Miscellanies. 213 



MISCELLANIES. 



DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN. 



1. Notes on the Cretaceous Strata of New Jersey and parts of the 

 United Slates bordering the Atlantic ; by C. Lyell.— The cretaceous 

 formation of New Jersey resembles its European equivalent in mineral 

 character, with the important exception that the white chalk with flints, 

 and the chert, so common in our green sand, are wanting. The Amer- 

 ican strata, consisting of green sand and marl, red and highly ferru- 

 ginous sandstones, white sand, limestone, and some beds of lignite, 

 have been usually compared to our lower cretaceous series, with which 

 they correspond in lithological character, but in their fossils they agree 

 far more nearly with the European strata, ranging from the Gault to 

 the Maastricht beds inclusive. 



Dr. Morton pointed out in 1834 the general agreement of th 

 remains of these American strata with those of the chalk and green 

 sand of Europe, while Mr. Conrad correctly pronounced almost all the 

 species to be new and distinct. 



r. Lyell, in an excursion in September, 1841, in company with Mr. 

 ^nrad, collected in New Jersey a large portion of the fossil shells de- 

 scribed and figured by Dr. Morton, together with some new species. 

 Having examined the whole, with the assistance of Mr. E. Forbes and 



ers i he finds not more than four in sixty species of shells identical 

 European fossils. These are Belemnites mucronatus, Pec ten quin- 



e organic 



M 



Wcostat 



us 



ft 



eral others however approach very nearly, and may be the same 



uropean species, and at least fifteen may be regarded as geograph- 



representatives of well known chalk fossils of Europe, belonging 



r he most part to beds above the Gault. There are a few peculiar 



s 5 such as Terebratula Sauii. a new species of Bulla, and others, 



U ^own in Europe. 



ro *. H. D. Rogers has divided the New Jersey beds into five forma- 



? two of which are rich in organic remains. The lower of these 



Is s chiefly of green sand or marl, the upper is a calcareous rock. 



e corals obtained in the latter by Mr. Lyell at Timber Creek, twelve 



*es southeast of Philadelphia, have been referred by Mr. Lonsdale to 



the ^' Wing species- 



onllVa ^ia Atlantica, {Anthophjllum Atlanticum, Morton,) Idmonea 

 ch • l S ^' n '' Alecto fascicularis, sp. n., Cellepora tiibulala, Es« 



nasagena, (Flustra sagena, Morton,) Eschara digitate Morton, 

 tan sarT)e coralline rock contains echinoderms of the genera Spa- 

 umT ' aster > Agassiz,) Cidaris, and other forms closely allied to 



cretaceous fossils of Europe. It also abounds in Foraminifera 



