LYELL ON MASSACHUSSETTS ANTHRACITE. 199 



see weapons of defence against the aggressions of the Piscivorous 

 Saurians with which they were destined to coexist, I propose to 

 name this species Hybodus basanus.* 



6. Extracts were read from letters of M. Dubois de Montpereux 

 to Mr. L. L. Boscawen Ibbetson, on the comparison of the jSFeoco- 

 mian beds of the Caucasus and the Crimea with those of Neuf- 

 chatel, and from Professor Agassiz to Mr. Ibbetson, on the age of 

 the Neocomian beds of Neufchatel. 



May 15th, 1844, 



W. J. Blake, Esq., of Danesbury, was elected a Fellow of this 

 Society. 



The following communications were made : — 



1. On some Crustaceous Remains in Carboniferous Rocks. 



By W. Ick, Esq., F.G.S. 

 This communication accompanied two electrotype casts of the 

 specimens alluded to. The one was found in the white ironstone 

 measures atRidgeacre Colliery, and the author states, — "I at first 

 thought it might be the head and carapace of a new species of 

 Eryon except that the known species from the Solenhofen slate are 

 much more deeply notched on the edges of the carapace, and the 

 apparently spinous prolongation of the head and some other de- 

 tails do not agree. The white ironstone in which it was found is 

 a bed in the lower part of the field below what is called the New 

 Mine coal. It is the bed in which the finest remains of Megal- 

 ichthys have been found." 



" The other fossil is in an ironstone nodule. The form is not so 

 well defined as in the first, and I dare not venture to guess to what 

 it may be referred." 



2. On the probable Age and Origin of a Bed of Plumbago 

 and Anthracite occurring in mica-schist near Worcester, Mas- 

 sachusetts. By C. Lyell, Esq., M.A., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 



A bed of plumbago and impure anthracite described by Professor 

 Hitchcock in his " Geology of Massachusetts " is found inter- 

 stratified with mica-schist near Worcester, forty-five miles due 

 west of Boston. It is about two feet in thickness, and has been 

 made use of both as fuel and in the manufacture of lead-pencils. 

 It is much mixed up with the associated rock, has the touch and 

 somewhat of the lustre of plumbago, and gives a streak on paper. 

 It is occasionally iridescent like coal, contains pyrites, which is also 

 found in the associated clay slate and garnetiferous mica-schist, 



* The accompanying plate exhibits the appearance of the fossil embedded in 

 the rock, and partially cleared. 



o 4 



