Intelligence and Miscellanies. 359 



accompanied with a series of fossil remains from these and 

 other localities. 



Mr. Schoolcraft presented a collection of animals from 

 the neighborhood of Lake Superior with remarks upon their 

 geographical distribution, and the popular names of each in 

 the Chippeway tongue. 



Dr. DeKay read a description of a large species of Squa- 

 lus recently captured on the American coast. The author 

 observed that the first descriptions of the S. maximus were 

 so imperfect that modern naturalists have considered it a 

 doubtful species and have accordingly described several 

 large individuals of this genus as new species. Dr. DeKay 

 considers the S. pelerin, S. gunnerianus, S. homianus, S. 

 elephas and ;S'. rhinoceros as all belonging to the <S. viaxi- 

 vms, to which also he refers the individual under considera- 

 tion. The S. peregrinus, pinna anali nulla, is certainly a 

 distinct species. The most striking peculiarity observed in 

 this specimen was the presence of true baleen. Each branch- 

 ial opening was furnished with a fringe of baleen four inches 

 in length. This was composed of a great number of distinct 

 flattened fibres a tenth of an inch wide at their origin and 

 tapering gradually to minute threads at their extremities. 

 In color, texture and flexibility this resembles very much the 

 baleen of the B. mysticete. The laminae are extremely 

 regular in their position ; thirty of them are included within 

 the space of an inch, and they extend the whole length of 

 the branchial apertures. The author concluded by remark- 

 ing that all inferences respecting the size of a shark founded 

 on the magnitude of the fossil teeth alone must be erroneous, 

 as the individual just mentioned was twenty eight feet long 

 and its teeth were only 1-2 an inch in length. There are 

 fossil sharks' teeth in the Cabinet of the Lyceum 4 inches 

 long which by parity of reasoning belonged to an animal 

 220 feet in length. 



Mr. Barnes stated some facts which he had observed re- 

 specting the Serpentine bowlders scattered about on the 

 surface at East Chester, N. Y. These bowlders were of va- 

 rious sizes from 8 to 30 feet in diameter, and among them 

 Mr. B. observed a large mass of stellated asbestus, (steatite.) 



Mr. G. C. Morgan presented a skeleton of the Capromys 

 prehensilis and a series of the land shells of Cuba. 



