216 [November; 1842. 



Lea stated that the Unio in question was not named after 

 Mr. J. Hamilton Couper of Georgia, as was probably sup- 

 posed by Mr. Haldeman, but after Mr. Wm. Cooper of New 

 York. Mr. Lea also objected to any change in the specific 

 name, and also to Mr. Haldeman's proposed alteration of 

 Unio Nashvillianus to U. Nashvicencis, the latter, in his 

 opinion, not being " more classical and correct." 



The Corresponding Secretary read a letter from J. 

 Hamilton Couper, Esq., of Darien, Georgia, dated Oct. 6, 

 1842, acknowledging the receipt of his notice of election as 

 Correspondent of the Academy; and also transmitting a 

 communication giving a detailed description of the strata, 

 in which the fossil bones and shells from the Brunswick 

 Canal, lately presented by him to the Academy, were found; 

 preceded by a sketch of the geological features of the sur- 

 rounding country. 



The communication was referred to the Committee on 

 Proceedings. 



[The length of this interesting paper will preclude its in- 

 sertion entire in this publication. It will be reserved for 

 the first part of the next volume of the Journal of the Aca- 

 demy. For the present, therefore, the Committee are only 

 enabled to give the following, being the concluding portion 

 of the paper.] 



The fossil bones of the terrestrial mammalia* were found in the bed of the 

 canal, at the southern end of this swamp, at six different points extending up 

 from its junction with the salt marsh to a distance of three miles. In 

 every instance they were found at the bottom of the alluvial deposit, imbed- 

 ded in it, and lying on the stratum of sand. The first two feet of the allu- 

 vial formation is a sandy loam, gradually passing into a compact clay of a 

 ferruginous character, which extends three or four feet deeper. In this 

 stratum of clay thin veins of marl and fragments of petrified wood were 

 found at different depths : but no fossil shells, either of marine or fresh 

 water origin. The stratum of sand on which the bones were found lying 

 is on an average nearly five feet above spring tides. About the line of 



* The most interesting of these bones belong to the Megatherium, the 

 Mastodon giganteum, Elephas primogenius, Hippopotamus, Horse, Bos, and 

 to a nondescript animal, which Dr. Harlan has described as the Sus Ameri- 

 cana, in Silliman's Journal, for July, 1842. 



