WHITE, C.A.

...On marine Eocene, freshwater Miocene and other fossil 

Mollusca... 1885.

¥58

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A. D V 1C JR, T I S K M E N" T.

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To THE DIRECTOR OF THE

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY,

Washington, D. 0. 

WASHINGTON, D. C., May 20,1885.

DEPARTMENT OF THE 1STEEIOE

BULLETIN

OK THE

UNITED STATES

GEOLOGICAL SURYEY

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PKINTING OFFICE 

1885

UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY

J. W. POWELL DIRECTOR

MARINE EOCENE FRESH WATER MIOCENE

AND OTHER FOSSIL MOLLUSCA

WESTERN NORTH

CHARLES A. WHITE M. IX

WASHINGTON

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE

isss

CONTENTS.

The Occurrence of Cardita planicosta Lamarck in Western Oregon............ 7

Fossil Mollusca from the John Day group in Eastern Oregon.................. 10

tlnionidte ...........^................................................... 13

Helicidai ............................................................... 14

'Supplementary Notes on tlio Non-Marine Fossil Mollusca of North America.'... J.7

Additions............................................................... 17

Corrections ................. ............................................ 18

Index ...................................................................... 21

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PLATE I. Cardita planicosta ............................................. 7

PLATE II. Unio coudoni................................................... 13

PLATH: TIL Hel icida)....................................................... 14

FIGURE 1. Zaptychius carbonaria.

2. Physa prisca.

3. Auipullaria? powelli. 

3a. Operculmn of tlie same.

ON FOSSIL MOLLUSCA OF WESTERN NORTH

AMERICA.

By CHARLES A. WHITE

THE OCCURRENCE OF CARD1TA PLANICOSTA [LAMARCK 

IN WESTERN OREGON.

There is probably no species among all the known fossil rnollusca 

concerning the geological age of which paleontologists are more in accord than Carditaplanicosta Lamarck. It is a well-known form in the 

European Eocene, and it is quite as characteristic of the Eocene of our 

Atlantic and Gulf borders as of the Eocene of Europe. The European 

and the American specimens differ so little from each other that no one 

now pretends to question their specific identity. Both the European 

and the American strata furnish specimens of this species in abuu-- 

dance and great perfection, so that all the characteristics of the shell 

are well known. Its range of variation is not great, being mainly apparent in the extent of the obliquity of the axis and in the varying 

distinctness of definition of the ribs and their interspaces. In some 

cases the ribs upon the anterior part of the shell are broadly convex 

and the interspaces there are narrow and not sharply defined from the 

ribs at their sides. In the case of a lew examples these characteristics 

are found to extend to other parts of the shell, but usually the ribs are 

more, flattened and the interspaces are in the form of more or less 

sharply defined grooves between the ribs. In some cases the ribs and 

separating grooves are distinctly defined all the way from the beaks to 

the free borders of the valves; but in others the ribs and grooves, while 

they are well defined upon the umboual and median portions of the 

valves, become obsolete before reaching their free borders. The character of the variation to which the surface markings of this species are 

thus seen to be subject is such that if it becomes excessive in any group 

of examples it is suggestive of a specific difference. The hinge is massive and constant in its characteristics.

Mr. Conrad recognized this species among the collections which were 

obtained some thirty years- ago, by parties connected with the Pacific 

Kailroad surveys,1 from strata in California which have since received

1 See Pacific Railroad Reports, Vol. V, pp. 317-329.

(171) 7
8 FOSSIL MOLLUSCA OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. I.IJULL. 1.8.

the name of the Tejon group. This group was referred to the Cretaceous period by the geologists of the State Geological Survey of California, but I have elsewhere given my reasons for regarding it as of 

Eocene age,2 as Conrad, Marcon,3 Heilprin,4 and others have also done. 

The California Cardita just referred to, Mr. Gabb regarded as specifically distinct from C. planicosta, and he gave it the name of C. hornii.5 

I have seen only fragments of the California form, but judging from 

these and Mr. Gabb's description and figures I am inclined to regard 

it as a va^ety of Cardita planicosta, differing from the typical form only 

in the unusual broad convexity of all, instead of a part, of its ribs. The 

difference between the California specimens and the typical form of C. 

planicosta, as was shown by Mr. Gabb, consists mainly or wholly in this 

character of the ribs and their interspaces, and this I believe to be a 

case of extreme variation of Cardita planicosta which is not incompatible with specific identity.

