5-4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



Another well, remote from the last mentioned one, had been yielding a good 

 supply of water for more than a year. A blast of ordinary violence was dis- 

 charged in an excavation for stone, three hundred yards distant from it, where- 

 upon the water quickly and entirely disappeared. The proprietor directed a 

 boring to be made in the bottom of the well six feet in depth and a blast to 

 be set off in it. , 



The result was as curious as the one which preceded it. The water at once 

 reappeared, and the supply has since been steady and in great abundance. 



Dr. Leidy observed that the remarks of Prof. Rogers, had reminded him of 

 the so-called Hillsboro coal or Albertite, of Albert Co., New Brunswick. This 

 substance Dr. L. regards as a variety of Asphaltum and not as coal. The 

 latter consists of the fossil remains of plants. The Albertite is a product re- 

 sulting from the distillation of bitumenous coals or shales. Coal always pre- 

 sents in microscopic section the remains of vegetable structure ; Albertite is 

 perfectly amorphous. Coals are stratified or interstratified with other sub- 

 stances ; the Albertite presents many evidences of being an injected material 

 into fissures of the surrounding shales. 



The number of the Proceedings for January was laid upon the 

 table. 



February 21sf. 

 Mr. Lea, President, in the Chair. 



Thirty-five members present. 



A paper was presented for publication entitled : 



" The Mexican Humming Birds, No. 2, by Rafael Montes de Oca." 



Mr. Slack remarked that the two teeth of the Mosasaurus missouriensis, pre- 

 sented by him this evening, had been procured for him from the marl pits of 

 Mr. Coward, about two miles west of Freehold, N. J., through the exertions of 

 Mr. Hopper, of Freehold, N. J., a gentleman to whom the Academy is largely 

 indebted for cretaceous fossils. This is the eleventh specimen of the Mosa- 

 saurus missouriensis identified by Mr. Slack, found within a radius of ten miles 

 from Monmouth Court House. 



Dr. Leidy announced that the valuable collection of fossils of Mr. 

 Eli Bowen had been purchased by subscription and presented to the 

 Academy. 



February 2Sth. 

 Mr. Lea, President, in the Chair. 



Forty-four members present. 



The Report of the Biological Department for the present month was 

 read. 



On report of a committee of the Biological Department, the paper 

 entitled, " Method of painting moist anatomical preparations, by H. 

 D. Schmidt, M. D.," was recommended for publication in the Pro- 

 ceedings of the Department. 



And the following were ordered to be printed in the Proceedings : 



[Feb. 



