REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR, 1922 5I 
again in this area. Nothing more was heard of these fossil stumps 
until 1897 when Prosser,* then connected with the New York State 
Survey, reported finding some small specimens, from a higher hort- 
zon, lying loose at Manorkill falls about a mile south of Gilboa. 
Occasional attempts since then to rediscover this ancient forest were 
fruitless until the summer of 1920 when special effort was made to 
add to the collection of Devonian plant material already in the hands 
of the Museum. The effort to relocate the Schoharie forest or to 
find some additional evidence as to its extent led to the discovery of 
upright tree stumps not in the original locality but at the higher level, 
along the road in the vicinity of the lower falls of the Manorkill, a 
tributary of the Schoharie creek. These trees likewise were found 
with their bases resting in a bed of shale, greenish black in color. 
This second tree locality is at a level of 1120 feet A. T.; the old local- 
ity, on the same side of the Schoharie creek, just above the old Gilboa 
bridge, was at a level of 1020 feet A. T. Since 1920 the city of New 
York has been doing construction work at Gilboa, preparatory to 
impounding the waters of the Schoharie creek for the future use of 
its citizens. The resultant dam will drown the village of Gilboa and 
its vicinity, including the two above-mentioned fossil tree localities. 
In the course of quarrying in connection with the work on the dam 
the old locality, which is directly at the spot where the dam is being 
built, was uncovered and seven trees were found. In a quarry 2300 
feet north (downstream) of the old locality trees were found at the 
972-foot (one small specimen) and 960-foot levels. This quarry, 
known now as “ Riverside quarry,” has yielded the greatest number 
and also the largest stumps hitherto found. Eighteen specimens 
were taken from an area 50 feet square, not counting those destroyed 
in quarrying. One of the largest specimens of this group has a 
circumference at the base of approximately 11 feet (diameter 
approximately 3.5 feet), a height of 22 inches and a diameter at that 
height of 2114 inches; stumps of greater height, but of smaller girth 
have been obtained. 
At all three tree horizons the stumps were found with their 
bases resting in and upon shale and in every case in an upright 
position with the trunk extending into the coarse sandstone above. 
The shale beds vary in thickness from 6 inches to 2 feet; at the low- 
est horizon, in the place in the quarry where the greatest number of 
stumps was obtained, the shale had a thickness of only 6 inches. 
“Prosser, Charles S., 17 Annual Rep’t of N. Y. State Geol., for 1897 (1899), 
p. 211. 
