Organic Remains. 



191 



Sulphate of Lime, or Selenite, exists at the same place in tables 

 and acicular prisms, disseminated in blue clay. (No. 131.) 



It is said that amber has been found floating- in the ocean near the 

 cliff at Gay Head. I also found it in small quantities, connected 

 with a vegetable relic in iron ore, at the same place. At Nantucket, 

 a mass of light colored amber was found, three or four inches in di- 

 ameter, which is now in the cabinet of T. A. Green, Esq. of New 

 Bedford. 



Native arsenic is said to have been found at Gay Head ; but I saw 

 none. 



Or gaiiic Remains. 



Although these are apparently not as numerous in the plastic clay 

 of Massachusetts, as in that formation in Europe, yet since vegetable 

 and animal relics are rare in New England ; and some of those in 

 the plastic clay are not found in the same formation in Europe, so far 

 as I can ascertain ; I have felt not a little interest in those which I 

 have succeeded in obtaining, with much labor and effort. But I re- 

 gret, that in consequence of my insulated situation in respect to those 

 gentlemen in our country who have paid particular attention to our 

 fossils, and the short time which has elapsed since I discovered those 

 under consideration, which has prevented my consulting more than 

 one or two of these gentlemen, and every European zoologist, I shall 

 not be able to give their generic and specific names as accurately and 

 confidently as I could wish. And the same remarks will apply to all 

 the organic remains which I shall describe in this Report. But as I 

 shall give accurate drawings of the most important species, when- 

 ever it is practicable, I trust the deficiency will not be great. I had 

 rather be regarded as very ignorant on this subject, than by substitut- 

 ing conjectures for knowledge, lead others to form false conclusions. 

 It is a subject perhaps the most difficult of all connected with geol- 

 ogy ; especially in this country, where there is so great a deficiency 

 of good collections of fossil remains. 



Fossil Vegetables. 



The lignite beds already described, prove the presence of a large 

 quantity of vegetable matter in this formation. This lignite is some- 

 times ligniform, of a brown color, and distinctly fibrous: at others, 

 it is hard and brittle ; and more commonly, it is friable. I found a 

 mass at the foot of the cliff, which abounded in the impressions of a 



