Box 14, Folder 3: Coal 1861

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In addition to the report on the lead region, I shall have in my hands the reports of Col. Whittlesey for 1858 and 1860; these, however, are to be considered as reports of progress upon work yet unfinished, and to complete in detail the investigations in the Lake Superior region, will require much more time and means.

I append herewith the descriptions of some new species of fossils from the rocks of the lead region, which I am desirous of having printed in advance of the final report upon that part of the State. There are also some species from rocks of the age of the Niagara group in the eastern part of the State, which I wish to have printed as early as practicable.

I shall be able to render an account of expenditures in the survey, as soon as I shall receive the report and final account of Mr. Whittlesey, and the account of Mr. Hale.

Mr. Whitney has already been paid the full amount of his contract, $2,500. Mr. Whittlesey has received $1,000. I have drawn on account of engraving maps, etc. $500. These sums have been drawn from the unexpended or undrawn appropriation for the Geological Survey, the expenditure of which was directed at the last session of the Legislature.

In everything pertaining to the completion of the work in my charge, I have used my utmost endeavors to make the most efficient progress that the limited means at my disposal will permit, and to bring out the results in a satisfactory manner.

I have the honor to be Very respectfully, Your ob't servant, JAMES HALL State Geologist.

GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF WISCONSIN;

DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW SPECIES OF FOSSILS; FROM THE INVESTIGATIONS OF THE SURVEY;

To accompany the Report of Progress made to His Excellency, ALEXANDER W. RANDALL, on the 24th day of December, 1860

BY JAMES HALL, STATE GEOLOGIST AND PALAEONTOLOGIST.

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OBSERVATIONS UPON THE GENUS RECEPTACULITES, DE FRANCE; with notices of some new species:

A characterisic fossil of the Lead bearing beds, was referred by Dr. D. D. Owen in his Report on the Mineral Region of the Northwest, in 1844, page 40, to Coscinopara sulcata, of Goldfuss, and he gives a figure of the same, pl. 7, fig. 5. It is subsequently cited in his reports, and in the catalogue of fossils accompanying the "Geology of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota," (his last report upon that region,) the name is continued. This fossil however is clearly a RECEPTACULITES, and must be referred to that genus, I propose for it the name of Receptaculites Oweni.

In the report first mentioned (of 1844,) Dr. Owen figures on pl. 18, fig. 7, a fossil under the name of Orbitolites, reticulata. This name is not continued in the final list; but from similar specimens, I am constrained to refer this also to the genus RECEPTACULITES. In the report on the Geology of Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, 1852, page 586, Dr. Owen describes, under Foraminifera, a new genus SELENOIDES, which he says he at first supposed would be found to belong to the genus ORBITULINA. The following is the generic description given page 586:

SELENOIDES (n. g.)

Generic character. "It was supposed at first that this singular fossil from limestones of Lower Silurian date of Iowa, would fall into the genus ORBITULINA. But as D'Orbigny regards this genus as an unequal-sided Obitolites, in which one side is convex, incrusted, and showing numerous cells in oblique lines around the sides, it can hardly be grouped with it, as the Iowa fossil is umbilicated on one side, and the cellular, ring-shaped surface instead of being concave, is so convex as to form nearly a coiled cylinder. The other side being partly defaced in splitting it out of the rock, it is difficult to say whether it has a cellular surface similar to that shown in fig. 13, Tab. II. B., or concentric lines; what portion of it is visible rather indicates that the fossil was unequal-sided, not being umbilicated on the other surface; probably cellular, and not without concentric lines. There are no cup-shaped cells opening round the periphery, as in ORBITOLITES, which are said to be equal-sided ORBITULINAS."

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"For the above reasons, I think it will constitute a new genus, peculiar to the Lower Palaeozoic rocks. The horizontal section seems to present an internal arrangement of cells similar to those of Obitoides."

Under this genus is described as follows, page 587:

"SELENOIDES IOWENSIS, Pl. II B, fig. 13.

"Specific Character.--One side flatly dome shaped, the other ring shaped, enclosing an umbilicus or central depression. Small rhomboidal cells opening on the surface in curved rows, intersecting in arches; the cells gradually increasing in size from the inner margin to the periphery."

Having examined specimens of this fossil from the same locality as that figured by Dr. Owen, I am constrained to believe that this also is a species of RECEPTACULITES of different form from the prevailing one, and varying little if at all specifically from that figured under the name of Orbitolites reticulata, in 1844, before referred to.

In Palaeontology of New York, 1847, Vol. I, p.--, I described a species of RECEPTACULITES, referring it with doubt to the R. Neptuni of De France. The specimen is solid, partly weathered on one side, and furnishes only unsatifactory means of comparison and determination. More recently, Mr. Salter has studied a collection of specimens from Canada, which he regards as identical with the one figured by me, but differing from the European R. Neptuni, and proposes the name R. occidentatis for the Ameriman species.* In the volume referred to I also noticed and figured a fossil of discoid form with depressed centre; the weathered surface showing a reticulate texture; but the interior so entirely solid as to reveal no structure; and it could not be satisfactorily referred to any known genus at that time. Since knowing the western forms, I have become satisfied that this is generically and perhaps specifically identical with the fossil described by Dr. Owen as Selenoides Iowensis, which, when the surface is entire, has a similar reticulated structure. Its diameter is greater than any of the western specimens; but its condition does not admit of structural comparison.

In the study of the specimens collected in the lead region, I recognize four principal and prevailing forms of this genus; the most common and largest of which is the one originally referred to Coscinopora sulcata.

*Figures and descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains. Decade I, page 47-49, pl. 10.

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GENUS RECEPTACULITES---DE FRANCE. (as emended.)

Generic Characters.---Body consisting of an infundibuliform spreading disc, more or less concave at the centre, depressedorbicular, and globose. The spreading discoid forms consist of a range of vertical cells in single series; the orbicular discoid forms have radiated curving cells which are directed from the center or axis toward the margin, their length and curvature depending on the size and form of the mass; the foramina or cells in all the forms become larger as they recede from the centre to the periphery, and again become smaller, on the lower side, in the globose forms. Cells cylindrical, contracted below the aperture, and thickened or expanded above, with rhomboidal openings at each extremity. On one side the openings sometimes shows obsolescent rays; the interior walls of the cells are often striated as if preserving the remains of transverse septa.

In all these bodies the cells are arranged on curving lines which diverge from the center in a constantly enlarging circle; these are crossed by similar lines in an opposite direction, which thus leave quadrangular or rhomboidal spaces, "like the engine turned ornament of a watch."* The form of these apertures depend upon the degree of curvature, or upon the form of the mass to which the curvature of the cell lines will conform. In all cases, however, the cell is cylindrical beneath the exterior.

Since the cells vary in size at different distances from the center, the size of the cells in separate fragments, affords no means, alone, for specific determination.

Regarding the form and mode of growth, I have recognized the following species in the Galena limestone of the lead region.

RECEPTACULITES OWENI---HALL.

Coscinopora sulcata, (Goldfuss.) Owen, loc. cit., page 40.

Description.---Body consisting of a broad expanded disc, from four to twelve inches in width, and from one quarter to half an inch in thickness (rarely a little thicker). Surface undu lating with an abrupt funnel shaped depression in the center of the upper side, from which the cell rows radiate in curved lines.

*Salter, loc. cit. p.