Johnston. J 128 [October 21, 



for there is a place called ' Bermuda Hundreds ' on the James River. 

 From the frequent intercourse between Baltimore and Richmond, you 

 have an opportunity of following this up. I trust you will." 



Early in 1860 I sent my " Bermuda" slide to Columbus, where the 

 beauty of the diatoms was much appreciated, and Bermuda Hun- 

 dreds again the subject of remark, as appears by a letter from Mr. 

 Sullivant, dated March 25, 1860. 



I had resolved to visit Bermuda Hundreds for the purpose of mak- 

 ing an exploration, when, about the first of April, my valued friend 

 P. T. Tyson, Esq., State Geologist for Maryland, sent me a number 

 of small parcels of " Tripoli," which he had procured in different 

 parts of the State. One of these earths marked Nottingham, at- 

 tracted my particular attention, for I had the extreme pleasure to 

 find in it the diatomaceous forms familiar on my Bermuda Tripoli 

 slide, besides a host of others, and I at once was satisfied that the 

 lost Bermuda Tripoli was before me, and its locality discovered. 



I at once communicated my dicovery to Mr. Tyson, who was much 

 gratified at being the means of leading to so interesting a develop- 

 ment ; and as he was about to visit Boston as member of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science, which was to have 

 its sitting in May, my friend offered to take a short note which I 

 hastily prepared, together with some of the " new Bermuda earth," 

 and lay both before the Academy. Mr. Tyson kept his promise. 



In the next month I received a note from that eminent phy- 

 sician, Dr. Silas Durkee of Boston, of date June 9, 1860, making 

 me acquainted with Charles Stodder, Esq., an associate of the Bos- 

 ton Natural History Society, and conveying a valuable and detailed 

 catalogue of '' the genera and species " of Diatoniaceas found by Mr. 

 Stodder in the Nottingham earth. 



I had hardly convinced myself of the identity of the " Bermuda 

 Tripoli " and the Nottingham earth, than I thought of my friend Mr. 

 J. Sullivant, to whom 1 dispatched a parcel of the earth in question; 

 and in his reply, dated June 4, 1860, he says "I trust you have re- 

 discovered the equivalent of the Bermuda Tripoli." 



Although I had identified the " Bermuda Tripoli " in the Notting- 

 ham earth, I could not abandon all hope of tracing the former to 

 Bermuda Hundreds, on the James. Accordingly, in the summer of 

 1860, I made a pilgrimage to the latter place, situated upon the right 

 bank of the river, above City Point, about one hundred miles nearly 

 due south of Nottingham, and since made remarkable by a historic 



