TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



October 2, 1882. 



REGULAR BUSINESS MEETING. 



The President, Dr. J. S. Newberry, in the Chair. 



Thirty-three persons present. 



A paper was read by Prof. Robert H. Thurston, entitled : 



note in reference to a newly-discovered absolute limit to 

 economical expansion in steam engines. 



(Published in the Annals.) 



The paper was discussed by Prof. W. P. Trowbridge. 



The following paper, by Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, was then read 

 by title : 

 characters of a new species of bird of the family cypse- 



hlDJE. 



In accordance with the usual custom at the first meeting of the 

 season, observations and notes made during the past summer were 

 presented. 



The President referred to various papers of interest before the 

 recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science at Montreal, by Drs. Rae, Carpenter, and others ; to the 

 collection of the Geological Survey of Canada at Ottawa, including its 

 full series of specimens of Eozodn ; and especially to the remarkable 

 series of Devonian fossil fishes from the North side of the St. Law- 

 rence, collected and described by Mr, Whiteaves. Of these a large 

 number of specimens were collected from two localities. They re- 

 semble those described by HuGH Miller, being almost precise coun- 

 terparts of the Devonian fishes of Scotland. Most American deposits of 

 the kind were derived from the sediments of the open sea, but these 

 must have come from a bay. 



Dr. Newberry had also visited the Saguenay, which occupies a 

 fiord like those which fringe the coast toward the north and along the 

 coast of Northern Europe. It consists of a valley cut deep into the old 

 coast, now forming, in its submerged position, a tideway for a distance 

 of a hundred miles, with tides sometimes reaching a height of eighteen 



