258 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 



November 1st. 

 Mr Cassin in the Chair. 



Fourteen members present. 



Mr. Leslie exhibited specimens of limestone rock, containing fossil 

 coral, charged with petroleum, from the base of the Devonian forma- 

 tion, near Lake P>ie, western New York. He also exhibited a speci- 

 men of petroleum from the first well opened at Erie, Pa., on probably 

 the same horizon as that of the former specimens. The oil was ob- 

 tained at a depth of 750 feet. 



November &lh. 

 Vice-President Bridges in the Chair. 

 Nine members present. 





November \btli. 



Vice President Bridges in the Chair. 



Twelve members present. 



A paper was presented for publication entitled " On a new Cormo- 

 rant from the Farralone Islands, California." By J. G. Cooper, M. D. 



November 22d. 



Vice-President Bridges in the Chair. 



Fifteen members present. 



A paper was presented for publication entitled " Synopsis of the 

 eastern American Sharks." By Theo. Gill. 



November 29/Zi. 



it 



Vice-President Bridges in the Chair. 



Sixteen members present. 



On report of the respective committees the following paper? were 

 ordered to be published : 



Synopsis of the Eastern American SHARKS. 



BY THEODORE GILL. 



In the present article, I indicate the imperfection of our knowledge respecting 

 the American Sharks, and have endeavored, as far as possible, with my limited 

 materials, to rectify the synonymy. It will be perceived that I have connected 

 names, proposed by Mitchill and others, with species belonging to different 

 t'*milies from those to which they had been previously referred. No specific 

 contradiction in the descriptions existing, and the diagnoses essentially agree- 

 ing with the species, it is probable that in such cases the generic relations of 

 the species were assumed without verification of the geueric characters. lint 



[Nov. 



