252 TRANS. OF THE ACAD. OF SCIENCE. 



those interested. The locality can be reached by railroad travel of 80 

 miles from New Orleans to Brashear City; thence, crossing Berwick Bay, 

 the traveller, taking horseback or other conveyance for about 40 miles, 

 reaches New Iberia ; thence it is 10 miles more to the causeway of the 

 plantation and 2 to the salt-boring ; which is, as stated, on a peninsula, 

 with Marsh Island on the south and Vermillion Bay on the west. 



The property has been sold by Mr. Marsh, and is now owned (he be- 

 lieved) by Mr. Avery. 



It may not be irrelevant to remark, as a proof that, at no very distant 

 period, saline inundations extended more than twenty miles inland from 

 the present coast line of the Gulf, or at least impregnated the waters of 

 the Bayous, that he had traced the Gnathodon (a genus of bivalves found 

 abundantly around New Orleans, and peculiar to brackish water) along 

 our route of march, by the Teche, at least five miles north of Franklin, La. 



He would also add, that although borings have been made to even more 

 than 15 or 18 feet at other parts of the Gulf coast, which seemed similar 

 in character, as yet no other considerable deposits had been found ; not- 

 withstanding that, in some places, as he understood, salt had been made 

 from the brine springs or wells. 



September 19, 1864. 

 The President, Dr. Engelmann, in the chair. 



Six members present. 



The Corresponding Secretary laid upon the table the Amer. Jour, 

 of Science & Arts, No. 113, Sept., 1864, New Haven ; Bulletin de la 

 Soc. Imp. zool. d'Acclimatntion, T. I., No. 7, Juillet, 1864, Paris — 

 from the Society. Canadian Naturalist & Geologist, and Proc. of 

 the Nat. Hist. Society of Montreal, Vol. I., Nos. 1 & 2, Feb.-April, 

 1864— -from the Society. Report of the Secretary of the Navy on 

 the Armor of Vessels, 8vo, Washington, 1864; Report of Agricul- 

 ture to 1862, 8vo, Washington, 1863; Population of the United 

 States in 1860, computed from the 8th Census Returns, by J. C. G. 

 Kennedy, Sup't of the Census, 4to, Washington, 1860--/rom the 

 Hon. Samuel Knox, M.C. Treatise on Mineralogy, by Charles U. 

 Shepard, 3d ed., 2 Pts., New Haven, 1852 & 1857— from the Author. 

 Proc. of the Essex Institute, Vol. IV., No. 1, Jan. -Mar., 1864— -from 

 Mr. Edwin Harrison. Abhandl. dcrNaturh. Gesellschaft zu Niirn- 

 berg, Band III., Ilalfte 1, 1863— from the Society. 



Dr. Shumard deposited in the library the following works 

 belonging to the estate of the late Dr. H. A. Prout, viz. : 

 Phillips' Geolocry of Yorkshire, 2 vols.; Geological Report of 

 Londonderry, Tyrone, and Fermanagh, Ireland. 



October 3, 1864. 



The President, Dr. Engelmann, in the chair. 



Six members present. 



The Corresponding Secretary laid upon the table the Proc. 

 of the Acad. Natural Sciences, Philad., No. 3, August., 1864, 



