred to. I 

 have since discovered at bast three genera of the red-blooded worms in the slates of 

 Washington county, in addition to the trilobites of the black slate ; and I had an oppor- 

 tunity to inspect five or six species of JVereites, and two species of Myrianites, during my 

 visit tliis season to Watenille. Maine. I now feel confident that we have much additional 

 evidence in these peculiar fossils, not only of the propriety of separating tbis rock from the 

 shales of Hudson river, but of the independence of the Taconic system ; and how strong 

 tins evidence might be. considered if it stood alone, and without the proof from other 

 sources of the inferiority of its position, I am not prepared to say ; but, without question, tin- 

 fact itself is one of the most interesting in geology. For how remarkable it is that those 

 curious organic bodies of the nereitoid family should characterize a group of rocks; and 

 certainly it is not too much to say this, when we find them in the same rock in New- 

 York, Maine, and Wales in Great Britain, three places so distant from each other ! It is 

 true that the number of species at present known is comparatively small, still this ought 

 not to be considered a strong objection, inasmuch as but little search has yet been made ; 

 and besides, their peculiar forms, and the mode in which they arc preserved, are such as 

 to ba\e them obscure and very liable to be overlooked. 



As the fossils here referred to appear to be new, I have been obliged to propose new- 

 genera for their reception. The inspection of the figures, I have little doubt, will satisfy 

 most geologists and naturalists that they belong to the family of JVereites, closely allied to 

 the Llampator fossils figured by Mr. Mirchison and determined by Mr. M'Leay. At any 

 they do not appeal *o aberrant in their types as to exclude them from tbis family. 



Plate XIV. fig. 1. I have called JYemapodia tenuissima.* It is found in the fine green 

 taconic slate of Salem, Washington count] , New-York. It is quite abundant. 



Fig. 2. Gordia marina. It resembles the Gordius, a freshwater worm, usually called 

 Hair-worm. No joints or swellings can !»■ discovered in the fossil. It is in the fine flagging 

 ■tone of Mr. M-Arthlr, in Jackson, Washington county. 



• .Ycma, a thread ; pout, a foot. 



