354 Transactions of the Geological Society of Pennsylvania. 



Phil. Vol. Ill, p. 331, pi. xii.— 1824) ; a distinct species of this 

 genus discovered by Mr. Lea in a marl pit in New Jersey, was 

 named ty Dr. Hays, Saurocephalus Lpanus, and he had also call- 

 ed it Saurodon. 



Dr. Harlan has named a new Saurian Basilosaurus ; it was found 

 on the banks of the Washita or Ouachita river, Louisiana. (Amer. 

 Philos. Trans., Vol. IV. New series, p. 297, pi. XX.— 1834. , 



One of the vertebras weighs forty four pounds, and is fourteen in- 

 ches long by seven broad. Allowing the animal sixty six vertebrae, 

 like the Plesiosaurus, Dr. Harlan estimates the weight of the skel- 

 eton as being over two tons, and that the individual niust have been 

 from eighty to one hundred feet in length. Its geological position 

 was in the Atlantic tertiary. To the localities of fossil fish quoted 

 from Professor Hitchcock, and cited by Dr. Harlan, we can add one 

 at Southbury, Ct. twenty four miles north west of New Haven. We 

 saw but a single specimen ; it was from a bituminous shale in a basin 

 of six or eight miles in diameter, of red sandstone, sustaining ridges 

 of trap, and surrounded by primitive rocks. 



5. Professor Del Rio's Critique on the Mineralogy of Mr. 

 C. U. Shepard. — Upon this subject we shall make no remarks, as 

 Mr. Shepard has spoken for himself in the present number, in a dis- 

 tinct article. 



Professor Rio's Observations on the conversion of sulphuret of 

 silver into native silver may be read with advantage and instruction. 



6. Notice of the gigantic mastodon, the elephant, and the megal- 

 onyx jefFersonii in Tennessee, by Professor G. Troost. 



Numerous bones of the Mastodon were found about eleven miles 

 south east of Nashville imbedded in a rich black mould, resting on 

 a stiff ferruginous loam which the bones partly penetrated; the 

 bones are in general pretty sound, and very heavy, being impregna- 

 ted by hydrated oxide of iron. There were vertebrae of at least 

 two individuals. 



Another skeleton was found near the same place a few years ago 

 about six feet under ground. 



Dr. Troost has a tooth found near Dandridge in East Tennessee, 

 and still another with a part of the jaw bone attached : this was from 

 the vicinity of Natchez. 



Molar teeth of the extinct elephant have been found in Tennessee. 



Bones, supposed to be those of the megalonyx, have been found 

 in a salt-petre cave in Tennessee. 



