Miscellaneous Intelligence. 



would naturally forbid the expectation of finding in these any distinguish- 

 able fossil forms. 



Lately, through the kindness of Peter Wainwright, Esq., of this city, 

 I have been led to examine a quarry in the belt of silicious and argilla- 

 ceous slate which lies on the boundary of Quincy and Braintree, about 

 ten miles south of Boston, and to my great surprise and delight 1 found 

 it to be a locality of Trilobites. 



It appears that for several years past the owner of the quarry, Mr. E. 

 Hay ward and his family, have been aware of the existence of these so- 

 called images in the rock, which from time to time they have quarried as 

 ballasting material for wharves, but until now the locality has remained 

 entirely unknown to science. 



The fossils are in the form of casts, some of them of great size and 

 lying at various levels in the strata. So far as I have yet explored the 

 rock, they belong chiefly if not altogether to one species, which on the 

 authority of Agassiz, as well as my own comparison with Barrande's de- 

 scription and figures, is undoubtedly a Paradoxides. Of its specific 

 affinities I will not now speak, further than to remark that the specimens 

 agree more closely with Barrande's P. spinosus than with any other form. 



As the genus Paradoxides is peculiar to the lowest of the Palaeozoic 

 rocks in Bohemia, Sweden, and Great Britain, mai king the Primordial 

 division of Barrande and the Lingular flags of the British Survey, we will 

 probably be called upon to place the fossil belt of Quincy and Braintree 

 on or near the horizon of our lowest fossiliferous group, that is to say, 

 somewhere about the level of the Primal rocks, the Potsdam sandstone, 

 and the Protozoic sandstone of Owen, containing Dikelocephalus in Wis- 

 consin and Minnesota. Thus, for the first time are we furnished with the 

 data for establishing conclusively the Geological age of any portion of this 

 part of ancient and highly altered sandstones, and what gives further in- 

 terest to the discovery, for defining in regard to this region the very base 

 of the Palaeozoic column as recognized in other parts of the globe. 



The newdy discovered fossil is, I am satisfied, identical with the Par, 

 Harlani described by Green in his monograph of N. American Trilobites, 

 from a specimen of unknown locality procured through Dr. Harlan from 

 Mr. Alger some twenty-five years ago. I draw this conclusion from the 

 close agreement of a nearly complete specimen of the Quincy Trilobite 

 with the cast of P. Harlani and from the identity of the rock as described 

 by Green, and at once recognised by Mr. Alger's experienced eye on see- 

 ing my collection of Quincy specimens. 



In this connection I find in Barrande a remark which, at the same time 

 that it is historically curious, has an interesting bearing on the specific 

 affinities of our fossil. He observes, " We see in different collections, 

 especially in that of the School of Mines and the British Museum, under 

 the name of Paradoxides Harlani, from the United States, a cast of a 

 Trilobite, which appears to us to be identical with P. spinosus of great 

 size, such as found at Skrey in Bohemia." 



It thus appears that the vagrant Par. Harlani, so long an obscure exile 

 has at last been restored to its native seat, to take a conspicuous place 

 in the most ancient dynasty of living forms belonging to the geology of 

 New England. 



SECOND SERIES, VOL. XXII, NO. 65. — SEPT., 1856. 

 38 



