Accounts.

RULE 19. The Accounts of the Association shall be audited annually, by Auditors appointed at each meeting.

Alterations of the Constitution.

RULE 20. No Article of this Constitution shall be altered or amended without the concurrence of three-fourths of the members present, nor unless notice of the proposed amendment or alteration shall have been given at the preceding Annual Meeting.

It was then, on motion,

Resolved, That the Association will meet this afternoon at 4 o'clock.

Wednesday, September 20, 4 P. M.

At this hour the Association again assembled, and Prof. W. B. ROGERS, who, as Chairman of the last Annual Meeting, had thus far presided at the organization of the present, now introduced his successor, Wм. C. REDFIELD, Esq. President elect for the present year.

On taking the chair, Mr. Redfield expressed a diffidence in his ability to discharge satisfactorily the high duties which had been assigned to him, and on which he entered with unfeigned reluctance. He trusted, however, to the support and indulgence of the Association, for giving efficiency to his sincere desires and endeavours to fulfil the duties, which he only regretted had not fallen into abler hands. He distrusted his abilities to render so efficient aid to their deliberations, or to give so much satisfaction as the learned gentlemen who had preceded him in that office, but he would do his utmost in the station to which he had been called, and trust to the indulgence of his co-labourers for the result.

The President then declared the Association duly organized for the transaction of scientific business.

The first business before the Association, was the disposal of papers already entered on the docket, the reading to follow the order assigned by the Standing Committee.

The first paper read was by PETER A. BROWNE, LL.D., entitled

SOME NOTICE OF THE FOSSIL CEPHALOPODES BELEMNOSEPIA, LONG
KNOWN BY THe name of "BELEMNITE," AND OF THE DIPHOSPHATE
OF IRON, CALLED
66 MULLICITE," FOUND TOGETHER AT MULLICA
HILL.

A mineral substance is found at Mullica Hill, Gloucester County, New Jersey, to which has been given the name of Mullicite. Dr. Thompson, in the first volume of his Mineralogy, has described this substance in an imperfect manner, owing no doubt to his not possessing sufficient specimens. Having in my cabinet, a number of them which exhibit the mineral in all its phases, I am induced to point out some of its peculiarities, and to endeavour to show its origin.

It will be recollected, that the fossil, long known by the name of "Belemnite," has been recently shown to be a portion of the skeleton of a Cephalopodes, which for convenience sake may be described as consisting of 1st. A circular wall of a chamber, in which the living animal preserved a sac containing an inky fluid, which it ejected to destroy the transparency of the water, to enable it to escape its enemies. 2d. A number of conical shaped pieces fitting into each other, forming as many chambers, all communicating by a central opening. 3d. A solid, straight, conical-shaped, fibrous portion, terminating in a point, and perforated throughout by a central tube or siphuncle.

Perfect specimens of this skeleton, found fossil in England, may be seen in the cabinet of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; and drawings and a description may be consulted in Buckland's Geology and Mineralogy. The only portions found at Mullica Hill, appertain to sections No. 2 and 3 of the above description.

Mullica Hill belongs to the tertiary formation, and consists of small grained gravel and sand, bound together by hydrated peroxide of iron, which abound in fossils in various stages of preservation; some of these (so far only as it is necessary to understand the Mullicite,) I will now attempt to describe; at the same time exhibiting the specimens.

Specimen No. 1.-This is a mass of the above noticed gravel and ferruginous sand, loosely aggregated, containing A—a portion of the petrified remains of this so called Belemnite; showing its straight conical shell (No. 3,) of the length of 2 inches, and of the diameter of 4-10ths of an inch; the anterior portion is broken off, but the accuminated posterior one is exposed; also the central tube an inch long,

and as thick as a line. The colour is brownish-black. B is a conical shaped cavity in the mass, 3 inches deep, and 3-10ths of an inch in diameter, in which one of these fragments has been. F is another cavity, with a diameter of 2-10ths of an inch. C is a circular opening, disclosing a fragment of the same portion of a Belemnite, 3-10ths of an inch across, and having a central tube 1-10th of an inch in diameter; the colour is black. Immediately alongside of E, is a compressed cavity, in which may be seen the central tube, 3-10ths of an inch long, and 1-20th in diameter; the colour white. In several parts of this mass may be seen the fossil remains of shells, but they are too much decayed to be recognised. The above remains of Belemnite fragments are clustered at various angles, but all having a general direction of the anterior extremities towards what was the surface of the conglomerate in situ.

Specimen No. 2.-This is a mass of yellowish-red ferruginous sand of the size of 2 by 2 inches, enclosing the fossil remains of portions (No. 3) of five Belemnites. They are of a bluish-black colour, and of a vitreous lustre, and are about 3-10ths of an inch in diameter. M shows the accuminated posterior termination. C exhibits a small portion of the external surface of the skeleton. R has a longitudinal, white, central seam, but no central tube. All these are filled with a crystalline, mineral matter, of either a fibrous or lamellar structure, the fibres being stellated.

