April, 1846.] 39 



the House of Representatives of 6th of January last, con- 

 cerning the mineral lands of the United States. From 

 J. R. Ingersoll, Esq. 



Dr. Morton read the following extract of a letter addressed 

 to him by Prof. Bailey, of West Point. 



" I have lately hit upon some processes for revealing vege- 

 table structure in anthracite coal, which have yielded results 

 of unhoped for interest and beauty. I get, not mere traces 

 of parenchymatous tissue, as by Schultz's process, described 

 in Silliman's Journal, No. 1, new series, but I readily obtain 

 surfaces of several square inches, entirely covered over with 

 dotted or scalariform vessels, (bothrenchyma) in so perfect 

 a state, that their minute markings may be seen as easily as 

 upon the vessels of a recent plant. 



"I can prepare these, either as opake or transparent 

 objects, and all to whom I have shown them, including Tor- 

 rey, Gray, Prof. Henry and others, think them very beautiful. 



" A brief notice of these will appear in the forthcoming 

 number of Silliman's Journal." 



Dr. Morton offered some remarks upon the additional 

 fossils from Burlington Co., N. J., presented this evening by 

 Mr. Lewis Germain. Among the most remarkable are three 

 specimens of Olypeaster florealis, of which only a single im- 

 perfect specimen had hitherto been found, and which had 

 served the purpose of specific description. The series also 

 contains a fine specimen of the Trochus leprosus, not before 

 found, north of the cretaceous beds of Alabama. The cha- 

 racteristic species, Pecten quinquecostatus, and Baculites 

 ovatus, are also among Mr. Germain's collections, together 

 with a very large and a small tooth, and two vertebrae of the 

 Mosasaurus occidentalis, in admirable preservation. 



Dr. Morton also made the following observations on the 

 Peruvian remains deposited by him this evening. 



These ten crania and two mummied bodies, were exhumed 

 from the Indian cemetery at Arica, under the direction of our 



