Holmes's Notes on the Geology of Charleston. 197 



seen." From it was taken the most perfect skull yet found of 

 that wonderful gigantic fossil cetacean ; and by which was deter- 

 mined the true character of this singular animal. 



Isolated teeth and bones of Basilosaurus, Dinotherium, Mega- 

 therium, Equus, and nearly fifty species of sharks, are obtained in 

 abundance, as are also bones of a large Chelonia. 1 have in my 

 cabinet three links of the vertebra of Mosasaurus, "the great ani- 

 mal of Maestricht," a cretaceous fossil which I obtained in the 

 marl of Ashley river. The number of undetermined teeth and 

 bones is considerable. Two specimens of walnuts, with the epi- 

 dermis converted into lignite; three casts of hickory-nuts, very per- 

 fect and beautiful, and fragments of wood, (now lignite,) bored by 

 the Teredo, whose casts in marl are yet preserved, have been also 

 obtained ; and at every visit something new is added to my stock. 

 Few shells are preserved in a perfect state, but casts in the marl 

 of many genera and species are easily obtained in the upper beds. 

 Of the perfect specimens, " Balanus peregrinus" Morton, "Gry- 

 phaea mutabilis" Morton, Anomia rugosa, and Scalaria Sillimani 

 Morton, may be said to be abundant ; whilst one hundred speci- 

 mens of a species of coral, (Anthophyllum atlanticum, Morton,) 

 can be obtained from a cubic foot of this marl : it is the most 

 abundant fossil of the Ashley bed. 



There is one other class of fossils characterizing the marls of 

 Ashley and Cooper rivers, which, though of the most diminu- 

 tive forma, are no less wonderful or interesting; I allude to the 

 Polythalamia, (composed of many cells,) beautiful little shells, 

 which are generally microscopic; but many species of several 

 genera, sufficiently large to be examined by the naked eye, are 

 quite common. My cabinet contains a fine suite which I col- 

 lected from the borings of the Artesian well. The matrix inclos- 

 ing these shells is. itself, a mass of Infusoria?. 



rofessor Bailey, of West Point, (to whom 1 sent specimens for 

 examination,) writes me that he has placed a good supply of the 

 Charleston marl in the hands of Ehrenberg, and requested him to 

 determine the species, which labor he has undertaken ; but his 

 results are not yet published. Of those which I sent Professor B., 

 many were destroyed before reaching him ; among the remainder 

 he distinguished forms of the following genera: Robulina, Cris- 

 tellaria, Dentalina and Nodosari. "These.*' says he, ' k are giant 

 specimens of their kind, being vastly larger than the forms which 

 I had previously studied in the marls of the wells in your city." 

 The fossil, mineral and other characters of the marl of Ashley 

 Wad Cooper rivers, differ considerably from those of the Santee 

 beds belonging to the same formation, which out-crop at various 

 P°hits between those rivers and the Santee. The fossils too of 

 the first do not indicate as great an age as those of the last, and 

 n ° green sand nor extensive veins of water have yet been found 



