peculiarity of position, from the living type only. He doubted whether the number of crinoid heads of all species found in Europe, now existing in the Museums of Europe, is one-third the number of those which have been found by a single gentleman in Tennessee in one morning. Now, with such materials, consider what precise and what minute investigations could be made. And if these facts could be once fully ascertained and well illustrated, there is no doubt that the series of crinoids, and their succession in former ages, will be established from American standards, and will no longer rest upon the European evidence, which has often been derived from the examination of small fragments of those ancient fossils, found in unconnected basins for the most part, so that their geological succession could be ascertained only with great doubt and difficulty. In conclusion, Professor Agassiz would venture to say, that geologists who have had any opportunity to compare the position of the ancient rocks on this continent of North America with the corresponding deposits of Europe, would agree with him in saying that the geology proper, the stratography of North America, will afford the same precise and well authenticated standards for the appreciation of the order of succession of rocks, as fossils will for the order of succession of living beings.--_American Annual of Scientific Discovery_, p. 282. Footnote 90: These fossiliferous remains were discovered in the carbonaceous and silurian strata of the State, and shew a wonderful development of that form of animal on the shores during the palæozoic period. Thirty-one genera, sixteen of which are considered by Professor Troost as new, are enumerated. 11. _Discovery of Coral Animals on the Coast of Massachusetts._--Professor Agassiz, while on an expedition in one of the vessels of the coast survey during the past summer, obtained by means of a dredge, from a depth of seventy-two feet, in the Vineyard Sound off Gay Head, several specimens of a coral with its animals. By great care and attention they were preserved alive in glass jars for more than six weeks, and afforded an excellent opportunity for an examination and observation of their structure and habits. These corals belong to the genus _Astrangia_, and have been named by Professor Agassiz, in honour of Professor Dana, geologist of the exploring expedition, Astrangia Dana. This species presents two varieties. Some are of a pink or rose colour, others are white. The general form of the animal is a cylinder (as of all Polypi) resting on its base, and expanded on the upper margin; thus expanded it is about two lines in diameter. The number of tentacles is definite, but it is not always the same absolute number. It never exceeds twenty-four; in earlier periods of life there are only twelve, and there is even an epoch when there are only six.