JOURNAL OP PROCEEDINGS. 263 



Dr. Sander presented a beetle found preserved in a mass 

 of gum aloes from the Cape of Good Hope. 



Dr. Engelmann exhibited diagrams showing the results of 

 observations made, during the year 1864, on the Fall of Rain, 

 and the stage of the Mississippi River. Ordered, that the 

 diagrams be lithographed for publication in the Transactions. 



Martin Mayer, M.D., LL.D., of Leavenworth, Kansas, was 

 elected a Corresponding Member. 



March 6, 1865. 

 The President, Dr. Engeoiaxn, in the chair. 



Seven members present. 



A letter was read from Wm. H. Morgan, Glasgow, Mo., 

 Feb. 14, 1865, concerning Dr. Comstock's System of Pho- 

 netics. 



The Corresponding Secretary laid upon the table the Ca- 

 nadian Journal of Ind., Sci. & Art, No. 64, Jan., 1«65, Toron- 

 to, from the Canadian Institute; Proc. of the Acad, of Nat. 

 Sciences, Phil ad., No. 5, 1864, from the Academy ; Embry- 

 ology of the Starfish, by Alexander Agassiz, Cambridge, 4to, 

 1864, from the Author; Report of the National Acad, of Sci- 

 ences for 1863, 8vo, Washington, 1864, from Dr. G. Engeh 

 mann. 



Dr. Wislizenus presented for publication (as requested at a 

 former meeting) an abstract of his observations on Atmos- 

 pheric Electricity during the years 1861 to 1864, illustrated 

 by diagrams. Referred to the Committee on Publication. 



Dr. B. F. Shumard stated that he had lately visited the region of the 

 oil springs in the counties of Ray and Carroll, in this State, and that he 

 had found the surface indications of the presence of petroleum in those 

 localities much more abundant than he had previously supposed. He had 

 seen petroleum on the surface of springs and streams in many places. 

 The formation belonged to the Middle series of the Coal Measures of Mis- 

 souri. It was chiefly composed of sandstones, blue, green and dark shales, 

 and some limestones ; but the sandstone was the predominant rock. In 

 one place the oil came up through a crevice in the sandstone ; in another 

 place, he saw a stream of oil of the size of a straw issuing from this rock. 

 He had observed asphaltum also in many places where the oil springs 

 occur; and the petroleum and asphaltum sometimes occurred together. 



The greatest dip of the strata observed by him was about 10°. Where 

 the rocks are nearly horizontal, there were not apt to be any fissures ; 

 where the oil occurs most abundantly, the rocks are generally upheaved, 

 distorted, and full of fissures. He observed that it was the opinion of T. 

 Sterry Hunt, of the Geological Survey of Canada, and others, that the oil 

 was the product of a slow distillation from bituminous shales and coal at 

 ordinary temperatures ; and that was his own opinion also. The oil cavi- 

 ties more frequently occurred in fissures near anticlinal axes of upheaval ; 

 and sometimes the gas occupied the upper portion of the cavity, the oil 

 the middle, and water the lower portion; and in boring either might be 



