108 'I'ln American Geologist. August, 1893 
NOTES ON SOME OF THE FOSSIL CORALS DE- 
SCRIBED BY DAVID DALE OWEN IN HIS RE- 
PORT OF WORK DONE IN THE AUTUMN 
OF 1859,* WITH OBSERVATIONS 
ON THE DEVONIAN SPECIES, 
PHILLIPSASTREA GIGAS 
OF LATER AUTHORS. 
Bj Samuel Calvin, Iowa City. 
The geologist who lias occasion to work over the ground 
covered by the investigations of Dr. I). I). Owen in the years 
from 1839 to 1852, must experience perpetual surprise that. 
considering the circumstances under which Dr. Owen carried 
mi his observations, so much geological work could have been 
done, and done so well. Another surprise awaits the investi- 
gator who sets about to determine the extent to which the 
fossil species described by Owen have been recognized by 
subsequent writers on paleontology. It is to be admitted that 
Owen's figures are sometimes very imperfect, and Ins descrip- 
tions arc sometimes distractingly brief and pointless; but, in 
the manner of descriptions at least, he followed thecustom of 
bis time, and was, in this respect, no greater sinner than many 
another whose specific names have heen honored hy the widest 
acceptance. In the work cited, which is essentially a reprint 
of the report published in 1S40. we have figures and descrip- 
tions of a number of corals from what Owen calls ••The Cor- 
alline Beds of the Upper Magnesian Cliff Limestone of Iowa 
and Wisconsin." The formation from which the corals under 
consideration were derived is now known throughout Iowa 
and Wisconsin as the Niagara Limestone. The figures given 
in illustration of the species described are. for their time, ex- 
ceptionally good, and the descriptions are not more defective 
than the average descriptions of the fourth or fifth decades of 
the present century. 
Collections from the horizons that furnished Owen's types 
will contain a number of species that may positively be iden- 
tified with the forms which he figures and describes. For 
example, Anthophyllum expansum Fig. 3, Plate xm, Cyatho- 
*Report of a Geological Exploration of part of Iowa, Wisconsin and 
Illinois, made under instructions from the Secretary of the Treasury 
of the United States, in the autumn of the year 1839, with charts and 
illustrations. By David Dale Owen, M. D. Ordered to be printed by 
the Senate of the United States, June 11, 18i4. 
