198 [DECEMBER 
Serpents ;” which was referred to a Committee consisting om Major 
Le Conte, Prof. Haldeman and Dr. Leidy. 
Dr. Genth presented a paper, intended for publication in ale Pro- 
ceedings, entitled, “On a probably new “lement, with Iridosmene and 
%atinum, from California.’”’ Referred to Prof. Frazer, Dr. Le Conte 
and Dr. Bridges. 
Prof. Haldeman stated that he had seen, at the recent agricultural exhibition 
at Lancaster, Pa.,a pair of albzno specimens of Tamias lystert (or striata) ; also 
a black specimen of the same species; which w ould throw light upon the varieties 
of the grey squirrels, since it is more likely that these should have black varie- 
ties than the uniform species of Tamias. The specimen was black throughout, 
and there were no indications of the lateral stripes. A few scattered hairs of 
white might be observed on a close inspection. Prof. H. stated further that he 
had had an idiotie specimen of Sciurus Hudsonius, which had the actions of 
a human idiot. It was thus affected when caught, and was merely able to take 
its food, but incapable of running or leaping. Its principal actions were turning 
in a circle and moving the head up and down continually. 
December 28th. 
Vice-President BripGEs in the Chair. 
The Committee on Mr. Conrad’s papers, containing “ Remarks on the 
Tertiary Strata of St. Domingo and Vicksburg,” and ‘Notes on Shells, 
with descriptions of new species,” reported in favor of publication in 
the Proceedings. : 
Remarls on the Tertiary Strata of St. Domingo and Vicksburg, (Miss.) 
By T. A. Conran. 
The remarkable group of fossils which I discovered at Vicksburg, Miss., in 
1845, derives a new interest for the geologist since the discovery of an ‘analogous 
deposit in St. Domingo, in which are some few of the species of the Vicksburg 
strata. Whether all the forms of this group in St. Domingo are synchronous 
remains to be proved, but the probability is that they are. They have been 
referred to the Miocene period, whilst I had supposed that the Vicksburg 
strata were more intimately related to those of the Eocene period. I founded 
this supposition on the following data, viz: 
1. No recent species was known, or is yet ascertained to occur in this 
locality. 
2. Two or three fossil shells of the Older Eocene of Alabama are common. 
3. No species is identical with, and only two or three analogous to, fossil 
shells of the American Miocene, even as the group occurs in South Carolina, but 
little north of the latitude of Vicksburg. 
4. The forms have a closer analogy with those of the European Eocene than 
with any other group of fossils. 
It might be supposed that a more southern latitude would vary the Miocene 
species, but not that the percentage of recent shells would be reduced to zero, 
nor would an utterly dissimilar group be introduced. The only condition which 
would seem likely to produce such a result would be a great depth of water, in 
which the shells had lived and died on the bed of a profounder sea than we have 
elsewhere any evidence of; but this is not probable, because the presence of so 
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