34 Say on Shells, &e. 
that the Ohio river in a freshet is on a level with Lake Erie; 
and that the course of the outlet of the Lakes has been 
changed by the wearing down of the bed of the Niagara 
river several hundred feet: but the surface of the water just 
above the fall of Niagara, by the best modern measurments, 
is not yet fifty feet lower than the top of the slope near 
Queenstown, where it is generally supposed the wearing he- 
gan.—Our citizens express a great anxiety to become the 
founders of new systems and theories to account for the 
surprising phenomena which they discover in the structure 
of the western country. But perhaps it would advance the 
progress of science and general knowledge as much, to ex- 
amine facts carefully, and report them to posterity faithfully, 
without bending and twisting them to prop up imperfect 
theories. 
ft am, very respectfully, Asti 
Your humbe servant, 
A. BOURNE. 
FOSSIL ZOOLOGY. 
aD} Gr 
Arr. IV. Observations on some Species of Zoophytes, 
Shells, &¢. principally Fossil, by Tuomas Say, of Phila- 
delphaa. 
(Continued from Vol. I. p. 387.) 
Genus Catenpora, Lam. 
Coral lapideous, composed of parallel tubes joined to- 
pa ek te 
gether in vertical lamine; lamine anastomosing into a net- 
work. 
po 
Species. 
C. Escharoides, lamarck, millepora.. (Tubipora catenu- 
daria,) American Acad. vol. 1. p.  Tubipora catenulata 
9 p ’ 
Gmel, &e. (Cabinet Acad. Nat. Sciences ; and Peale’s 
Museum. ) 
