4G PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



I was unable to procure even a specimen of tlie salmon, but obtained 

 euougli smelts to forward some excellent specimens to Washington. 

 Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 



JAMES G. SWAK. 

 Prof. Spencer F. Bated, 



United States Commissioner Fish and Fisheries, 



Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 



P. S. — I omitted to mention tbat the surf smelt are common in all the 

 salt water of Paget Sound, but I have not heard of an instance where 

 they run up fresh- water streafts to spawn, like the eastern smelt. 



J. G. S. 



%'OTS: ON Xnx: OCCUKREIVCE of PSSOWUCTUS C^IOAIVTE IJ!°$ IIV CAIi- 



IFORi'VIA. 



By C. A. T^^MITE. 



Among a small collection of fossils sent to the ]S"atioual Museum by j\Ir. 

 Ludwig Kumlien, of the United States Fish Commission, from the valley 

 of McCloud River, Shasta County, California, are three or four large ex- 

 amples of Productus, which I am unable to distinguish from P. giganteus 

 Martin sp., the well-known type species of the genus as it is extensively 

 known hi European strata. They are preserved in a hard, dark-colored, 

 argillaceous rock, which is iiartly metamorphosed, and they are, there- 

 fore, somewhat imperfect; but portions of them show the characteristics 

 of the species very plainly. The largest of these Californian examples 

 was, when perfect, quite equal in size to the larger European examples 

 of i*. giganteus, having had a transverse diameter near the hinge of not 

 less than 140 millimeters, or o.J inches. 



A small collection of fossils was sent by mail from the same locality in 

 1S77 by Mr. Livingston Stone, the species of which w^ere recognized as 

 of Carboniferous age, but P. giganteus was not among them, although 

 the later collections indicate that they occur iu the same strata. These 

 associated forms of both collections are too imperfectly preserved for 

 specific determination, but the genera Fcnestella, Streptorhynchus, Spiri- 

 gera Camaro])horia, Allorisma, and Euomphalus are more or less satis- 

 factorily recognized. They all together plainly indicate tho Carbonif- 

 erous age of the strata from which they come, which fact was also 

 previously known through the reports of Trask and Whitney. 



This, so far as I am aware, is the first discovery of P. giganteus in 

 American strata. It is not a little remarkable that it should be found 

 in the western portion of the continent and not in the middle and east- 

 ern portions, where the Carboniferous system is so well developed, and 

 where several European species of Carboniferous brachiojioda are recog- 

 nized. 



