182 Association of American Geologists. 



already been indicated, by some fossils that Lewis and Clark and Mr. 

 Thomas Nuttall had brought along with them from their travels, and 

 which were described by Dr. Morton. Mr. N. e.xhibited farther, some 

 fossil bones which had been submitted to the inspection of Dr. Harlan, 

 who describes them as belonging to vertebrcB of a Squalus and of a nonde- 

 script crocodile, also articulated vertebrae of an animal referrible to the 

 order Enalio-sauri oi ConyhezxQ. The surface presented by a transverse 

 section of these vertebrae, Dr. H. thinks peculiar, as also the mode in 

 which the ribs are attached to a small process in the middle of the infe- 

 rior surface of each vertebra. From their size and unique character, it 

 is quite probable that these vertebrae form a part of the skeleton of the 

 Sauro-cephalus lanciformis, (Harlan,) an animal possessing still more of 

 the fish than the lizard, than exists in the organization of the ichthyosau- 

 rus, in which respect these vertebrae correspond. According to Dr. Har- 

 lan, similar fossils have been found in the green sand of New Jersey and 

 in the chalk of England. 



Mr. Nicollet concluded by remarking, that he had followed up and de- 

 scribed this formation, along an extent of upwards of four hundred miles, 

 and from information received and from fossils that had been furnished 

 to him, thinks that it extends to the west at least as far as the sources of 

 the rivers Running Water, White, Shayeune, &c. and northwest along 

 the Missouri probably to the Yellow Stone, being an extent in length of 

 about one thousand miles. 



Mr. Hodge followed with some observations concerning the 

 secondary and tertiary deposits of the CaroHnas. 



The remarks of Mr. Hodge regarding the secondary and tertiary de- 

 posits of the Carolinas, will be found embodied in the next number of 

 this Journal. He next noticed the deceptive appearance of the bowlders 

 of quartz and primary rocks, scattered over the country north of Columbia, 

 S. C, and extending throughout the gold region of North Carolina, all 

 seemingly referrible to a similar cause with that which covered the hills of 

 the northern states with their bowlders. But according to the previously 

 expressed opinions of Messrs. Vanuxem and Mather, these are considered 

 not to have been transported to any distance, but to belong to the rocks 

 in their immediate neighborhood. 



He asked attention to the subject of the deposit gold mines; whether 

 these were not still in progress of formation, notwithstanding the opinions 

 to the contrary found in many of the foreign treatises ; mentioning their 

 occurrence always near the veins of the ore, and of the fact of veins hav- 

 ing been discovered by working the deposits up to them, above which 

 the gold suddenly ceased. Of the power of the freshets, the discovery of 

 the little buried village in Nacochee Valley, Ga., was mentioned as a re- 

 markable evidence. His opinion was, that though many of the deposits 

 referred themselves far back to the period when the whole country was 