Some specimens of Cardita which I am unable to distinguishspecifically 

from C. planicosta have been lately received at the office of the Survey 

which were obtained from strata that are perhaps equivalent with those 

which bear C. hornii, and which appear to me to be intermediate between 

typical examples of that species and C. hornii. These specimens were 

collected by Prof. Thomas Coudon, at tiie town of Albany, in the 

Willamette Valley, Oregon. They are numbered 13405 in the Catalogue 

of the U. S. National Museum. The stratum which contains these shells 

is an indurated dark colored shale, which was found a few feet beneath 

the surface of the ground in digging a cistern at Albany.

Unfortunately neither this stratum nor any known equivalent of it 

has been recognized elsewhere, and as the stratum was not exposed at 

the surface where the discovery was made, and the digging was not continued through it, nothing is definitely known of its stratigraphical relations. Strata which bear characteristic Miocene fossils are found in the 

valley of the Willamette only a few miles away, but so far as I am 

aware no strata have hitherto been found in any part of Oregon which 

bear Cardita planicosta, nor any nearly related form. Unfortunately, 

also, although a dozen or more of the shells of the Cardita were obtained, only a few fragments of other shells were found associated with 

them. Some of these apparently represent a species of Crassatella, but 

further than this they have yielded no definite information.

Three of the valves found at Albany are represented on Plate I. 

These specimens have been chiseled out of the matrix in which they 

were embedded, and their natural surface has therefore been somewhat 

injured, but enough remains in its natural condition to give a fair illus2 See Bull. U. S. Geol. Survey, No. 15.

3 See Bull, de la Socie"te" Ge~ologique de France (3), T. XI, 1883, pp. 407-435.

4 Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Pliila. for 1882, pp. 195-214; also Cont. Ter. Geol. and Paleont. U.S., pp. 102-116. 

' 6 Paleontology of California, I, p. 174, PL 24, Fig. 157; also II, p. 187,P1. 30,Fig. 83.

(172)
WHITE.]. CAEDITA PLANICOSTA. 9

tration of the surface characters of the shell. The vertical diameter of 

two of these illustrated specimens is proportionally less as compared 

with the transverse diameter* than is usual with typical examples of 

C. planicosta, but that of one of them is not, and several of the other 

associated specimens have also the usual dimensions. None of the 

Oregon specimens show the hinge in a sufficiently perfect condition to 

afford a good figure of it, but some of them exhibit the hinge characters 

so plainly as to make it evident that this far western shell does not differ in respect to the hinge from the typical examples of Cardita planicosta. I do not therefore hesitate to refer it to that species.

The discovery of these shells in Western Oregon possesses more than 

ordinary interest for several reasons. First, it adds materially to our 

knowledge of the already known wide geographical range of Cardita 

planicosta. Second, it is (if we except the Cardita hornii of Gabb) the 

first recognition of that species in the Pacific coast region that has been 

made. Third, Cardita planicosta being regarded by all paleontologists 

as of Eocene age, its discovery in Oregon indicates the existence there 

of the Eocene formation, of which no other indication is now known. 

It is not improbable that the stratum from which these fossils were 

taken represents a portion of the Tejon group of California. No evidence of it, however, is at present known other than that which is suggested in the preceding paragraphs and by the probability that the 

Oregon specimens and the C. hornii of Gabb are only varieties of Cardita planicosta.

(173)
FOSSIL MOIiLUSCA FROM THE JOHN DAY GROUP IN EASTERN OREGON.

Some two years ago Prof. E. D. Cope placed in ray hands a small 

collection of fossil mollusks, which were obtained by Mr. Jacob L. 

Wortman, of the Army Medical Museum, from a lacustrine deposit 

in Eastern Oregon which has come to be known as the John Day group. 

Professors Leidy,6 Marsh,7 and Cope 8 have described vertebrate fossils 

from that deposit, which has been referred by those authors to the Miocene ; and by Professors Leidy and Cope it has been regarded as equivalent with the White River group of Dakota. Mr. King regarded it as 

equivalent with his Truckee $roup,9 which occurs in the valley of Snake 

River, in Southeastern Oregon, aud also in Northern Nevada.

