1890 .] 
469 
[General Meeting. 
Mr. H. T. Cresson has furnished the following additional in- 
formation in relation to the shell : “ It was found in 1864, near 
Holly Oak station (two and a half miles from Naaman’s Creek), 
by M. Surault in the presence of Michael Furlin, Timothy Leary, 
and myself. The shell lay in a peat bed, which at the spot named, 
rests on red gravel (Lewis), covered by the Philadelphia brick 
clay (of Lewis). It was discovered while Furlin and Leary (farm 
laborers) were digging muck and bastardpeat, to be used for fer- 
tilizing purposes. Human bones, charcoal, bones of animals and 
stone implements surrounded the shell. These remains of early 
man have been carefully preserved, and at present are in the pos- 
session of Mrs. Spencer of New York. They will shortly be sent 
to the Peabody Museum for examination, and I hope will remain 
there, either permanently, or as a loan exhibit. I regret that 
more details upon the subject cannot be given at present until the 
specimens have been carefully studied at our Museum. It may be 
interesting to add that the engraved shell has been examined by 
Professor Putnam of Harvard University, and Professor Dali of 
the Smithsonian Institution, and if I am not mistaken they deem 
it a beautiful specimen of aboriginal American art. The shell is 
heavily incrusted with dendrites, and has to be handled with great 
care in order to prevent it from disintegrating.” 
General Meeting, February 19, 1890. 
The President, F. W. Putnam, in the chair. 
Mr. Samuel Garman read a paper on some “Recent Discover- 
ies in Caves,” in which he spoke of animals collected in caves in 
Missouri. He was unable to explain their peculiarities by Darwin’s 
theory of natural selection. 
Professor H}’att agreed with the essayist that other influences 
besides natural selection had led to the peculiarities among ani- 
mals inhabiting caves. 
Dr. R. T. Jackson called attention to certain results bearing on 
the origin of peculiarities of structure which he had observed in 
the Ostreidse. 
