14 The American Geologist. January. i9oi. 
And in regard to the well-preserved condition of the vege- 
table contents of these concretions, it would be very interesting 
to know, could the point be determined, whether this vegetable 
matter passed through the coaly state between that of the wood, 
leaves, seeds, etc., and the pyritous condition — to stone ; or 
whether the wood, seeds, etc., passed direct Into stone pari 
passu with the process which converted the vegetable matter 
that is now the coal into coal. And this thought leads to an- 
other, viz. : Are the same fossils in the coal as we find in the 
concretions? The ragged surfaces of the concretions and the 
aspect of the fossils where they terminate on these surfaces 
(sometimes they grade into coal) suggest an answer in the af- 
firmative. But be this as it may, the phenomenon which these 
nodules reveal, of so much uncrushed or apparently loose-lying 
vegetable tissues and structures as they do, shows with what 
intricate subtle and complex processes and ways the conver- 
sion of the vegetable matter of the Carboniferous period into 
coal, and petrifactions in the coal, was in all probability at- 
tended. 
Physically and stratigraphically it is interesting to find, as 
I have done, the following familiar forms either in or upon 
this particular bed of coal ; which indicate accumulation of the 
vegetal material under marine rather than fresh water condi- 
tions : Discina, Naticaf, Pentamerus, Liiigula, Tcrehratiila, 
PJc\irotnnwria? and Orthoceras. 
ON THE PETROGRAPHY OF MOUNT ORFORD. 
By John A. Dresser, Richmond, Quebec. 
The Green mountains of Vermont enter the province of 
Quebec in several ranges which run in parallel courses and 
have a general northeasterly direction, varying in elevation 
from inconspicuous hills, or ridges, to mountains upwards of 
3,000 feet in bight. One of these ranges, wh»ch is a continu- 
ation of that to which Jay peak belongs in Vermont, forms 
the Sutton mountains ; another, appearing first at some dis- 
tance on the (^ast side of lake Memphramagog, becomes the 
Stoke range, and is a more noticeable feature of the landscape 
farther towards tlu* northeast, where it has a greater elevation : 
