THE NATURAL SCIENCE JOURNAL. 
85 
to be attached to such differences of 
structure. 
The name Strophomena is permanently 
attached to S. alternata and cannot be 
taken away by the fluctuations in the 
position of S. rugosa. 
OU THE OOOUEEEHOE OF A FOSSIL 
LAKE IN NEW JEESEY, WITH MA- 
EINE BAOILLAEIA IN IT 
Prof. Arthur M. Edwards, M. D., 
Newark, N. J. 
HE occurrence of a fossil lake in 
New Jersey, and a lake with or¬ 
ganic fossils in it, seems phenomenal. 
But it is a fossil lake, only swampy 
ground now remaining and the fossil or¬ 
ganic remains are those of the Diatoma- 
cm of the mincroscopist. 
The remains of a lake which occurred 
in the glacial period was recorded by 
Prof. G. H. Cooke in the Annual Report 
of New Jersey for 1880, and he called it 
Lake Passaic. But it was problematical; 
the survey had not made enough investi¬ 
gations to prove it was true. Even 
when Prof. R. D. Salisbury stated that 
it occurred, in 1893, the statement was 
doubted, for the data gathered was still 
uncertain, and organic fossils were not 
stated to be there. 
Lake Passaic is rather long and does 
not end to the north in any definite 
place. Hence it seems to be uncertain 
exactly where it ends. But the lake 
which I have now to describe, and which 
I have called Lake Cartaret from the first 
Governor of New Jersey, is definite, for 
I can locate it exactly. Besides it is not 
half as long as Prof. Salisbury’s hypo¬ 
thetical lake and is wider in the extreme. 
On the other hand it holds fossil shells 
f Bacillaria in it. And strange to say 
some of these are marine now and exist 
all along the coast. Mixed with the ma¬ 
rine and occupying the larger part are 
undoubted fresh water forms. 
Up to 1893, the occurrence of certain 
“species” as they are called, in fresh 
water, in brackish water or in salt water 
of the ocean was held to be indicative of 
a true “ species ” so called. 
Thus Navicula elliptica was found in 
fresh water, and hence was considered a 
good “ species.” Soon afterward it was 
found to occur in the ocean, and thus it 
was called on account of the mode of 
occurrence, Navicula Smithii. 
Afterwards it was seen in brackish 
water and was named differently. This 
was the case with other so-called “ spe¬ 
cies.” And it came to be distinguished 
by locality, not appearance of form at 
all. It was enough to find a form in a 
certain place to rank it therefore as a 
“ species ” and give it a name. 
The term species was limited to its 
natural history usage in the end of the 
17th century by John Ray. This con¬ 
ception of “specific characters ” rested 
not only on close and constant resem¬ 
blance in outward form, but also on the 
likeness of offspring to parent, a con¬ 
siderable measure of variability being 
however recognized. Amongst subse¬ 
quent authors this conception of common 
descent or parentage became more and 
more prominent, while the progress of 
successful definition of species made the 
limits of their variability seem always 
narrower and of less importance, and in 
this way the useful conception of the tol¬ 
erable definiteness of species gradually 
crystallized into the absolute dogma of 
their fixity. Thus Linnmus in the Philo- 
sophica Botanica gave the aphorism 
