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PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF 
doned. On critical comparison between actual specimens, it has appeared 
that the differences—some of which have always been admitted—are of too 
• important ai-character to permit the identificationiormerly assumed. On the 
other hand, the following paper discloses an extended network of identifica¬ 
tions amongst the fossils from States west of Pennsylvania. But perhaps the 
most interesting featytu;e*of all is the identification of four western species with 
fQSsilfej’contaftmd m the supposed carboniferous conglomerate of western New 
York. These ar e Euomphalus depressus , Hall, C= Straparollus Ammon, White), 
Cypricardia contracta, Hail, (= Edmondia ? bicarinata , Winchell), Edmondia 
oequirnfargimlis, Win., and Alloruma Hannibalensis, Shumard.* Considering 
the small number of fossils as yet discovered in this conglomerate, in New 
York—and these only at one locality (four miles north of Panama, Chautau- 
que County)—so considerable a number of identifications is calculated to ex¬ 
cite some surprise, and not a little hope, that we are getting glimpses of the 
clue to a solution of geological difficulties of long stan’ding. 
But further than this, two of the above species— Edmondia cequimarginalis 
and Allorisma Hannibalensis —occur in what has been regarded as another con¬ 
glomerate, whose position is beneath the first and at the top of the Chemung 
rocks of Western New York. 
In the light of these identifications, and in the absence of all identifications 
between western species and those of the Chemung, as well as between the 
species of this conglomerate and those of the Chemung, it might not seem un¬ 
reasonable to doubt its affinities with recognized Chemung rocks, and to sus¬ 
pect its continuity with the supposed “carboniferous conglomerate,” until 
observation shall have demonstrated that its ^'tratigraphical position is really 
below that formation. And further, since we fnust probably abandon the at¬ 
tempt to coordinate the Chemung of New York with the fossiliferous portions 
.of the sandstones and shales of the west lying between the “ Black Slate ” 
and the coal conglomerate, it stems not unlikely that we may yet be able to 
prove the conglomerates of Western New York to be the attenuated and lit¬ 
toral eastern prolongation of those western sandstones and shales—at least 
. of .the superior and fossiliferous portions of them ; so that the latter would 
Stand as a hitherto unrecognized group of strata lying at the very base of the 
carboniferous system ; while the Chemufttg rocks of New York fall within the 
, Devonian system, toward which the writer is now inclined to think that their 
paleontological affinities attract them. 
It yet remains to determine by observations in the field, whether the so- 
called “ carboniferous conglomerate” of Western New York is really the equi¬ 
valent of the coal conglomerate of Ohio ; and whether any actual junction of 
superposition can be discovered in Western Pennsylvania or Eastern Ohio, be¬ 
tween the Chemung rocks in their westward prolongation and the finegrained 
sandstones and gritstones of the Western States. 
The total number of species at present described from the rocks under con¬ 
sideration is about 379, of which 170 were first described by the writer, and 
four have been recognized as belonging to undescribed genera. The number 
of species noticed in the present paper is 94, of which 36 are described as new 
species, and two are made the types of new genera. 
Descriptions and Notes of Species. 
CONOPOTERIUM n. gen. 
Etymology. K^vo?, a cone , and 7rom^iov, a little cup. 
Generic Characters . Corallum compound, generally free, sometimes adhe¬ 
rent, but without a distinct base of attachment. Cells somewhat crowded, 
* The writer is under special obligations to Prof. Hall for the unreserved liberality with 
which he has been allowed to examine the specimens in his cabinet, as well as for many kind¬ 
nesses incident to the .generous hospitality of his house. 
[J“b> 
