Geological Excursion.

The last of the general geological excursions of the spring series on Saturday of this week is to be conducted by Professor Emerson, of Amherst College. Leaving the Boston and Albany station at 7.15 p. m., the party will spend the night at the "Norwood" in Northampton. the first thing visited on Saturday will be the fossil fish beds at the foot of Mt. To by and the outcrop of quartz schist and amphibolite, these being "buried peaks," which the glacial scouring has revealed below the Triassic conglomerate. Fragments of these rocks may be traced in the conglomerate for miles southward. This is in the centre of the interesting Triassic or New Red Sandstone region, the source of the "fossil foot-marks" exhibited in the hallway of our geological laboratories. The question as to whether these are the footprints of reptiles or of birds has long been a subject of controversy.

At noon the contact of the lava bed on the sandstone near Greenfield will be seen; here the lower surface of the lava is seen in cross section to be broken up into coarse fragments, now united by a sandy cement which is continuous with the sandstone below, and passes into a volcanic cement above, showing "where the slaggy surface of the flow was under rolled on a muddy bottom and the mud was forced up into the fissures," meeting in the cracks the still liquid lava from above.

The afternoon will be devoted to the study of the Bernardston series of Upper Devonian metamorphic rocks, and the contact of the Triassic sandstone, where it rests unconformable on the older rocks. The region is one of the most interesting, geologically, in New England, and we are especially privileged in having the opportunity to go with Professor Emerson as leader of the party, he having devoted many years to the study and geological mapping of the central portion of the state.

Intending members will confer a favor by sending in their names not later than Thursday, as it is necessary to engage barges in advance, at various points in the route. Address all communications to Mr. T. A. Jaggar, Room 6, M. C. Z., office hours, 9 to 10 a. m. daily. The total cost of the excursion will probably be about six dollars; the return will be on Saturday, arriving in Boston 8.45 p. m.