212 PALEONTOLOGY OF NEW JERSEY. 



Formation and locality: In the upper layer of the Upper Green Marls, 

 at Shark River, New Jersey. Collections at Rutgers College and Am. Mus. 

 Nat. Hist. 



Genus VOLUTILITHES Swainson. 



VOLUTILITHES SaYANA. 



Plate XXX, Figs. 11-15. 



Valuta Say ana Conrad: Foss. Shells of Tert., p. 39, PI. xvi. Fig. 1; Morton's 



Syn. Org. Rem. Cret., Appendix, p. 5. 

 Valuta Defrancii, V. gracilis and V. parva (Lea) Conrad : Am. Jour. Conch., 



vol. 1, p. 24, and Morton's Syn. Org. Rem. Cret., Appendix, p. 5. 

 VolutUithes Sayanus Gouxsu^: Meek, Check List Eocene Foss., p. 16; Am. Jour. 



Conch., vol. 1, p. 34. 

 Valutilithes mutata? (Desh.) Meek: Geol. N. J., Newark, 1868, p. 733; Meek, 



Check List Eocene Foss., p. 16 ; Heilprin, Tert. Format. N. A., p. 8 ?. 



Among the casts from Shark River in the State collections at Rut- 

 gers College, and also at the Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., are many specimens of 

 a Volutilithes, so exactly like the shells of the above species as it occurs 

 at Claiborne, Alabama, that there certainly can be no reason whatever for 

 doubting their specitic identity. They occur of all sizes from less than 

 1 inch in length to those of nearly 3 inches. They also represent nearly 

 all the variations in proportions of rotundity and height of spire possessed 

 by those shells; the variation of the surface markings, however, can not 

 be so readily detected, as it is preserved to a much less degree of dis- 

 tinctness on these casts. The casts may be characterized as follows: 



Volutions ventricose, flattened or obliquely sloping on the upper sur- 

 face and attenuate below, spire moderately elevated, but variable in dif- 

 ferent individuals, somewhat turreted, the volutions rapidly increasing in 

 size; surface vertically plicated, the plications being confined to near the 

 upper part of the body volution and extending upon the upper sloping 

 surface ; also marked by spiral lines, most distinct toward the base and 

 sometimes only visible on this part. Columella marked by several (three 

 to five) oblique folds of variable strength. Aperture large, wide at the 

 top and narrowed below, forming a narrow canal. 



I suppose this to be the species referred to by Mr. Meek in his list 

 of Eocene fossils given in the appendix to the Greol. N. J., Newark, 1868, 



