them with firmness; but in upholding them he never descended to personalities, and no word was ever uttered by him that left a sting on the memoroy of his opponent, even when vanquished. He was wise and learned, a kind and true friend, an exemplary citizen, and, best of all, an honest man.
The motion was unanimously adopted by a rising vote.
The first title on the printed program was passed over, and the following paper was presented:
THE EURYPTERUS BEDS OF OESEL AS COMPARED WITH THOSE OF NORTH AMERICA.
BY DR. FRIEDRICH SCHMIDT, OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA.
(Abstract.)
One of the uppermost divisions of the Silurian system of the state of New York and western Canada, the Waterlime group, is characterized by a peculiar fauna of large crustaceans, Eurypterus, Pterygotus, Ceratiocaris, etc. It has already been said by Sir Rhoderick Murchison that this fauna shows a great resemblance to similar crustacean faunas of the uppermost Silurian strata of Great Britain, the shales of Lesmahago in Lanarkshire and in some places near Ludlow, where the crustaceans are associated with a small Lingula, the characteristic Platyschisma helicites, and divers fish remains.
But still greater seems to be the resemblance of the American Waterlime fauna to our Eurypterus beds of the island of Oesel, in the eastern Baltic, because the most characteristic forms of both localities are two very nearly allied species of Eurypterus—the E. remipes of America and the E. fischeri, Eich., with us. Besides the Eurypterus, we have a large Pterygotus, the P. osiliensis (aff. P. bilobus, Salt.), two species of Bunodes, Eich. (connected with the English Hemiaspis), and a large Ceratiocaris, the C. nötlingi, similar to the C. maccoyanus of America.
Last summer a local collector, Mr. Simonsohn, of Wenden, in Livonia, found the metastoma of the genus Dolichopterus, hitherto only known from the American Waterlime; and so the resemblance between the American and Russian eurypterids becomes greater.
The most famous locality of our Eurypterus beds is Rootzikull, near Kielkond. Here, besides the crustaceans, we have also found fish remains—two cephalaspidean genera, Thyestes, Eich., and Tremataspis, described some years ago by Eichwald, Pander and myself. Now we have better specimens, which will be described soon by Dr. I. Rohon, of St. Petersburg, who has also lately described the first real fish remains of the Lower Silurian, from the greensand at the base of the Silurian, at Wessiks.[1] These Eurypterus beds, consisting mostly of yellow dolomitic flagstones, are overlain by thin marly deposits, only a few inches thick, filled with small
- ↑ Some of the Eslonic country people at Rootzikull know how to get the Eurypterus out of the limestone, and Mr. Simonsohn, who now spends every summer there, will be ready to furnish geologists with good specimens.
