State Museum of Natural History. 



25 



During the past year, while the current work of the Museum 

 has been going on as usual, and the additions by collection, dona- 

 tion or purchase have been continued in various directions, we 

 have been able to make a notable addition, not only to the collec- 

 tions of the Museum, but to our knowledge of the vestigia of some 

 of the animals inhabiting the ocean of the Potsdam era. 



Early in October, Prof. W. H. Benedict, Principal of the High 

 School and Academy at Port Henry, N. Y., wrote me of his dis- 

 covery of a slab of Potsdam sandstone in the sidewalk of a street 

 of that village, which was marked by peculiar tracks or trails of 

 some animal inhabiting the sea at the time of the original depo- 

 sition of the sand. I at once wrote to him, in behalf of the State 

 Museum, to secure this flag-stone, if possible, by guaranteeing its 

 replacement by one equally as good for the purposes of a side- 

 walk. At the same time I urged him to find the quarry from 

 which the slab had been derived, and to look for the layer marked 

 by these tracks. In this, he was successful, and after a short time 

 notified me of the fact. I then urged him to engage the manager 

 of the quarry to work out this layer as far as practicable, and to 

 mark the pieces as they came out, in order that they might be 

 subsequently laid down, arranged in the same order and relation 

 as in the original bed; thus giving us a representation of the con- 

 ditions existing at the time of the deposition of the sand, and its 

 slight covering of argillaceous matter which prevented the inter- 

 mingling and coherence of the subsequently deposited sand with 

 the previous deposit. In all this, Mr. Benedict has been very 

 successful, and the slabs obtained will be sufficient to enable us 

 to lay down a floor of more than twenty feet in length by eight 

 feet in width. 



Learning that the slab (3r flag-stone before mentioned was lying 

 in front of the Sherman Free Library, I recommended Mr. Bene- 

 dict to apply to the Trustees for the privilege of removing the flag 

 and replacing it by another. Following my suggestion, he spoke 

 to several of the Trustees about the matter, and he also suggested 

 that I should write a letter to the board making application for 

 the slab. As I was then preparing to go west for the purpose of 

 collecting material for illustrating vol. VIII of the Palaeontology 

 of New York, I found no opportunity of writing the letter before 

 leaving Albany on the fourteenth. At a later date, October 

 4 



