CIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



tion of its formations might be useful to those employed in 

 developing the structure of the crust of the earth. The author 

 of the paper also adds a list of the various works relating to the 

 geology of the northern part of North America, and which he has 

 himself consulted. We have every reason to hope that this geolo- 

 gical hiatus will now, to a great extent, be filled up by the exer- 

 tions of the distinguished geologist to whom the Wollaston Palla- 

 dium Medal has been this day awarded. 



I greatly regret that time and space will not allow me to do full 

 justice to the exertions of the geologists of the United States of 

 America in the pursuit of geological investigation. At the same 

 time I must mention some circumstances connected with the progress 

 of geology in that country. 



And in the first place, let me call your attention to the magnificent — 

 I had almost said royal — publication, of Dr. Isaac Lea of Philadelphia, 

 of the fossil footmarks in the red sandstone of Pottsville. Having 

 already published these fossil footprints in the Proceedings and Trans- 

 actions of the American Philosophical Society, the author found that 

 the reduced plate containing the six imprints of fossils was too small 

 to convey a correct idea of this interesting specimen. He conse- 

 quently determined to reproduce it of the natural size, in order that 

 a better representation of it, and a more correct and diffused know- 

 ledge of this, perhaps the oldest air-breathing animal on record, 

 might be laid before geologists. The letter-press explanatory of this 

 large engraving, and by which it is accompanied, is reprinted almost 

 verbatim from the tenth volume of the Transactions of the American 

 Philosophical Society. 



In the last number we have received of the Journal of the Academy 

 of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia will be found two interesting 

 memoirs on the discovery of palaeozoic fossils in the United States 

 by Messrs. J. C. Norwood and Henry Pratten, of the Illinois Geo- 

 logical Survey. The first is a notice of Producti found in the western 

 states and territories, with descriptions of twelve new species. These 

 species have been found partly in the Mountain-limestone so exten- 

 sively developed in the western and southern states, and partly in 

 the marine limestone and calcareous clays of the Coal-measures. 

 Indeed many of the species here described are found exclusively in 

 this latter formation. The new species, which are exemplified by 

 beautiful and accurate drawings by Mr. H. A. Ullfers, are Productus 

 AltonensiSy Phillipsii, Roc/ersii, clavus, splendens, Wabaskensis, 

 elegans, muricatus (not of De Koninck or Phillips), Portlockianusy 

 PrattenianuSf Hildrethianus, and alternatus. 



The second is a notice of the genus Chonetes as found in the 

 western states and territories, with descriptions of eleven new species. 

 M. de Koninck, in his monograph of the genus published in 1847, 

 enumerated twenty-three species, including those found in the United 

 States, as the total number then known ; Mr. Dale Owen has since 

 added one more, and the addition now made makes the present number 

 known thirty-five. Of these, seventeen occur in the western states of 

 ATnerica, and ten in New York. Of the new species six or seven 



