49 



presented to the Committee on the purchase of the Green- 

 field Fossils. 



A letter from Sir John Richardson to the President, 

 referring to some points in the anatomy of the Mastodon, 

 was read to the Society. 



Dr. Kneeland read some extracts from an analysis, which 

 he had made of the work of Messrs. Nott and Gliddon, on 

 the '^ Types of Mankind," highly commending the work as 

 one of extreme value, and favoring the view adopted by 

 its authors, of the multiple origin of the human race. 



May 17, 1854. 



The President in the Chair. 



The President laid upon the table, for distribution to 

 members of the Society, copies of his recently published 

 monography upon fossil impressions, entitled " Remarks on 

 some Fossil Impressions in the Sandstone Rocks of Con- 

 necticut River." 



Dr. Kneeland exhibited specimens of the bark, foliage, 

 cones, and seed of the Wellingtonia gigantea, from the 

 large tree recently cut down in California. 



The bark was about seventeen inches thick, charred on the 

 outside, and with indications on the inside that the layers 

 nearest the wood did not exist on the specimen ; so that it must 

 have constituted at least three feet, and probably much more, of 

 the diameter of this tree. It resembles the bark of the Southern 

 Cypress, though it is less fibrous and stringy. The piece exhibited 

 contained about twelve layers to the inch, making an age of 

 two hundred and sixteen years, if each layer represents exactly 

 a year's increase, all the layers being of about the same average 

 thickness ; this calculation, supposing the tree to be two thousand 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H. VOL. V. 4 OCTOBER, 1854. 