Specimens No. 3.-Here are three several fragments of the same portions of Belemnites, imbedded in the like sand. A is 2 inches long, and has a diameter of half an inch. The crystals are dark, bluish-black at one end, and ochreous-brown at the other. B is 1 inch and 3-10ths long, and 4-10ths of an inch in diameter, and is bluishblack throughout. C is 8-10ths long, and is fractured longitudinally, displaying the internal crystallization, and showing it to be lamellar; this fragment, therefore, probably belonged to portion No. 2, of the above division of the Cephalopodes.

Specimens No. 4.-Two isolated fossilized portions of No. 3 of Belemnites, both having the accuminated posterior terminations, but M having it most perfectly. O is encrusted with the ferruginous sand which has been removed from M. They are, respectively, about 2 inches long, and half an inch in diameter. The colour outside, ochreous-brown; the crystallization is lamellar distinct concretions, of a bluish-black colour.

Specimens No. 5.-Two fossilized, isolated portions of Belemnites, that have fallen out of the sand; they are 2 inches and 8-10ths long,

and 4-10ths to 5-10ths in diameter. The colour, dark bluish-black. N shows the accuminated posterior termination of portion No. 3, and one of the chambers of portion No. 2, at the other extremity. The crystallization of portion No. 2 is lamellar, and that of No. 3 is fibrous; the fibres radiating from the centre of the fossil.

Specimens No. 6.-These are fragments of fossilized portions of part No. 3. The colour and crystallization resemble those of specimens No. 5. The termination of A shows the stellated structure to perfection. D are twin fossils.

Specimens No. 7.-Here are eight fragments of the same portions of the skeleton, in various states of preservation. A exhibits a small part of portion No. 2. All these specimens are referable to the Cephalopodes Belemnosephia, the fragments of portions No. 2 and 3 of which have been denominated "Belemnites." It is probable that the portion No. 1 was more fragile, as more of them are found at Mullica Hill.

We come now to speak of a different kind of fossil.

Specimens No. 8—Are two crystallized masses of a conchoidal shape; one of them 2 and 3-10ths by 1 and 1-10th inches, the other 2 and 4-10ths by 1 and 7-10ths inches. The general figure is concavo-convex, and the appearances indicate that they emanated from bivalve shells. The colour is bluish-black, the crystallization lamellar, fasciculated, the bundles radiating; or lamellar and lanceolate, the lances stellated.

Specimens No. 9.-Three similar to No. 8, only of smaller dimen

sions.

Specimens No. 10.-Six fragments where the glabrous texture of the former shell is preserved. Colours, brown, blue, and cinerous. Specimen No. 11.-The cast of a fossil Grypha. Colour, brown. Specimen No. 12.-The fossil remains of an Ostrea; same colour as the last.

Numerous casts and fossils, such as the two last, are found at Mullica Hill, which enhance the probability that Specimens 8, 9, and 10, emanated from bivalves.

Specimens No. 13.-Groups of crystals, the fasciculated and concentric structure imparting an alated appearance. Sometimes the wings are so fascicled as to make the mass reticulated.

Specimens No. 14.-More varieties of the same.

Specimens No. 15.-Adnate and single crystals, showing the lamellar, lanceolate and filiform structure, and metallic colour.

Upon an examination, the mineral was found to be phosphate of iron.

From a comparison of these specimens, it is apparent that the "congeries of small needles," described by Dr. Thompson as radiating from the centre of the fossilized Belemnite, are not the true crystal of the mineral substance (diphosphate of iron), as he supposed, but are due to the former structure of portion No. 3, of the Cephalopodes.

When crystallization takes place in any of these fossils, except the portion No. 3, of the Cephalopodes, these congeries do not make their appearance. But I admit, that from the apex of the fossil remains of the bivalve shells, there is a tendency in the bundles of lamellar and lanceolate crystals to radiate, as may be seen in Nos. 8, 9, and 10.

In cases of the fossil remains of portions No. 2, of the Cephalopodes, wherever the mineral substance has had space sufficient to crystallize freely, the fibrous figure is lost in the lamellar structure. See No. 3, C.

At the time that the animals, whose fossil remains are now there found, were living inhabitants of Mullica Hill, the iron was disseminated in the ferruginous sand. As these animals, after dissolution, surrendered their phosphoric acid, it combined with the iron and water, forming the diphosphate of iron; and as the operations of decomposition and transmission were gradual, it is natural that the new mineral should take the structure and form of the former animal substance.

Phillips, in his Mineralogy, p. 210, speaking of blue iron (phosphate of iron), says, that in Siberia it is found in fossil shells, but he does not describe its crystallization.

The second paper read, was

ON THE IDENTITY OF THE ATOPS TRILINEATUS AND THE TRIARTHRUS BECKEI (GREEN), WITH REMARKS UPON THE ELIPTOCEPHALUS ASAPHOIDES. BY PROFESSOR E. EMMONS.

After the question of the identity of the two fossils had been reported upon by a committee of this Association, it may appear superfluous to bring up the subject again before this body; but inasmuch as a few individuals still maintain the opinion adverse to that expressed by the committee, and as other specimens, more perfect, have since come into my possession, I deem it proper to call the attention