RECORDS 9 



pendent was suspected by the author when at work upon the 

 Newton material twenty-five years ago, and the compound 

 character of some ammonites has been stated by Professor 

 Alpheus Hyatt, but these seem to be the first specimens to be 

 described which actually show the combination in a single 

 individual. 



Professor Whitfield's second paper described a new Teredo- 

 like shell from the Laramie group of eastern Wyoming, collected 

 by Mr. Barnum Brown, of the American Museum. This teredo, 

 to which the author has given the name Xjlopluvnja laramicnsis, 

 is more than an inch in diameter, thus ranking as the largest 

 species of the family known. 



These two papers may be found in full in the current volume 

 (Vol. XVI) of the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural 

 History. 



The third paper of the evening was by Professor James 

 Douglas, and gave a description, illustrated by topographic 

 map and numerous lantern slides, of the famous Rio Tinto 

 group of the copper mines of the Huelva district in Spain. 

 These mines have been worked from time immemorial, the 

 earliest knowledge of them dating from the Phoenicians, who 

 occupied the country in the eleventh centur}^, B. C. The 

 Romans also obtained a large amount of copper from these de- 

 posits, and it is an interesting fact that the slags which they left 

 are purer, that is, freer from copper, than those which are made 

 there to-day. The ore is a copper-bearing pyrite, carrying 

 some silica. The copper-bearing portions run irregularly 

 through the iron pyrites, and the Rio Tinto Company has re- 

 moved millions of tons of forty-two per cent, iron ore in getting 

 at its copper ore. The iron ore is not profitable at the present 

 time, although it may become so in the distant future. There 

 are some remains of the workings of the ancients here. At 

 Tharsis in particular the old shafts are very peculiarly con- 

 structed, one at least being spiral, to enable the miners to carry 

 the ore on their backs. Shelves are excavated at intervals in 

 the walls of the shaft to enable the men to rest their loads on 

 their weary journey to the surface. 



