POTSDAM SANDSTONE. 
Position and localities. This species is apparently confined to the Potsdam sandstone, 
though usually unassociated with any other fossil. It is found, though somewhat rarely, in 
the valley of Lake Champlain ; and it also appears in the partially altered sandstone of 
the same age, at the base of the Green Mountains, in Adams, Mass. Rolled masses of the 
same rock, containing this fossil, are not unfrequent in the eastern part of New-York. It 
occurs in the same sandstone in several localities in New-Jersey. In the sandstone of the 
same age on the Susquehanna, and at other places in Pennsylvania, this fossil is of frequent 
occurrence ; and it may be traced in the same rock, through Maryland and Virginia, to 
Tennessee. {State Collection.) 
2. 1. LINGULA PRIMA. 
Pl. I. Figs. 2 a, b. 
Lingula prima. Conrad. 
Obtusely oval or rounded, short, obtuse at both ends ; sides curved ; base rounded ; beak 
scarcely rising above the margin of the shell ; surface marked by faint concentric lines and 
sometimes a few concentric wrinkles, and fine longitudinal strife. In some specimens, the 
concentric and longitudinal striae are equally distinct, while in others the longitudinal striae 
are more distinct. 
In its form and general aspect, this shell bears considerable resemblance to L. curta of 
the Trenton limestone and Utica slate ; but that shell is usually larger, less obtuse at the 
beak, with strong concentric striae, while the longitudinal ones are indistinct or obsolete. 
Position and localities. This fossil is for the most part rare even in the Potsdam sandstone, 
though at Keeseville in Essex county it is quite abundant, forming distinct laminae in the 
rock, like films of carbonaceous matter. It extends, according to Dr. Emmons ( Gcol. Rep. 
p. 268), through a thickness of seventy feet of the rock at this place. It occurs also at 
Rosse’s bridge, four miles west of Essex village, Essex county. {State Collection.) 
3. 2. LINGULA ANTIQUA* (n. sp.). 
Pl. I. Figs. 3 a, b, c, d, e. 
Elongated, subspatulate, rapidly tapering towards the beak ; sides usually straight, 
sometimes abruptly curved ; front broadly rounded ; surface marked by concentric lines ; 
no visible longitudinal striae. 
* The figure given by Prof. Emmons {Geological Report, p. 268) as Lingula antiqua of the Potsdam sandstone, 
is the L. acuminata (Conrad, Annual Report of 1839, p. 64) of the Calciferous sandrock, and is not known to me 
as a fossil of the Potsdam sandstone. The original specimen from which the figures were taken, in the collection of 
Mr. Vanuxem, bears a close resemblance to L. attenuata of Murchison’s Silurian System, p. 641, pi. 22, fig. 13. 
1 * 
