wuttr. ] CRETACEOUS FOSSILS. 7 
whose names are referred to in connection with the respective descrip- 
tions. 
It has not been thought necessary to rewrite, nor in many cases to 
- revise, the descriptions of the fossils embraced in these articles which 
were formerly published by Mr. Meek in the publications of this Survey ; 
and I have, therefore, here copied his descriptions, and, to a great ex- 
tent, tacitly followed his classification. 
ACTINOZOA. 
Genus CHAXTETES Fischer. 
CHATETES ?? DIMISSUS White. 
Plate 12, fig. 14 a. 
Cheetetes ?? dimissus White, 1879, Bull. U. S. Geol. Sur. Terr., vol. v, p. 220. 
Corallum ramose, dichotomously branching at irregular intervals; 
branches cylindrical or subcylindrical, solid, the successive branches 
diminishing in. size; corallites small, not exceeding 4+ millimeter in 
diameter, closely compacted together, diverging from the axis of the 
corallum at an acute angle with it, and describing a slight upward curve 
as they are projected towards the surface. Character of the surface and 
of the corallites unknown, the specimens being firmly imbedded in sand- 
stone. One corallum, at least, seems to have consisted of a central or 
basal mass, from which several stems diverged irregularly, each stem 
bearing several branches. 
Diameter of the stems and branches varying from 2 millimeters to 6 
millimeters. 
While this coral has all the outward appearance, and apparently the 
general structure, of the ramose forms of Chetetes or Monticulipora the 
corallites seem to be entirely destitute of tabula, even when viewed 
under the microscope in the section prepared for that purpose by Profes- 
sor Nicholson. Ifthe tabule are really absent, as they appear to be, this 
coral cannot be properly referred to Chotetes, nor to any other form of 
the Actinozoa, but it probably belongs to the Polyzoa. If it really be- 
longs to the latter class, I do not know any genus to which it can be 
referred; and as the specimens are not sufficiently perfect to warrant 
a new generic diagnosis, I assign them provisionally to Chetetes. 
Only two examples of this coral have been discovered, and, like all 
other coralline forms in the Cretaceous rocks of the West, it is doubtless 
arare one. The rarity of the remains of Celenterata in those rocks is 
no doubt due, not to a universal suppression at that time of those forms 
of life, but to the local or regional physical conditions which prevailed 
at the time those Western North American strata were deposited. It 
is a well-known fact that coral polyps require pure waters for vigorous 
and abundant growth; and as the Cretaceous strata of the West consist 
so largely of sand, it is evident that the waters in which they were 
deposited could not have been congenial for a large development of any 
of the forms of Ceelenterate life. 
Position and locality.—Strata of the Fox Hills Group, of the Cretaceous 
series, at Fossil Ridge, 16 miles westward from Greeley, and 6 miles 
southward from Fort Collins, Colo., where it is associated with the coral 
next described, and also with various Cretaceous molluscan forms. 
