ON A SUPPOSED FRUIT OR NUT FROM THE 
TERTIARY OF ALASKA. 
A. O. THOMAS. 
In the summer of 1910, Dr. George F. Kay, while engaged 
in a study of the Bering River Coal Field of southeastern 
Alaska, discovered some subspherical, concretion-like bodies in 
the “shales of the Tokun formation.” Three specimens were 
brought back by Professor Kay and these through his kindness 
have been submitted to the writer for study. The largest is a 
smooth oval body with long and short diameters of 8.6 and 7.6 
centimeters ; the smallest is likewise smooth, irregularly oval, 
and with diameters of 4.3 and 3.8 centimeters. All three are 
dark-colored, compact, close-grained store, brittle under the 
hammer, and fairly heavy. The smallest one has a core largely 
made up of iron pyrites while the largest one, though moder- 
ately heavy, apparently lacks this mineral and is uniformly 
dark and dense throughout. The third specimen, though per- 
haps less heavy, is much like the largest in its physical prop- 
erties. Its surface, however, is rougher and is partly covered 
by remnants of an outer coat about six millimeters in thick- 
ness. Due to the strikingly nut- or fruit-like appearance of the 
specimen this cover is here termed an “epicarp.” The patches 
of the epicarp are of a brownish color on their broken edges 
but are darker brown, on their smooth outer surfaces. The epi- 
carp is softer, too, and more porous than the main body of the 
“fruit.” The polar diameter (see below) of this specimen is 
6.6 centimeters and two equatorial diameters measure 7.3 and 
7.6 centimeters, exclusive in each case of the cortex-like epi- 
carp. The specimen weighs seventeen and one-half ounces and 
its specific gravity is approximately 2.6. 
The most remarkable feature of the specimen is that it is 
marked longitudinally by four “meridians” which appear as 
shallow depressions on the surface except on a part of the hem- 
isphere which better preserves the epicarp ; here a meridian is 
represented for a part of its length by a low ridge. In no case 
where the meridians pass under the patches of epicarp is there 
any evidence either in or on the latter of their presence. The 
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