126 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



been proposed by Richardson, and adopted by Bleeker, must therefore be re- 

 linquished for the prior one of Lacepede. 



As this species has been fully described by Richardson and Bleeker, and 

 also figured by the former, no further description is necessary, this being the 

 only known species of the genus. 



Specimens have been obtained by Dr. William Stimpson, the Naturalist of 

 the North Pacific Exploring Expedition, under Commodore Rodgers, at the 

 market of Hong Kong, China. 



Notice of Geological Discoveries, made by Capt. J. H. Simpson, Topographical 

 Engineers, V. S. Army, in his recent Explorations across the Continent. 



Washington City, Aprildth, 1860. 

 Anticipatory of discoveries of a geological character which might be made 

 and published of date subsequent to those of my Explorations, in 1858 and '59, 

 across the Continent, with the sanction of the Hon. John B. Floyd, Secretary of 

 War, under whose authority the Explorations were made, I present in advance 

 of my final and detailed official report, the following communication from 

 Messrs. F. B. Meek and H. Engelmann, in reference to the fossil remains which 

 they found, and the geological epochs to which they point. As a large portion 

 relates to a region of country, The Great Basin, so called by Fremont lying 

 between the Wahsatch range of mountains on its east, and the Sierra Nevada on 

 its west, which never before was traversed by a white man, not even by a 

 trapper, so far as is known, the publication of this paper cannot be unacceptable 

 to the scientific world, and I therefore take pleasure in submitting it to be read 

 before the Academy. 



J. H. Simpson, 

 Capt. Top. Engineers, U. S. Army. 



Smithsonian Institution, ) 

 Washington, D. C, April 2d, 1860. ) 

 Capt. J. H. SimpsoD, Topographical Engineers, U. S. Army : 



Dear Sir, In accordance with your instructions we give below a brief state- 

 ment of some of the conclusions arrived at from a hasty examination of the 

 fossils collected during your late explorations in Utah. Although the time 

 yet devoted to the study of these specimens is not sufficient to enable us to 

 enter into details, enough has been determined to warrant the conclusion that 

 they are of considerable interest, and establish the existence there of geological 

 formations not hitherto known at such remote western localities. 



As a more extended sketch of the general geology of the country, including a 

 full account of the igneous and metamorphic rocks, together with figures and 

 descriptions of the new organic remains, are to appear in your final report, it is 

 unnecessary for us to do more here than to give merely some of the leading 

 facts determined from the fossils collected from the various formations exposed 

 along the line of survey. In doing this it will be most convenient to speak of 

 the formations in the order of their succession in point of time, beginning with 

 the most ancient, instead of referring to them in the order in which they were 

 observed in traversing the country. 



Devonian Rocks. 



The oldest deposits from which fossils in a condition to be determined were 

 collected, occur in the vicinity of the Humboldt Mountains, at the follow- 

 ing points, viz.: Long. 11445 / west, Lat. 39 45' north, Long. 115 58' west, 

 Lat. 39 33' north, and Long. 115 36' west, Lat. 39" 30' north. At the first 

 of these, localities fragments of Trilobites belonging as near as can be deter- 

 mined to the genera Calymene, Homalonotus and Proctus, were collected from a 

 hard, bluish limestone. The specimens are too imperfect to warrant a posi- 



[ April. 



