the Piscataquis river. Here the dip is N. 82° W. At this point a hurricane two years ago tore up the trees from their roots, twisting them together and forming a formidable barricade for an extent of a mile and a half. The whirling of the tempest had completely obliterated all traces of the wood road, and rendered walking a matter of extreme difficulty. The course of the hurricane appears to have been from south-west to north-east, and reminded me of the whirlwind-traces noticed last spring on the river St. John.

Near the Shirley west line is a ledge of fine roofing slate of great extent and easily exposed. I saw an excavation, evidently an old one, which enabled me to examine the slate quite carefully and form a deliberate opinion in regard to the character of the slate. It is fine grained, bluish-grey, easily fissile into one-eighth inch plates of twelve inches square, even where the frost had exerted some effect upon its texture. Owing to its peculiarly soft character it would make, I think, good school slates. The strata were in this place perpendicular with a strike north 70° east (excl. var.) At Sandy stream, same rock, same dip and strike

At Alder stream, east branch, the rock is exposed near a slight waterfall, the same in all essential particulars with the last. Near the west branch of Alder stream the rock appeared to have lost its fissile character and to have become more like the compact slates occurring in Scarboro'. Numerous quartz veins run through the slate in an east and west course, but with no metallic deposits. At Moxie outlet the same rock was again seen. It is harder and has entirely lost its distinctive fissile structure. Near Clark's camp, three miles or a little less from the outlet of the pond, clayslate was noticed dipping north 85° east. This convinced me that I had passed over a synclinal axis. At the Forks of the Kennebec the slate dips north 70° east, and confirms, I think, the opinion formed in regard to the axis.

We were able to reach the comfortable hotel of Mr. Murray at the Forks late in the evening, having walked through a thick forest of second growth and swamps of cedar, part of the way in a hard shower. The distance is variously estimated from eighteen to twenty-two miles. I incline decidedly to the latter opinion. Accompanying this, is a vertical section* of the slate between the

* Reduced and incorporated into the general section of the whole route. The description of the figure will show the localities of the route and the dip of the strata; h are the clay slates, and i the slates west of Moxie Falls.

C. H. H.

two points before mentioned, giving, of course, the altitudes as I was able to compute them from a good aneroid barometer.

Moxie Falls. The stream flowing from Moxie pond has a tortu.ous and troubled course. It makes its way over several miles of the upturned edges of clay-slate strata; here smoothing and polishing them, and again, quarrying deeply into the mass, and even excavating pot-holes in its path. The descent for most of the way from the outlet to the Kennebec is very rapid, owing to the contour of the district and the frequent waterfalls. At a point two miles from its confluence with the main river it makes its greatest descent. This cataract is caused by the abrupt breaking down of the strata, much resembling certain faults. Upon each side of the base of the fall the rocks rise to an altitude of 115 feet and are very precipitous. The water comes down over a jagged ledge, eighty feet in a single leap of foam which gains additional whiteness by its contrast with the blackened slates. It is a cataract second in its singularity and beauty to none of our minor waterfalls, and will well repay the visit of the pleasure-seeker, the tourist or the artist.

The strata of the greyish-black slate dip apparently to the northeast about 75°.

Slaty formation in the Kennebec Valley.

G. L. G.

The rocks upon which we come at the Forks of the Kennebec are different apparently from any already passed over on the section, and yet perhaps not more diverse than what might be expected on the different sides of a great anticlinal axis. The dip of the strata would carry these micaceo-argillaceous slates beneath the clay slate formation, and come up on its eastern border. This is not impossible; but we incline to the opinion that the strata here are either inverted, or else rest upon the clay slates unconformably. Although the strata at the Forks have a fossiliferous aspect far more than anything to the southeast, no organic remains have yet been discovered in them; yet the time cannot be far distant when they will be discovered. These slates must belong to the same formation which Mr. Houghton described last year on Moosehead Lake as mica schist, since both formations are similarly situated with respect to the clay slate just passed over, and are succeeded by Oriskany sandstone on the other side. It is the most natural thing in the world to suppose these slates and schists to form a

portion of the Silurian system, and more probably the Upper than the Lower Silurian. On Moosehead Lake there is very little difference lithologically between the mica schists at the south end of the lake, and the schistose sandstones at Soccatean Point containing Oriskany fossils. And as Mr. Hodges, Jackson's Assistant, found "madrepores" at the base of Squaw mountain, which are without doubt the common Favosite coral of the Upper Silurian, we have some evidence upon which to found our conjecture of the Silurian age of these slates and schists.

