Notice of Fossil Crustacea, from New- Jersey. By Jer. 

 Van Rensselaer, M. D. Read Nov. 15, 1824. 



New-Jersey presents to us the richest localities of fossils 

 with which we are acquainted in this hemisphere. Situated 

 between the two great schools of natural history, it is surpris- 

 ing that it has never been made the scene of more extensive 

 research. The cursory examinations it has received from 

 both cities have proved so gratifying, that we may hope some 

 leisured brother will be induced to investigate more minutely 

 the depository of these medals of nature, so abundant in our 

 tertiary region,* and more particularly in the triangular 

 peninsula comprised between the ocean and the Delaware 

 and Raritan rivers. 



During an excursion made to this interesting region, some 

 months ago, in company with Messrs. Dekay and Cooper, 

 we had the satisfaction of increasing the cabinet of the Lyceum 

 by the addition of the fossil remains of the Mastodon.\ I 

 have now the pleasure of noticing some specimens of fos- 

 sil crustacea found during that excursion, and which are 

 the first of the kind found in this country, so far as my know- 

 ledge extends : certainly the first that have been described. 

 There are portions of a crab in the cabinet of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, said to have been found 

 below the surface of the soil on the banks of the Potomac : 

 but I am informed they bear no other evidence of being fossil. \ 



* Which I have partially described in a paper read before the New- York 

 Literary and Philosophical Society in March last, and which has been or- 

 dered to appear in the next volume of their Transactions. 



f Vide page 143 of this volume. 



\ Immediately after this paper was read, Major Delafield informed me 

 that he had part of a fossil crab from York river ; but he has never been 

 able to find it since. 



It is much to be regretted that no scientific work has pointed out (he dis- 

 tinctive characters of fossil and merely preserved shells, 



