19 ' rVerriU. 



George Sceva and Amos H. Johnson of Boston, and Gardiner 

 G. Hubbard and Benjamin M.Pierce of Cambridge were elec- 

 ted Resident Members. 



March 2, 1864. 

 Mr. C. K. Dillaway in the chair. 



Present, fifty-thi-ee members. 



Mr. Alpheus Hyatt exhibited some peculiar fossils from the 

 island of Anticosti which had been originally described by 

 Mr. Billings under the name of Beatricea nodulosa and JB. 

 sulcata^ and considered by him to be of vegetable origin ; they 

 will probably form a new order of Cephalopoda. 



Mr. A. E. Verrill exhibited specimens of Pasceolus Halli 

 Billings,* which occur in the same formation with Beatricea 

 at EUis Bay, Anticosti. 



This fossil was described by Mr. Billings as anAscidlan, but some of 

 the specimens collected by the late expedition from Cambridge showed 

 that the exterior was formed by a shell of considerable thickness, com- 

 posed of small hexagonal and pentagonal plates or prisms, having the 

 outer surface marked with raised radiating lines. Moreover some of 

 the specimens had the lateral openings well preserved, and surrounded 

 by six plates differing in form from the rest. Mr. Verrill had, there- 

 fore, considered it as a Ci/stidean. It also agrees with other species of 

 this group In form and appearance. 



Mr. W. H. Niles having recently made a more complete 

 study of this fossil was invited by Mr. Yerrill to express his 

 opinion upon its relation to the other Oi/stideans. 



Mr. Nlles remarked that he had so far studied the specimens exhib- 

 ited as to be convinced that Mr. Yerrill was correct In his belief that 

 they were true Cystldeans. The species had been described by Bil- 

 lings under the name of Pasceolus Halli, but the genus had been pre- 

 viously described by Elchwald under the name of Cyclocrinites. The 

 genus belongs to the family Sphceronitidce. 



* Canadian Geological Survey. Report for 1853 — '56, p. 342. 



