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168 QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



Texas, away towards the Rocky Mountains, is geologically impos' 

 sible, for the greater part of it is an uninhabitable desert, incapa 

 ble of cultivation; leaving the habitable portion of Texas a place 

 no larger than the state of Missouri. 



Prof. Hall remarked on the utility of Crustacea in the identifi.« 

 cation of strata. He had identified 60 species and 22 genera oj 

 trilobitfcs in his recent survey. He also stated that he had had foi 

 two years in his possession a specimen of a recent trilohiie (a 

 remarkable and new fact) picked up on the shores at New Bed- 

 ford; the eyes are precisely like those of the trilobite (pediculus 

 marinus trilobus) and so is the general shape of the body; he bfri 

 lieved it a genuine species of calimina; although the trilobian struc- 

 ture was not quite so perfect as those of the fossil trilobites o; 

 the Dudley and Trenton limestone. 



Mr. B. Silliman, Jr. then read a very interesting paper by Df 

 Dickerson, of the Geology of the Mississippi Valley, which showec 

 that stalactites and mastodon bones have been found in the Natchej 

 bluff. Also, a description of a curious animal found in the Mam 

 moth Ravine, as it is called, near Natchez, which is styled th<i 

 "nondescript." Its head was 18 inches long and 11 inches wide 

 there was a place for a trunk like that of the elephant; the tuski 

 were 11 inches long; there were no traces of any eye sockets; nj 

 foramina for the passage of an optic nerve; no place for eyes ai 

 all; it was a blind animal; had 16 teeth; its fore leg was fivi 

 feet lono", and very powerful; the bones were completely fossil 

 ized, and were very ferruginous. 



Another paper, by Col. Wailes, showed the miseries that wei' 

 suffered in Mississippi for want of any rocks or stones ; on thi 

 account, they had nothing to check the overflowing or off-cuttin , 

 current of the river with ; no stones to build embankments with! I 

 no stones to make roads with, or to keep roads in repair ; n » 

 stones to build abutments for a bridge ; so there are no bridges* 

 no stones to build cellar walls with ; so all the houses are built o •' 

 sticks. Truly, a lamentable state of things for Mississippi. TI:' ,' 

 paper also spoke of the numerous bones of the mastodon, founF, 

 in the mastodon ravines in Mississippi. The only stone found i r^' 

 Mississippi, is that found at Grand Gulf and Jackson ; it is a tej 

 tiary sandstone, very poor, and liable to decay ; and the Stai 

 House at Jackson is built with it. The only waterfall in Missii 

 sippi falls over this sandstone and is/ii'e feet high ! In the blu; 

 near Walnut Hills, fossil shark's teeth and many fossil shells 

 found. Iron ore has not yet been worked in Mississippi, but thei 

 are many beds of iron in the state. The marl is abundant, 

 will be very valuable to the planter ; and can be found in aDi 

 of the ravines ; 700 bushels of marl have been put to the acr* 

 and the crop of cotton, corn, &c., has been much increased thereb) 



irfji 



