33 



valuable one, both in regard to the number and perfection 

 of the specimens. 



The thanks of the Society were voted to Messrs. Marsh 

 and Hale. Dr. Bacon reported on a mass of copper ore 

 from Lake Superior. It was chrysocolla, and contained 

 about 30 per cent, of metallic copper. 



Dr. C. T. Jackson reported upon " Forbes's Travels in 

 the Alps." He gave a sketch of his theory of the move- 

 ment of glaciers, as deduced from his observations and 

 measurements. Mr. Whitney offered some objections to 

 the theory, and the work was recommitted to him, with a 

 request that he would communicate to the Society his own 

 observations, made during the last year. 



Dr. Gould read a communication from Professor J. W. 

 Bailey, of West Point, entitled " Notes on the Infusoria of 

 the Mississippi river." 



" A bottle full of water was recently placed in my hands, which 

 had been col'ccted about a month before, from the IMississippi 

 river, at St. Louis, by Lieut. L. H. Allen, of the United States 

 army, who brought it away as a specimen of the water ordina- 

 rily used at that city, for drinking. Having long supposed that 

 the waters of the Missouri must at times be loaded with great 

 quantities of the minute fossil Polythalamia, which are so abundant 

 in the cretaceous marls of a portion of the river which it traverses, 

 I was led to seek for them in the sediment from the water from 

 St. Louis, as at this place the turbid w^aters of the Missouri still 

 impress their own character upon the Mississippi. 



It is still my belief, that during the season of floods, these fos- 

 sils may be detected in the sediment of the Missouri, although on 

 this occasion I failed to find any trace of these animalcules of 

 former days. The amount, however, of microscopic beings of 

 the present epoch which I found in this water was truly sur- 

 prising ; and as the bottle had been carefully corked when the 

 waters were collected, and had not been opened until its arrival 

 at West Point, whatever organisms it contained undoubtedly be- 

 longed to species inhabiting the Mississippi. The number of in- 

 dividuals' had doubtless increased by reproduction ; but no spe- 



PROCEEDINGS B. S. N. H. 5 FEB. 1845. 



