iFossil Marine Plants. 18S 



flie fossil fuci prevail 1700 or 1800 feet above the level of the 

 sea. At Muncey Ridge, in Lycoming county, fine specimens 

 were obtained in white sandstone ; at this place and at Lewis- 

 ion they occur 450 feet above tide-water ; also on the eastern 

 slope of the Alleghany ridge, fossil fuci are associated with pro- 

 ductas, at points more than 100 miles apart. In the narrows of 

 the Junita, that river flows between cliffs of sandstone 700 feet 

 high, and in the lower strata in the Shade mountain, the strata 

 containing the marine plants are brought into view by the cut- 

 tings for the canal. They are found in shale, in sandstone, -&.c. 

 In one place the fucus beds are laid bare to the height of nearly 

 i>0 feet, and here seven courses of the plants are comprised with- 

 in a thickness of 4 feet. In another place, below Lewiston, 

 eight or ten beds were counted within 6 feet. At the western 

 end of Shade mountain, in a quarry, 100 courses of marine 

 plants are distinguishable within a thickness of 20 feet ; they 

 are crowded with obscure plants, and occasionally crossed by 

 the larger fucoides. In a third place, there are twenty layers of 

 fucoides within the thickness of 3 feet, and it is supposed that 

 the entire thickness is not less than %G0 feet. At the west end 

 of Shade mountain, the fucus beds extend, without interruption^ 

 •to a height of from 300 to 350 feet ; those containing the ob- 

 scure algae reach £50 feet, and at 300 there are numerous sur- 

 face slabs, exhibiting the Fucoides alleghaniensis in situ. It is 

 justly inferred by Mr Taylor, that there existed various epochs 

 in which numerous surfaces of the shallows of the ancient ocean 

 were covered by marine vegetation. The fucus beds are com- 

 posed of argillaceous, slaty, and siliceous rocks, laminated and 

 parted by shale. Some of the fuci had long flexible and flat- 

 tened stalks, with few branches; the breadth of the stalks was 

 sometimes over half an inch. On the western side of Shade 

 mountain there are hundreds of beds, some of them not an inch 

 in thickness, but making an aggregate of W0 feet, and the quar- 

 ries within a mile of Lewiston, furnish an inexhaustible supply 

 of excellent paving-stones, in which the vegetable forms, espe- 

 cially in the weathered specimens, are very prominent. This 

 is perhaps the most remarkable locality of fossil marine plants 

 that has any where been observed. — ■Sillimari's Journal. 



7. Gold Region of the Unite A States,, — A report has bees 