Last summer, also, Prof. Thomas Condon, of the University of Oregon, presented to ihe Survey a small collection of shells which he 

obtained from the John Day group at or near the same locality as that 

from which Professor Cope obtained his specimens. Professor Condon 

found those shells associated with the vertebrate fossils which were described by Professor Leidy (loc. cit.), and Mr. Wortmau also found the 

mollusks associated in the same layers with the vertebrate remains. 

Upon Prof. Couclon's label accompanying these shells he designates the 

locality as "the North Fork of John Day River, Oregon, at the angle of 

the big bend, longitude 119° 40', latitude 44° 50'. Professor Condon's 

collection embraces the same species which Professor Cope's con:ained, 

but no others.

These collections contain one, and perhaps two, species of Unio and 

four or five species of pulmonate gasteropods, which latter 1 refer to 

the Helicidas; but no other invertebrate forms were found associated 

with them. The John Day deposit being of lacustrine origin one could 

not expect to find it containing the remains of an extensive inolluscan 

fauna, as compared with the faunas of marine deposits; but these 

small collections do not embrace so wide a variety of forms as lacustrine faunas usually present. No gill-bearing, nor palustral pulraonate 

gasteropods are found among them, and all bivalve mollusks, except 

the Uuiones which have just been mentioned, are also absent. It is 

therefore quite apparent, from,a zoological point of view, that these 

collections represent only a part, aud probably only a small part, of the

 6 See Vol. I, U. S. Geol. and Geog. Survey of the Terr., 1873. 

7 See American Journal of Science, Vol. IX (3), p. 52. 

8 See Vol. Ill, U. S. Geol. Survey of the Terr., 1884. 

9 See U. S. Geol. Expl. 40th Parallel, Vol. I, p. 423.

10 (174)
wHiTB.1 FOSSILS OF THE JOHN DAY GROUP. 1 1

land and fresh water rnolluscan fauna which existed in and about the 

lake in which the John Day strata were deposited.

The Uniones of these collections are of the plain oval, uuoruamented 

type, such as is common to the fresh-water deposits of all the epochs 

from the Cretaceous period to the present time. The land snails, which 

are represented on Plate III, are not only of modern types, but at least 

three of the species are, in my opinion and that of Dr. E. B. C. Stearns, 

too near like living forms to warrant one itf giving them new specific 

names.

It is so apparent, from the evidence furnished, that these fossil forms 

represent the living species ancestrally that one may reasonably make 

the same use of them,0 with reference to their genetic history, as if the 

continuity of that history were known by actual observation. These 

forms, whose genetic history and specific identity have so evidently been 

continued in unbroken lines from the John Day epoch to the present time, 

have endured remarkable vicissitudes of physical conditions as well as 

considerable geographical dispersion since Miocene time. Some of the 

changes which have taken place in that region since then are very remarkable. One of the greatest volcanic outflows which the earth has 

known, covering thousands of square jpiles with melted rock and forming 

the great mountains of the Cascade range, occurred in and near tbat region since those rnollusks lived upon the borders of the John Day lake. 

The Glacial epoch has come and gone since then, and an immense 

subaerial erosion has taken place over the whole region, the extent of 

which one cannot comprehend without witnessing its results. Not a 

mammalian species or genus now exists indigenously upon the North 

American continent that existed then, and all other vertebrate forms of 

continental life have materially changed; but living descendants of 

those land snails are thriving to-day in the same region and under the 

same specific forms that their remote ancestors bore.

TheTruckee group, which King referred to the Miocene, and which has 

already been mentioned, also contains a small molluscan fauna all the 

members of which belong to other families than those which are represented by the mollusca of the John Day deposit which are at present 

known. 10 It may be that none of the species which are known to exist 

in one of these groups will ever be found in the other; but that representatives of the families which are missing from each may yet be found 

in the other is to be expected, because those missing families are such 

as are usually represented in lacustrine waters. The probabilities that 

the laud mollusca of the John Day deposit may yet be found in the 

Truckee and other Miocene deposits of Western North America are, 

in my opinion, greater tban that any of the gill-bearing mollusca of one 

should be found in the other if, as is supposed, those deposits .were

10 See Proc. U. S. Nat. Museum, V, pp. 99-102, PL V; also Third Annual Eeport of 

the U. S. Geological Survey, PI. XXXII.

