144 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST.  [Vor. XXXIX. 
incident mentioned in Mrs. Smith's article. In the record of 
this discussion may also be found a statement, credited to Mr. 
W. E. Hidden, to the effect that amber had been discovered 
during the previous summer in the marl beds of North Carolina, 
and a hearsay reference to a very large specimen from New 
Jersey, which was * found on the shore of Raritan Bay, and now 
deposited in the museum at Berlin, Germany." 
In 1885 were made the first discoveries of fossil plant remains 
in the Kreischerville clays (Proc. Nat. Sci. Assn. Staten Isld., 
Dec. 12th, 1885). These were subsequently described by the 
writer (/bid., Feb. 13th, 1886) and at the end of the descrip- 
tions may be found the following brief paragraph: “ There are 
also little masses of a yellow substance which I take to be a 
fossil gum or amber." Mr. Wm. T. Davis also found it there 
subsequently, according to the following record: “Mr. Davis 
presented unusually fine specimens of lignite, apparently coni- 
ferous, from the clay beds of Kreischerville. The specimens 
were of the appearance and consistency of jet and contained 
considerable amber," (/&;7. March 12th, 1892). The above 
mentioned material from Kreischerville was all found in the 
immediate vicinity of the deposits recently exposed and probably 
from parts of the same bed. 
PROBABLE ORIGIN OF THE AMBER. 
In 1894 the Cape Sable locality was visited by Mr. A. Bib- 
bins, who succeeded in finding and collecting a number of 
specimens of amber, some of which were included in the inter- 
stices of a log of lignite and were evidently derived from it. 
This lignite was examined by Dr. F. H. Knowlton, by whom it 
was identified as a new species of Cupressinoxylon (C. bzbbinst), 
or in other words the fossil wood of a Sequoia (* American 
Amber-producing Tree," F. H. Knowlton, Science, vol. 3, 1896, 
pp. 582-584, figs. 1-4). This identification is important for 
the reason that it gives us definite information, for the first time, 
in regard to the origin of at least a portion of the amber in this 
part of the United States, and suggests a probable source for 
some of that at Kreischerville, where it occurs in close connec- 
