Note on the occurrence of <I>Productus giganteus</I> in California

46 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM.

I

was

unableto procure evenaspecimen oftliesalmon, butobtained enoughsmelts to forward,

some

excellent specimensto Washington.

Very

respectfully, yourobedientservant,

JAMES

G.

SWAK.

Prof.

Spencer

F.

Baird,

United States Commissioner Fish andFisheries, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.

p. S.

—

^{I omittedto mention that thesurf-smelt are}

common

^inallthe

salt waterof

Paget

Sound, but Ihave not heard of an instancewhere they run

up

fresh-water streamsto spawn,likethe easternsmelt.

J. G. S.

1VOTE OIV

THE OCCUKREIVCE OF IPRODUCTUS GIGAIVTEUS

liV CAI..

IFORi'VIA.

By

C. A.

^WMITE.

Among

a smallcollectionoffossilssenttothe National

Museum by

Mr.

Ludwig

Kumlien,oftheUnitedStatesFishCommission,fromthe valley of

McCloud

Eiver, ShastaCounty,California,arethreeorfour largeex- am])lesof Productus,whichI

am

unableto distinguish fromP.giganteus Martin sp.,the well-known typespecies ofthegenusasitis extensively

known

in

European

strata.

They

arepreserved in a hard,dark-colored, argillaceous rock, which is partlymetamorphosed,

and

they are, there- fore,

somewhat

imperfect; butportionsof

them show

thecharacteristics of thespecies veryplainly.

The

largest of theseCalifornian examples was,

when

perfect, quite equal in size tothe largerEuroi>ean examples ofP:giganteus, having

had

a transverse diameter nearthe hinge of not lessthan 140millimeters, or 5J^inches.

A

^{smallcollectionoffossils}

was

sent

by

mailfromthe

same

localityin 1877

by

Mr. Livingston Stone, the speciesof which were recognized as of Carboniferous age,but P. giganteus

was

not

among

them, although thelater collections indicatethat they occurin the

same

strata. These associated forms of both collections are too imi)erfectlypreserved for specitic determination,but the generaFcnestella,Streptorhynchus, Spiri- gera Camarophoria, Allorisma,

and

Eiiomphalus are

more

or less satis- factorily recognized.

They

all together plainly indicate tho Carbonif- erous age of the strata from which they come, which fact

was

also l)reviously

known

throughthe reports ofTrask

and

Whitney.

This, so tar as I

am

aware, is the first discovery of P. giganteus in

American

strata. Itis not alittle remarkable that it slioidd befotind inthe westernportion of the continent

and

notin themiddle andeast- ernportions, where the Carboniferous system is sowell,developed,

and

where

several

European

speciesof Carboniferousbrachiopodaare recog- nized.

PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 47

Fig._1, on Plate ,represents one ofthe examples referredto, the principal portion oftliefigureshowinga naturalcast ofthe dorsalvalve, with the

nmbonal

portion of the ventralvalve. In this figure thefull length of the shellfromback to frontis not shown, butit is represented inthe acconiijanying diagram, Fig-. 2.

Washington,

D.

C,

December3, 1879.

NOTE OX ACKOTHEIiE.

By

C. A.

\%^HITE.

Among

thefossilscollectedfromPiimordialstrata atAntelopeSpring, Southern Utah,

by

Mr. G. K. Gilbert

and

Mr. E. E. Howell,

who

were then connectedw^ith the exi^lorations

and

surveys west of the 100th meridian,were a

number

of examples of adiscinoid brachiopod. This form Idescribed

and

figuied* under the

name

of Acrotretaf subsidua, referring ittothat genusprovisional!}'. JSToue of theexamples werein a conditionto

show

all the generic characters clearly, butcertain fea- tures in theseshells indicated their i^ossession of importantdifferences from

any

genus then established

and

led

me

to suggest that they prob- ablyrepresented a

new

generictype. Inthe

same

year, 187G, Prof. G.

Linnarsson, ofStockholm, Sweden, publishedt a

new

genericform from the Primordial rocks of Sweden, under the

name

ofAcrothele^ which plainlyincludes Acrotreta? subsiduaWhite. ProfessorLinnarssondes cribed

two Swedish

speciesunderthis generic

name

(A. coriacea

and

A.

granulata),

and

in 1870 he published a third species underthe

name

of A. intermedia,^but A. siibsidua is at present the only

known American

species. Itisnot unlikely,however,that

some

of the

American

^species heretofore referred to])isci)ia willbefound tobelong to Acrothele.

Washington,

D.

C,

February1, 1880.

DESCRIPTIOiV OF A NEW CKETACEOIS

PIIVIVA

FROm TiEW MEXICO.

By

C. A.

IVHITE.

Pinna stevensoni.

Shell large, elongate-triangular in marginal outline; valves moder- ately convex; the convexity being slight

and

nearly uniform poste- riorly,but

much

greatertoward the front,whereit

amounts

toan obtuse median angularity

upon

each valve,

and

wheie a transverse section of theshell has an approximatelyregular rhombic outline; upperborder

*Expl. ami^Siir.WestoftlielOOtli Merit!.,Vol.IV,p.34, pi.I, fig.3,a, b, c,audd.

tBihangtillk.Svenska Vet. Akad Handliugar,Baud3, No. 12, p. 20, pi.IV,figs.

44-52.

tSvcriges Geologiska Uudersokuiug; Ser. C. Afhaud. ock Upps. No. 35, p.25, pi.

iii, figs.40-44.