272 PALEONTOLOGY OF OHIO. 



system.* It may also be added that, from the first, I have been impressed with the 

 rather curious fact that many of the Waverly fossils have much more closely allied 

 representatives in the Coal Measures of our Western States than are yet known to occur 

 in the Lower Carboniferous limestones of the same region. Quite a list of very closely 

 allied representative forms from these two horizons might be made out, mainly of 

 species belonging to the Polyzoa, Brachioj)oda, Lamellibranchiata, and Crustacea. By 

 these remarks, however, it is not intended to be even intimated that I have the 

 slightest suspicion that the Waverly should be included in the Coal Measures. It is 

 only an interesting instance of somewhat similar physical conditions having brought 

 into existence similar forms in particular kinds of life at different periods of time.t 

 On the other hand, the Crinoids of the Waverly correspond closely in their general 

 features to those of the the Lower Carboniferous limestones of the West, while the 

 Cephalopoda, particularly the Goniatiles and Nautili, nearly approach European Lower 

 Carboniferous forms. 



In preparing this report, I have been favored by Prof. Henry with the usual facili- 

 ties at the Smithsonian Institution. I am also under obligation to Prof. Winchell for 

 access to his types of the fossils described by him from the horizon of the Waverly 

 rocks in Michigan, and for the privilege of making tracings of the drawings of his 

 species, so far as completed. I only regret that circumstances prevented a direct com- 

 parison of specimens, especially in some doubtful cases that have come up for deci- 

 sion since I saw his collection. For the use of some of the fossils figured in this re- 

 port I am indebted to the Rev. Mr. Hertzer, Prof. Andrews, and Mr. Klippart, of 

 Columbus, from whose private collections they were borrowed. The drawings for 

 the accompanying plates were made by Messrs. W. H. Holmes, I. C. McConnel, and 

 H. W. Elliott, of Washington City, D. C. 



Very respectfully, yours, 



F. B. Meek, Palseontologist. 



* Am. Jour. Sci. and Arts, Vol. XXXII., page 167, 1861. 



t Although the Waverly group is not a coal-bearing formation, it agrees much more nearly with the Coal 

 Measures, Kthologically, than with the Lower Carboniferous limestones further westward, and hence was ap- 

 parently deposited under local conditions more nearly corresponding to the Upper than to the Lower Car- 

 boniferous, though belonging to the age of the latter. 