(1.75)
12 FOSSIL MOLLtJSCA OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. [BULL. is.

formed in separate hydrographies basins ; because the distance between 

those supposed,basins was not so great as to prevent the free dispersion 

of land mollusks across the intervening space.

It is true that the fauna of the Truckee group contains types of gillbearing rnollusca which are now extinct upon this continent; but tbis 

does not necessarily prove that it is older than the John Day fauna, because a considerable part of the living fresh-water types of North American mollusks are known to extend back to much earlier epochs.11 I 

have elsewhere shown the probability that the latter had direct and 

continuous fluvatile habitat from those early times to the present, while 

the Truckee fauna probably lived in a lake whose, waters were not continued in fluvatile streams to the present time, as other lacustrine 

waters were, after they had ceased to exist as a lake by the deepening 

of its outlet. The Truckee hydrographic basin, with its gill-bearing 

molluscan fauna, was probably destroyed as a result of the changes 

which attended the great volcanic outflows which have just been referred to, while contemporaneous, and even older, lacustrine waters, 

further eastward, were perpetuated in a fluvatile condition to the present time.

Whether the John Day, Truckee^ and other lacustrine deposits which 

have been referred to the Miocene epoch were all really synchronous 

or not, must be shown by other evidence than that which the remains 

of mollusca, and especially land mollusca, have yet furnished, or that 

they are ever likely to furnish. The facts to which I have alluded show 

that during a part, and probably all, of the epochs which have passed 

since the closing portion of the Cretaceous period, quite dissimilar gillbearing molluscan faunas existed contemporaneously upon the North 

American continent, a part of which faunas were closely related to living faunas and a part were not. Therefore such dissimilarity does not 

necessarily prove a difference of age. Again, a considerable proportion of the fresh-water and land mollusca now living in North America 

belong to tpyes which have been found fossil in the later Cretaceous, 

earliest Tertiary, and in subsequent strata; and some of the forms 

which have lived in these different epochs are so nearly like living 

species that they cannot be satisfactorily separated from them. Therefore such forms alone cannot be relied upon to prove the synchronous 

origin of the formations which respectively contain them.

It is evident that e ver since land mollusca existed they have been 

very slow to change, even as regards their specific forms, and in all 

those continental areas whose fluvatile systems have been preserved 

through a series of epochs, the fresh-water gill-bearing mollusca also 

have been almost as slow to change as the land mollusca have been. 

Although the value of the fossil remains of land and fresh-water mollusca is thus seen to be much less than that of the fossil remains of ma11 See Third Annual Report U. S. Geological Survey, pp. 481-486.

(176)
WHITE J JOHN DAY GROUP UXIONID^E. 13

riue rnollusca, as indices of the geological age of the strata containing 

them, they are still of much value in local geology, and they are of great 

importance in biological investigations.

Few as they are, the representatives of the JohirDay molluscan fauna, 

which are illustrated on Plates II and III, possess a good degree of 

interest in several respects. They not only all belong to types which 

are now living in or near the same region where the fossil forms are 

found, but a part of the latter are so nearly like living species that, as 

before said, I have not thought it advisable to separate them. The 

species are all different from any that have hitherto been know in a fossil condition. The extraordinary physical changes which have taken 

place in that region since Miocene time seem not to have interrupted 

the continuous existence there of the large and varied land molluscan 

fauna which existed in the John Bay epoch. Nearly related as are 

these fossil forms to living land mollusca, they are found associated 

Avith mammalian remains wiich belong to extinct species, genera, and 

families, and it is theiefore by means of the latter that their antiquity 

is shown.

OTIONIDJ3.

Geuus UNIO KETZIUS.

Uiiio condoni, sp. nov.

(Plato II, Figs. 1, 2, and 3.)

Shell transversely subelliptical in marginal outline, short in front of 

the beaks, elongate, and narrowing behind them to the posterior end; 

valves moderately, but somewhat irregularly convex; basal margin 

nearly straight, but having a slight emargination a little behind the 

mid-length; front margin regularly rounded; dorsal margin broadly 

convex; posterior margin sloping backward and downward above, and 

narrowly rounded below; beaks broad, depressed, and situated near 

the front of the valves, often much -eroded; umbonal region broad and 

prominent. Surface plain except that upon the antero-basal portion of 

each valve a number of crenulated radiating lines appear. (Museum 

No. 13404.) °

Length, 90 millimeters; greatest height, 53 millimeters.

