208 



Scientific Geology. 



bones that are merely preserved, and not at all petrified, as is the 

 case with those at East Windsor. In Europe a few saurian animals 

 have been found in this rock ; and probably it was an animal of this 

 description that was found in Connecticut. 2. The occurrence of 

 fossil fish, as at Sunderland ; one of the species of which, (Palaeothris- 

 sum freslebenense,) and the rock containing it so exactly resemble 

 specimens of the same from Mansfeld and Hesse in Germany, that 

 Prof. Al, Brongniart could distinguish them only by their labels. 

 But the rocks in Germany containing these fish, belong to the new 

 red sand stone group. They occur also at Autun in France, and at 

 one or two places in Great Britian, with precisely the same charac- 

 ters ; the rock being a member of the new red sandstone. Hence the 

 probability is strong, that the rock containing them along Connecti- 

 cut river, is the new red sandstone, or its equivalent. 3. One variety 

 of the new red sandstone group in Germany, (the copper slate,) is 

 wrought as an ore of copper : and veins of similar ores occur in the 

 Connecticut valley ; frequently passing from the sandstone into the 

 adjoining greenstone ; and in one or two cases, I have observed 

 thin layers of sandstone, considerably charged with the green car- 

 bonate of copper. This may, perhaps, be considered as corrobora- 

 tive evidence that the formations in the two countries are contemporane- 

 ous ; or that they were produced under similar circumstances. 4. 

 The sulphates of barytas and strontia are found in the new red sand- 

 stone of England; the latter " stellated on carbonate of lime"* near 

 Bristol; and they occur under similar circumstances, as will be more 

 particularly described hereafter, in the sandstone group of the Con- 

 necticut valley. Magnetic iron sand also proceeds from this rock 

 here, as on the banks of the Mersey, opposite Liverpool. 5. In Ger- 

 many, bituminous marlite occurs only in the new red sandstone group. 

 Fetid limestone is there, also a member of the same formation. In 

 Massachusetts, likewise, the same rocks are similarly associated ; 

 and I have lately ascertained that a part of the slate containing ich- 

 thyolites at Sunderland, is the bituminous marlite. 6. Werner re- 

 garded the variegated appearance of the new red sandstone as char- 

 acteristic of the formation ; and hence his name of ' bunter sandstein.' 

 In the Connecticut valley this aspect is not very common. But in 

 Bernardston, the lower beds exhibit it on a large scale : and on the 

 banks of Westfield river are several interstratified layers, affording 



* Geological Manuel p. 386. 



