146 J. JB. Wood wort Jt — Carboniferous Fossils. 



In the summer of 1892, in the course of a rapid reconnais- 

 sance made in the Norfolk County basin, the writer found a 

 second locality of fossils in the railroad cut about one-half 

 mile north of Canton Junction station on the Old Colony R. R. ? 

 and 15 miles south of Boston, a brief announcement of which 

 was made in the 14th Annual Report of the Director. This 

 section was examined by Mr. W. W. Dodge as early as 1875, 

 and probable fossils were seen by him which he described, in 

 Notes on the Geology of Eastern Massachusetts"* as "dark, 

 cylindrical forms which appear to be branching stems of some 

 kind." I am indebted to Mr. Dodge for the privilege of see- 

 ing the specimens in his collection. They are unidentifiable 

 stem-like bodies. Under the microscope in thin section, the 

 dark ring which forms the cross-section of the body proves to 

 be chlorite enclosing an axis of the same constitution as the 

 matrix. The chlorite is evidently a metamorphic product. A 

 similar chloritic coating is found on the impressions of cala- 

 mites from this localit} 7 . Since the evidence from this locality 

 confirms the conclusion reached by the geologists before men- 

 tioned as to the Carboniferous age of, at least, a portion of the 

 rocks in this basin, the following account of the Canton Junc- 

 tion section is here given. For a more extended statement of 

 the relation of these beds to those of the jSTarragansett Basin, 

 the reader is referred to a forthcoming report on the Carbon- 

 iferous rocks of this district by Prof. N. S. Shaler. 



Granitite. — The cut just north of the station at Canton 

 Junction is in the hornblendic granitite which forms the floor 

 of the Carboniferous along the southern border of the Norfolk 

 County basin. Two narrow dikes of diabase cut the granitite, 

 with their contacts following nearly vertical sets of joints. 



Carboniferous, gray series. — About 2500 feet north of the 

 granitite exposure is a small outcrop of greenish and grayish 

 slates, originally fine muds with interlaminated sandy layers. 

 The strike is about N. 60° E., and the dip 65° to 70° south ; 

 the cleavage dips north about 70°. 



The fine, shaly partings between the sandy layers carry flat- 

 tened plant stems, adhering to the under surface of the bed- 

 ding. Compressed stems of Galamites occur about one inch 

 wide and finely striated. They are ill preserved, but one form 

 suggests C. cistii Brgt., which, according to Lesquereux, occurs 

 in the JSTarragansett basin. Sigillaria is also found in the 

 same bed. 



Northward, about 135 feet of beds are covered with drift, 

 when there appears the following section, also fossiliferous : 



* Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xvii, 1875, p. 414. 