The specimens are all in a damaged condition, so that all the specific 

characters have not been clearly ascertained. . The relative length and 

height of the shell appears to be subject to considerable variation, 

which is probably due in part to sex and in part to difference in age, 

the young, in all cases, having been proportionally shorter than the 

adult shells. A conspicuous feature of this species is its broad, prominent umbones, rising above the depressed beaks. The extensive erosion which the beaks of most of the specimens have suffered, and which 

evidently occurred while the animal was living, is also worthy of note.
14 FOSSIL MOLLUSCA.OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. [BULL. 18.

The amount of the erosion is no greater than often occurs upon the 

shells of living fluvatile unios, but among the fossil species of North 

America eroded beaks have seldom been observed.

The specific name fs given in honor of Prof. Thomas Condon, who discovered the specimens which are figured on Plate II.

The Helicidie. of the John Day fauna, which are mentioned in the 

foregoing and following paragraphs, and figured on Plate III, I submitted to Dr. E. E; C. Stearns, whose familiarity with that family, and 

especially as it is developed in Western North America, is well known. 

His comments upon the same will be found under the head of the respective species on the following pages.

Helix (Aglaia) fidelis Gray. 

(Plate HI, Figs. 1, 2, *ncl 3.)

The following are Dr. Stearns's remarks upon this form : 

" This fossil form at once suggests the well known and widely distributed living species Helix (Aglaia) Jidelis Gray, of Western North 

America. A careful comparison of it with the very large geographical 

suite of that species, which includes a great number of localities within 

its known area of distribution, verifies the suggestion. The only objection that I can anticipate as likely to be made is that the umbilicus, in 

the most perfect of the fossil examples, is closed; but in the specimen 

referred to there is some evidence of mechanical flattening, as if by external pressure. Aside from this, a critical examination of the large 

suites in the United States National Museum (the Stearns collection) 

shows a great range of variation in that character. ^V'hile in some 

specimens the umbilicus is widely open, in others it is so nearly covered 

that a slightly increased deposit of callus in the umbilical region would 

so completely seal it as to make it imperforate. My conclusion is that 

these fossil specimens may be safely attributed to Helix (Aglaia) fidelis." 

(Museum No. 13400.)

Helix (Patula) perspectiva Say. 

(Plate III, Fig. 7.)

The collections contain only one example of this form, which is somewhat damaged. Dr. Stearns observes that this specimen, "in the number and closeness of its whorls and general aspect, although somewhat 

distorted by compression, points directly to the living species Helix 

(Patula) perspectives Say." (Museum No. 13402.)

° Helix (Monodon?) dallii Stearns (MS.). 

(Plate III, Figs. 4, 5, and G.)

Dr. Stearns regards this form as an undescribed one, and he has 

accordingly furnished me with the following description of it, together

(178)
15

with some remarks upon its nearest allies, as indicated by his large collections :

"Shell elevated, subconical, base flattened-convex, imperfbrate; umbilical region depressed. Lip moderately thickened and reflected. Surface traversed by tine incremental lines, and also marked by minute 

pits (cicatrices^) as seen under a magnifier, indicating that it had a 

hirsute epidermis. Whorls six to six and a half, rounded and gradually 

increasing. Suture quite distinct. Aperture rounded, lunate.

"Of the three specimens submitted to me for examination the foregoing description is made from the most perfect. A comparison of the 

three exhibits the following differences:

" Maximum height, 0.63, 0.52, 0.60 inches; maximum diameter, 0.85, 

0.79, 6.85 inches. Apical angle about 95.

" Mr. Tryon, to whom I submitted this form, regards it as allied to 

the West Polynesian groups Chlorea and Oeotrochus, and still more 

closely allied to the group Artemon of .Streptaxis. After a careful comparison of this fossil form with the living Helices of the west coast of 

North America, I find that while the former is larger than any specimens of Helix (Mesodon) columbianus that I have seen, and differs from 

that species in tbe matter of the umbilicus, and in having a less retiected lip, in other respects it presents many of the characters of the 

latter, especially in the following particulars: In general aspect (size 

and umbilicus excepted), apical angle, when compared with elevated 

individuals; number of whorls and convexity of the same; sutural 

definition; ratio of increase in the size of the whorls ; basal convexity; 

and finally in the shape of the aperture.

