45 



HoiiK Kon? ITarbor, 10 faths. ^Y. S. 



Much like F. costatus. Without the animal or operculum it is 

 impossible to say that this shell does not belong to the genus 

 Vanicoro. 



Dr. Gould read a letter from the President, dated at 

 sea, 84 '^ S., Jan. 9, 1859, in which the principal incidents 

 of his voyage were alluded to. He was surprised at 

 finding large numbers of hydrometridce in mid ocean, 

 where they sport on the surface as the so-called water- 

 spiders do on fresh water. The phosphorescence of the 

 sea was remarkable, the bodies of porpoises and fish 

 passing through it seeming to be covered with a sheet of 

 flame. He thought the phosphorescence due both to the 

 presence of living organisms iii the water, and to that of 

 diffused particles of matter. Dr. Gould referred to its 

 being seen wherever there is agitation of the water, 

 serving as natural light-houses to warn the mariner of 

 rocks and shallows. In a postscript dated Jan. 13, his 

 vessel had come to anchor off" Monte Video. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson spoke of the peculiarities of thermal springs, 

 and remarked that they are generally found along the line of dis- 

 ruption of strata of rocks, and near the junction of eruptive rocks 

 with those of aqueous deposition. In the Vosges it is at the line 

 of contact of granite and the new red sandstone that the hot. 

 springs of Plombieres are found. The waters of these springs 

 have a temperature of 73° Cent., or 163° Fahrenheit. 



These waters contain 0.03 grammes of silicate of potash per 

 litre. Ancient Roman baths were found at these springs, and 

 the river had been turned out of its natural channel into an arti- 

 ficial one, in order to accommodate the construction of the baths. 

 In these ancient works were found bronze stopcocks, in which 

 the bronze was changed into gray sulphuret of copper. In the 

 bricks of the Roman works, numerous crystals of zeolite minerals 

 were found, which had been formed in the cavities by the action 

 of the mineral waters ; also small crystals of fluor spar. Among 

 the minerals thus formed are Apophyllite, Chabasie, Gismondine, 

 Scolecite, Harmotome, Chalcedony, Malachite, Haematite, Okenite, 



