Page:The Journal of geology (IA journalofgeology21894univers).pdf/266

tury in the Purbeck beds on the Isle of Portland and at other points in the South of England. Being greatly interested in the discovery, I recommended that the proprietor be requested to send on a specimen for examination. The request was complied with, and the specimen proved to be all that I had expected. I therefore made the further recommendation that negotiations be entered into with a view to the purchase of the collection of six specimens which were offered for sale. This was also successful and the collection arrived in May.^[1] One of the chief features of these specimens is the great size of some of them, the largest measuring 30 inches in height, 2 feet in its longest diameter, and weighing 900 pounds, thus far exceeding anything of the kind hitherto known from any other part of the world.

Fossil remains of cycadean trunks range from the Upper Trias to the Lower Cretaceous. A number have been found in the clay shales of Italy which have been referred to the Cenomanian, but will probably be found to be lower. Hot Springs is located on the Red Beds in the valley of the Minnekahta creek, or Fall River, and it would have been natural to suppose that the cycad trunks had come either from these or from the Jurassic which borders it, had it not been stated that they were found "on a high hill." My interest was of course strongly aroused to know the stratigraphical position of the beds in which they occurred, and therefore early in September I made an expedition to the region for the purpose of determining it if possible. I had previously corresponded with Mr. F. H. Cole, of Hot Springs, from whom the specimens had been purchased. I had also written to Professor Jenney, who was then at Deadwood, and who kindly consented to join me on my arrival and aid me in the investigation. After considerable search and some difficulty the locality was at length found. It is some four miles southwest of Minnekahta Station, about two miles west of Minnekahta Creek, which here has a northward course, on foot-hills one and a half miles east of the divide between that and Red Valley. A deep cañon lies to the south, which has an east