Hagen.] 298 [February 18, 



The geological profile of Cape Sable in Maryland, according to 

 Dr. Troost, is formed as follows : — 



15-70 feet thick. Sand, the lower part with a coarse ferrugineous 

 sandstone. 

 Mixture of lignite and sand with amber. 



31-4 « Lignite. 



15-20 " Sand with large nests of pyrites, or instead, of 



shaly clay. 



5-12 " Earthy lignite with pyriteous wood, and large 



fragments of bituminous trees ; with streaks and 

 nests of gray clay, pebbles of greasy quartz and 

 insect nests of earthy amber. 



2-5 " Argillaceous sandstone, with small masses of 



pyrites. 



4 " Whitish gray clay, exempt from pyrites. 



White sand, in which the water is so abundant as 

 to render it difficult to penetrate lower. 



Comparing this profile with the profile of the coast of Samland, in 

 Eastern Prussia, there is no resemblance to be found except in the 

 occurrence of amber in sandy strata, and the agglutinations of the 

 sand by iron oxide (or iron oxide hydrate) , similar to the so-called 

 krantlayers in Eastern Prussia. Whether the sand has any similarity 

 to the glauconite (Griln Sand) of the amber strata in Prussia, is 

 still entirely unknown; the agglutination being only a secondary 

 process, to be found in sands of the most different formations. 



A striking difference between the amber strata in Eastern Prussia, 

 and those in Maryland, is the occurrence of the lignite only below 

 the amber strata in Maryland, only above the amber strata in East- 

 ern Prussia. This difference, and the immediate neighborhood of 

 amber and lignite, would perhaps indicate the occurrence of amber 

 in Maryland as homologous with the occurrence of amber in the 

 so-called striped sand belonging to the lignite layers of Eastern 

 Prussia. This supposition is supported by the fact quoted in the first 

 note at the end of Dr. Troost's paper, which runs as follows: — 



