178 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [APR. 30, 
geology, and meteorology, in so small an area. It was a fitting 
microcosm for the isolated people who were to receive and em- 
body in writing an universal religion, which was to be the basis 
of the universal brotherhood of man. 
April 30, 1888. 
STATED MEETING. 
The President, Prof. J. S. NEWBERRY, in the chair. 
Forty-seven persons present. 
The Secretary nominated for Corresponding Member, Pror. 
GEORGE EH. Post, of Beirit, Syria, who was, by unanimous con- 
sent, at once elected by formal ballot. 
Pror. J. 8. NEWBERRY presented, by title, a paper 
ON THE FOSSIL FISHES OF THE ERIE SHALE OF OHIO, 
(Abstract. ) 
The Erie shale is a name given to the western extension of 
the Chemung and Upper Portage rocks of New York and Penn- 
sylvania. The formation consists of clay shale with flaggy sand- 
stones, and has, near the eastern line of Ohio, a thickness of 
about 1,500 feet; it thins westward, and in central Ohio has been 
reduced to a thickness of about 100 feet, and in places is alto- 
gether wanting. It forms the lake-shore from Erie to Cleve- 
land, and is generally barren of fossils, but in certain localities 
has furnished many of the mollusks characteristic of the 
Cheraung group in New York. 
Quite recently Dr. William Clark, the indefatigable collector 
of fossil fishes, has discovered in the lenticular, calcareous con- 
cretions in the top of the formation in the valley of the Cuya- 
hoga, near Cleveland, Ohio, some remarkable fish remains which 
are new to science. A series of specimens obtained from the 
same region by Prof. William Kepler, of Berea, Ohio, has 
recently come into my possession, and I give herewith a brief 
description of them. 
1. Cladodus Kepleri, nu. sp. A shark, which attained a length 
of 6 feet or more, with a diameter of body of about 8 inches; 
the mouth is terminal or nearly so, the teeth numerous, varying 
in size from } to 8 of an inch in height, consisting of a rela- 