Our observations of the dip at the Forks are scanty. East of the Forks Hotel there is a long bluff of slates interstratified with limestone, dipping 40° S. E. The rocks alternate in great measure, yet occasionally the limestone is three or four feet thick. Dr. Jackson analyzed this limestone and found it to contain Carbonate of lime 50.0, Silica 27.0, Magnesia 9.0, Alumina 8.4, Carbonate of iron 2.8, and Oxides of iron and manganese 2.4; total, 99.6. He recommended that this rock be burnt at a red heat, then pulverized and mixed with fifteen per cent. of clay and ten of manganese, so as to form a hydraulic cement equal in value to that imported from England. We know not whether this anticipation has ever been realized. This limestone is more or less abundant in the ledges on both sides of the river, so much so that it must form a part of the lithological name of the formation, if it shall be found to occur over a wide region. The dip is higher in going east from the bluff, and the formation extends certainly to Moxie Falls.

On the west side of the Kennebec river we found a great many ledges of slate with a high south-easterly dip, as we supposed at first; but we soon discovered a ledge showing this view to be erroneous. We found traces of a gentle dip, say 20°, to the northeast, which we suppose to be the true one, while the very prominent highly-inclined planes are those of cleavage. To illustrate this fact, we introduce here in Fig. 45, a sketch of a small curve of the strata cutting across the cleavage planes. It is a sharp synclinal fold. There are two beds of limestone, the upper two, and the lower one foot thick, found interstratified with slates. Only the latter have planes of cleavage, and these are represented by the finer lines inclined to the right (south-east) at a high angle, while the two beds of limestone rest each upon a bed of slate. Several very crooked veins of white quartz occur in the upper limestone bed, while the layers of limestone are not very much contorted.

The strata in the lower limestone bed are curled up and crowded together very closely, as is attempted to be represented. The

coarser lines, parallel to the limestone beds, indicate the stratified layers. These lines are not imaginary, since they may be seen intersecting the cleavage planes in all the adjacent ledges. This case is an interesting one, and makes it necessary to examine all the strata in this region very carefully. So long as we can find beds of limestone to guide us, we cannot fail to discover a marked distinction between these two kinds of planes.

Nearly two miles west of the Forks, on the Canada Road, may be seen a large mass, perhaps a dike, of coarse syenite, almost a trap. Its location may be seen on the general section, k. Most of this is an argillaceous rock, quite compact, and so smoothed down by drift that it was difficult to obtain a specimen, or ascertain satisfactorily whether there were any planes present different from those of cleavage, which were inclined about 70° N. 20° W. Depending upon the observations thus far made, we feel sure that an anticlinal exists in this formation, which is properly represented in the section. This makes this slaty and calcareous formation dip beneath the Devonian rocks to the north-west.

Oriskany Sandstone.

Precisely where this formation begins we cannot tell. A mile and a half east of Johnson's mountain we noticed a slaty rock dipping high to the north, which may be connected with the Oris

kany group. This is near the north line of No. 1, R. 5. The rocks in this township are generally concealed by drift.

It will be recollected that this formation was fully described last year, so far as it was possible, and we need not repeat those remarks here. It was stated that the fossiliferous boulders so common in the fields in southern Maine, were principally derived from this rock, and that it belonged to the very oldest of the Devonian rocks. Parlin pond was also represented as the best locality for the Oriskany fossils, which we shall speak of presently.

On Johnson's mountain appears a very tough sandstone. On a spur of Bald mountain, still further west, a slaty rock crops out dipping 50° N. W. Both these mountains are in No. 2, R. 6, and are parts of extensive ranges, cf which not the remotest idea is given upon any map of the State or County yet published. Our maps are deficient in respect to the topography of our mountains. Near the west end of Parlin pond we obtained specimens of a trilobite, the Dalmanites, we suppose of the same species with the one found last year at Stair Falls on the east branch of the Penobscot, and which we hope will be described and named in the last part of our Report.

The best locality of fossils in this region known to us, is on a knoll west of the Parlin Pond IIotel. But the fossils there are not in a ledge: they lie in the soil, as if quite near the parent ledge. A little digging did not reveal the ledge, however. We followed out the letter of Jackson's description of the locality where he obtained so many specimens, and could find nothing that would correspond with his description of the abundance of the specimens, so well as this. We collected a large number of fossils, both here and at every other available source, and shall hope to speak more fully of them hereafter. The fossils previously collected here belonged to the following genera; Strophomena, Chonetes, Orthis, Rhynchonella, Rensselæria, Leplocœlia, Spirifera, Modiolopsis, Cyrtodonta, Avicula, Murchisonia, Platyostoma and Orthoceras: and the following species have been already identified; Strophomena magnifica, Orthis musculosa, Rhynchonella oblata, Rensselaria ovoides, Leplocalia flabellites, Spirifera arrecta, and S. pyxidala.

On a tributary of Parlin stream in the north part of the township of Parlin Pond, a few fossils were obtained from thick bedded, fine grained, dark colored sandstones of this formation, dipping from