NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILADELPHIA. 41 



March ISth. 

 The President, Dr. Bridges in the Chair. 



Twenty-eight members present. 



This meeting having been held for the purpose of attending the 

 funeral of our late lamented and distinguished member, Dr. Thomas 

 B. Wilson, it was immediately adjourned for that purpose. 



March 21st. 

 The President, Dr. Bridges, in the Chair. 



Eighteen members present. 



A paper was presented for publication entitled " Notice of some new 

 types of Organic Remains from the Coal Measures of Illinois." By 

 F. B. Meek and A. H. Worthen. 



March 28th. 



The President, Dr. Bridges, in the Chair. 



Fifteen members present. 



On the report of the Committee, the following paper was ordered to 

 be published : 



Notice of some New Types of Organic Eemains, from the Coal Measures of 



Illinois. 



BY P. B. MEEK AND A. H. WORTHEN. 



The fossils described in this paper were discovered at a locality on the 

 south side of the Illinois River, at Morris, Grundy County, Illinois, near the 

 northern boundary of the Coal Measures of that State. This locality is al- 

 ready well known from the numerous beautiful specimens of fossil ferns it has 

 afforded, as well as from the discovery there of a remarkable extinct Neurop- 

 terous Insect, described by Prof. Dana in vol. xxxvi. 2d ser. p. 34, Am. Journ. 

 Sci. The bed from which all these interesting fossils were obtained, holds 

 a position near the base of the Illinois Coal Measures, somewhat above the 

 horizon of the second seam of coal. At the out-crop, where these specimens 

 were collected, a thickness of about twenty feet of strata is exposed, consisting 

 of sandy shale, passing downwards into a more argillaceous shale, forming the 

 bed of a small stream ; while a short distance further down this little stream, 

 and at a lower horizon, a thin seam of coal crops out. No workable beds of 

 coal are known in the State north of this County, and the Coal Measures here 

 rest directly upon Silurian Rocks. 



The fossils at this locality are immediately enveloped in biscuit-shaped 

 iron-stone nodules. These nodules are not generally composed of concentric 

 layers, but show, on weathered surfaces, a tendency to a laminated structure, 

 the planes of lamination being flat, parallel lo the greater diameter of the con- 

 cretions, and probably also coincident with those of the shale, as they lie in 

 the bed. On breaking open these concretions, the laminated structure is gen- 

 erally found not to extend within ; the interior having a homogeneous, rather 

 compact structure, and a grey or brownish grey color, (the iron beis:g usu- 



1865.] 



