70 FOSSILS OF THE TACON1C SLATE. 



The date in which 1 1 1 i •» specimen was found is rather coarse, and somewhat unlike the 

 fine green laconic date. I' is ii"i easilj -|»1 it into lamina', and hence ii will be difficult to 



• tin the fossils it may possibly contain. It was found in Brunswick. Rensselaer county, 

 by my friend Dr. Skilton of Troy. 



That the above fossD \\a^ the tube of an annelide, is of course suggested by the circum- 



• e that animals of this class are found in this rock : the idea is in keeping with this 



. and probably would uot have been thought of independently. It is evident, however, 



that the annelides yel discovered in the Taconic rocks were naked, or did not construct 



iuIk-s for their habitations : BO that it is not supposed that this relict was the tube of one of 



the species which I have figured and described. 



Should no farther discoveries in fossils be made, the Taconic system will present a very 

 nlai and remarkable condition : tin' animal kingdom being represent* d for a long period 

 by a single fragment, and that fragment belonging to one of its obscurest families, yet not 

 the lowest in the scale of organization; but the most striking peculiarities consist in the 

 r'-markabh 1 forms here preserved, and the absence of all others which multIm serve to 

 connect them with the known parts of tin' series. The Jfereites and congeners standing, 

 as it were by themselves, the sole representatives of one of the kingdoms of nature! Sub- 

 sequently each geological period or era had many fi>rm*. typical of many divisions of the 

 animal kingdom. But here, the entire absence of those fornix which become so abundant 

 at tin- very commencement of the succeeding system, is, to say the [east, extremely in- 

 teresting. However, bo Btrange an anomaly is not to be admitted at once ; although for 

 many yean these rocks have been diligently examined, without furnishing a single 

 mollusk. 



I would here remark, that in consequence of the similarity of the taconic slates and 

 -..rm- of the rocks of the Champlain group, fu--il> have been occasionally presented in 

 their matrix, when it was doubtful to which system tiny belonged. In these cases I have 

 invariably visited the spot, for the purpose of determining the exact position the fossil 

 occupied ; and, in all cases where they were tcstacea, they were found in the New-York 

 m. 



