242 
gigantic dimensions of these shells, so much larger than any 
examples of the genus as it now exists. 
Hon. E. G. Squier remarked on one of the pieces of 
pottery exhibited having a perforation through it. He 
had seen many similar examples but was at a loss to account 
for it, or the use to which it could have been applied. He 
also presented specimens of Sinter, from the Vents of the Vol- 
cano of San Vincente, in San Salvador, and made some remarks 
on its mode of occurrence, and the characteristics of this and 
similar volcanos. 
Dr. A. HaseLt made some remarks on the eruption of 
water from the voleands of Central America and Ecuador, 
several of which he had visited. The water which is now 
found within the basins of the craters of some of these Vol- 
canos, which have become extinct or inactive, and at an 
elevation of 6000 feet above the level of the sea, contain 
living animals, as fish and crustacez. He was, however, 
unable to say whether they were the same species as are to 
be found in neighboring lakes and rivers. 
Mr. Squier said he attributed the eruption of water from 
volcanos, certainly in some cases, to the breaking away of 
the sides of the crater; as, when the sides are thick, no great 
discharge of water has been observed. 
Pror. A. M. Epwarps said that the subject of the eruption 
of water from volcanos, had been very thoroughly elucidated 
by Prof. J. D. Whitney, in a paper he had read a short time 
since before the California Academy of Sciences, and pub- 
lished in their Proceedings. It was well known that when 
such eruptions of water took place that there appeared at the 
same time, along with the water, the siliceous shells of 
Diatomacez, so-called “ Infusoria,” which were deposited on 
the surrounding country. Specimens of this kind had come 
into the hands of Ehrenberg and he had called them “ vol- 
canic ash” and had stated that they had come from the 
bowels of the earth. But it had been shown by Prof: 
