ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES. 307 



au opportunity of making comparisons, or submitting it to a competent ichthy- 

 ologist, which I propose to do. 



College of California, Nov. 19, 1866. 



Prof. Blake also directed the attention of the Academy to speci- 

 mens of fossil vertebrae, collected by him in Tulare County. These 

 specimens ai'e about twenty in number, and are from two to six 

 inches in length, and two to three inches in diameter. He believed 

 them to belong to large marine saurians, like crocodiles, but wished 

 to make further study and comparison previous to making a more 

 formal communication to the Academy. If correct in his opinion, 

 it was, he believed, the first instance of the discovery of saurian 

 remains on the Pacific Coast of the United States, and the discov- 

 ery will be rendered still more interesting by the fact that the 

 remains occur in strata reputed to be miocene, associated with 

 sharks' teeth and numerous marine remains, at least fifteen hund- 

 red feet above the present ocean level. 



Professor Whitney remarked that the remains of the crocodile, 

 and ichthyosaurus had been discovered on this coast by the Geo- 

 logical Survey, and the fact published a year ago. 



Professor Whitney read the following communication : 

 Notice of the occurrence of the Silurian Series in Nevada. 



BY J. D. WHITNEY. 



At a meeting of the Academy in May last, 1 gave some account of the geol- 

 ogy of the State of Nevada, with particular reference to the age of the strati- 

 fied deposits occurring there, as determined from the collections of fossils 

 brought from that region to the office of the Geological Survey, by J. E. Clay- 

 ton, and various members of our corps. In that communication I spoke of 

 the probable future discovery of rocks older than the Carboniferous or Devonian, 

 in the mountain ranges near Austin. This expectation has been realized, and 

 we are now in • possession of a very interesting collection of fossils, obtained by 

 Mr. A. Blatchley, in the vicinity of the Hot Creek Mining District about one 

 hundred miles southeast of Austin. This collection enables us to state posi- 

 tively that both Upper and Lower Silurian rocks occur in that district, and 

 that they are well filled with fossils ; not less so indeed, to judge from the speci- 

 mens received, than the strata of the same age in New York, Ohio. Iowa, and 

 Wisconsin, which they resemble in a most marked degree, both lithologically 

 and palseontologically. 



The fossils from the Hot Creek District are mostly weathered out on the sur- 



