MOrXD EXPLOEATIONS COOK'S FARM GROUP. 221 



cies had been, even in Europe, at that early da}', more accurately figured 

 and described. Conrad's name then must give way to the law of priority, 

 and the fossil so familiar to us all under the name of ISjnrifera mucronata 

 must be called Sjririfera pennata, Atwater. I overlooked Atwater's 

 species in the preparation of the '• American Paleozoic Fossils," and so 

 far as I have ascertained, every other one has overlooked it, but this is 

 no reason why his name should not be reinstated. 



In 18-52 David Dale Owen, in his report of a Geological Survey of Wis- 

 consin, Iowa and Minnesota, figured and described a fossil shell from the 

 Devonian shell beds of the Iowa river, under the name of Spirifer pen- 

 natus, whicli name, as shown above, was preoccupied. I now propose 

 for the fossil shell figured and described by Owen as ISpirifer pennatus, 

 the name Spirifera attoaterana. The specific name is proposed in honor 

 of Mr. Caleb Atwater. The nomenclature will then stand as follows : 



Spirifera. pennata, Atwater, 1820 [2'erebratula pennata), Amer. Jour. 

 Sci. & Arts, Vol. II. 



Spirifera mucronata, Conrad, 1841 {Deltliyris mucronata] Syn. for Spi- 

 rifera pennata. 



Spirifera atwaterana 6\ A. Miller, 1878. 



Spirifer pennatus, Owen, 1852. The name being pre-occupied, Spirif- 

 era atwaterana is proposed instead of it. 



Very respectfully, 

 Cincinnati, Feb. ith, 1878. S. A. Miller. 



The principal event of the evening was the exhibition of a 

 third inscribed tablet, recently found in a mound on the Cook 

 Farm by Messrs. Gass, Hume and Harrison, Mr. Harrison 

 read the following paper : 



Exploration of Mound No. 1 1 Cook's Farm Group, and. Discovery of 

 an Inscribed Tablet of Limestone. 



BY CHARLES E. HARRISON. 



Having learned from the owners of the laud on which the Cook Farm 

 group of mounds is situated, that in plowing the ground late last season 

 some stones had been discovered, which probably indicated the existence 

 of another mound, it w-as thought desirable to explore the spot, as some 

 of the other mounds of the group had been discovered in the same 

 manner. 



Accordingly, on the afternoon of Wednesday, January .30th, 1878, Kev. 

 Mr. Gass, Mr. John Hume and myself proceeded to the place indicated. 

 The mounds had been so nearly leveled by constant cultivation and 

 plowing as to be scarcely discernible. This mound was situated about 

 sixty-five feet north of Mound Xo. 1, and twenty-five feet south-west of 

 Mound No. 9, and was only a slight elevation. Noticing at one place a 

 number of pieces of limestone and a few bits of decayed shells, which 



[Proc. D. A. N. S. Vol. II.J 30 [May, 1878.J 



