^06 



FOSSIL REMAINS IN 



emitted, whose smell was not at all sulphureous, but bi- 

 tuminous in a high degree. Taken out of the fire in its 

 ignited and burning state, it did not go out, but conti- 

 nued to burn until it was consumed. When blowed 

 upon, instead of being deadened by the blast, it became 

 brighter, and the ashes turned vegetable blue to green, 

 showing its alkaline quality. 



Alabama. 



The fossil specimens sent me by Mr. Magoflin from 

 the neighbourhood of St. Stephen's, on the Tombigbee 

 river, are highly interesting. They consist of the shells 

 of bivalve molluscas, and of sea-urchins and radiary 

 animals. Some of these are distinct and in their proper 

 forms ; others compacted into limestone, with many of 

 their lineaments remaining ; and others changing and 

 changed to chalk. 



Fifteen or twenty feet below the surface is a stratum 

 where wood is found, of different kinds, partially de- 

 cayed. Beneath this and a concomitant body of clay 

 and soft limestone, is a substance resembling the grass 

 on the margin of the ocean, accompanied by numberless 

 marine shells. The water from this, on first being 



taken up, smells like bilge-water. 



i 



Missouri. 



What shall we think of the genus and species of that 

 petrified skeleton of a very large fish, seen in the Sioux 

 country, up the Missouri, by Patrick Gass ? In his Jour- 

 nal to the Pacific ocean with Messrs. Lewis and Clark, 

 in 1804 6, he relates that it was forty-five feet long, and 

 lay on the top of a high cliff. He mentions also a petri- 



