MIOCENE STRATA OF VIRGINIA. 
229 
ca date back to a period as remote as that of the Miocene 
strata. 
Of ten species of corals which I procured on the banks of 
the James River, one agrees generically with a coral now 
living on the coast of the United States. Mr. Lonsdale re¬ 
garded these corals as indicating a temperature exceeding 
that of the Mediterranean, and the 
shells would lead to similar conclu¬ 
sions. Those occurring on the James 
River are in the 37th degree of N. lat¬ 
itude, while the French faluns are in 
the 47th ; yet the forms of the Amer¬ 
ican fossils would scarcely imply so 
warm a climate as must have prevailed 
in France when the Miocene strata of 
Touraine originated. 
Among the remains of fish in these 
post-eocene strata of the United States 
are several large teeth of the shark 
family, not distinguishable specifically from fossils of the fa 
luns of Touraine. 
Astrangia lineata, Lonsdale. 
Syn. Anthophyllum lineatum. 
Williamsburg, Virginia. 
