ESTHERIA OVATA. 93 



same time that I am indebted to Mr. Wheatley 1 for a polite reply to my inquiries 

 respecting the section, and for an illustrative diagram (fig. 9, p. 95). 



"Remarks on the Mesozoic Med Sandstone of the Atlantic Slope, and notice of the Discovery of a Bone-bed 

 therein, at Phcenixville, Pennsylvania. By Charles M. Wheatley, M.A. (Read before the 

 Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, Feb. 20th, 1861.) 



"No question in American geology seems more difficult of elucidation than the age and geological 

 position of the so-called 'New Red Sandstone' of the Atlantic slope; some geologists referring it to the 

 Oolitic or Liassic periods, others to the Trias, and others, still lower, to the Permian. The true position 

 may probably be determined, like the San Casciano Beds, intermediate between the Liassic and Triassic 

 periods, forming a separate group, containing like those beds, its own peculiar fossils. No true Permian 

 forms characteristic of that formation have yet been discovered ; the fishes formerly referred to Palceoniscus 

 are now placed in the genera Catopterus (Redfield) and Ischypterus (Egerton), their tails being more 

 homocercal than heterocercal. The Clepsysaurus (Lea), once considered a Thecodont Saurian and 

 analogous to Thecodontosaurus antiquus of Riley and Stutchbury from Redland, near Bristol, England 

 (found in dolomitic conglomerate referred to the Permian, but now considered not older than the Triassic), 

 is stated by Dr. Leidy ('Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad.,' June 9th, 1857) to be ' not properly a Thecodont 

 reptile, but may form the type of a new family, as its teeth are inserted in the jaws by solid conical 

 fangs.' ........ .Mr. Wheatley proceeds to correct Prof. H. D. Rogers in his distribution of the Reptilian 



remains (' Final Report on the Geology of Pennsylvania,' vol. ii, part 2, p. 695) said to have been found 

 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey; and then states that " the following, fossils have been noticed in the 

 ' Mesozoic Red Sandstone' of Pennsylvania (chiefly from the shales excavated in the railway-tunnel 3 near 

 Phcenixville. 



" Plants, Phcenixville and Gwynnedd. 



" Equisetum columnare, Broug., 15 to 16 in. long, and 7 in. circumference. In sandstone of a dark- 

 grey colour, with iron-pyrites, Phcenixville. 



" Pterozamites longifolius, Emmons. In grey micaceous sandstone, with iron-pyrites, Phcenixville. 



" Gymnocaulus alternates, Emmons. In light micaceous sandstone, Phcenixville. Fir-cones, 6 in. 

 long, 1 in. wide, Isaac Lea, this Journ. [2], vol. xxii, p. 123, 1856, in black bituminous shales, Phcenixville. 



" Plant resembling that figured by Emmons as Catamites panctatus. In black bituminous shales, 

 Phcenixville. 



"Plant resembling Noegyerathia, at Gwynnedd, I. Lea ('Am. Jour, of Sci.,' vol. xxii, 1856, p. 123), 

 probably the same as figured by Emmons ('N. Car. Rep.,' pi. 1, fig. 3), as Dictyocaulus striatus, and 

 which Prof. 0. Heer (this Journal [2], vol. xxiv, p. 428) says 'has an obvious resemblance to 

 Noeyyerathia.' 



"A number of plants, seed-vessels, &c, have been found in the grey micaceous sandstone and black 

 shales at Phcenixville, the genera of which are yet undetermined. 



1 Since this was written I have received a large supply of Estherice, and other fossils of the Phcenixville 

 shales, from Mr. Wheatley. These will be noticed by themselves in the sequel. 



2 The position of this tunnel (Black-rock Tunnel), a little north of Phcenixville, Chester Co., is 

 shown in the map of the mining district of Chester and Montgomery Counties, in Rogers's ' Geol. 

 Pennsylvania,' vol. ii, part 2, between pp. 674 and 675. 