"Helix (Mesodonf) dallii suggests an ancestral form from which have 

proceeded such living representatives as are known by the names of 

Helix columbianus^ H. clevia, and varieties H. germana, etc. Of these 

well-known forms the first, H. columbianus, dominates through the 

greater portion of its geographical domain. Its distribution is northerly 

to Lituya Bay, Alaska (Dall), where it is found on the forest-clad benches 

Avhich extend from the base of the Mt. St. Elias Alps westerly to the 

Pacific Ocean, in latitude 59°. Southerly it extends to the region around 

Monterey Bay, California, (Hemphill), latitude 36°; and if H. devia 

variety, from Salmon Springs, Idaho (Hemphill), may be regarded as 

so nearly related to H. columbianus as to warrant its being placed as a 

variety of the latter, then the range of the species is eastward to the 

meridian of 116°. Individuals which unquestionably belong to H. columbianus have been collected at or near the Dalles of the Columbia 

River, near the 121st meridian. There is reason to believe that the 

southern boundary of its range may be placed still further south, even 

to the region bordering upon the Santa Barbara Channel, south of 

latitude 34°. (Musemn'No. 13401.)

"I have proposed for the specific name of this interesting form that 

of the eminent coucbologist, Mr. W. H. Dall,"

(179)
16 FOSSIL MULLUSCA OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. [BULL. 18. 

Genus GONOSTOMA Held^AMMONITELLA Cooper.

Gonostoma yatesii Cooper. 

(Plate III, Figs. 8,9,10,11 and 12.)

The collections contain four specimens of this form, all of them imperfect, but together they show quite satisfactorily its specific and 

generic characters. Dr. Stearns remarks of these specimens as follows: "They belong to the Gonostoma group of the Helicidae. I have 

compared them with a suite of the species described by Dr. Cooper, 

G. yatesii, and although the fossil examples are considerably larger 

than any of these recent ones, I am unable to detect any other difference. This generic form, which was originally published under the 

name of Ammonitella by Dr. Cooper, was discovered in a cave near 

Cave City, Calaveras County, California, by Dr. L. G. Yates. It has 

not been found living elsewhere. Comparatively few examples have 

ever been found, and it is rare in the best collections." (Museum No. 

13403.)

(180)
SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES ON THE NON-MARINE FOSSIJL MOLLUSCA OF NORTH AMERICA.

In the work entitled UA Eeview of the Non-Marine Fossil Mollusca 

of North America," which was published in the Third Annual Eeport of 

the United States Geological Survey, and also separately, it was my 

intention to make mention of and to figure all the fossil species of those 

mollusks which were then known, and to present some remarks upon 

their respective geological and zoological relations. The object of that 

work was not to revise the species which had been published, but to 

give a concise synopsis of all the brackish and fresh-water and land 

mollusca which had been found in a fossil condition, excepting only 

those which are found in the Post-Tertiary deposits, all the known 

forms of which are regarded as identical with living species, and also 

to present some general discussions concerning them. Since the publication of that work it has appeared that some things were omitted 

which it ought to have contained, and also a few erroneous statements were inadvertently made therein. Some additions to our knowledge of the forms which the scope of that work embraced have been 

made and published since then. The object of this article is to supply 

those omissions and to correct the errors of statement just referred to 

and also to present figures of the species which have been published 

since that work appeared, with remarks upon them.

ADDITIONS.

The scope of the "Eeview," as it was originally planned, did not include any living species, although such might have been found in a 

fossil as well as in a living condition ; but some living species of land 

and fresh-water mollusks are known to extend back into the Tertiary 

period, and these, at least, ought not to be excluded. Three of the 

species which are described and figured in the preceding article, although 

they were discovered among vertebrate remains of Miocene age, are 

regarded as identical with living forms. They ought, therefore, to be 

added to the list of North American non-marine mollusca, together 

with the two species therein described as new.

Besides the five species which are described and figured in the preceding article of this bulletin, three non-marine species have been published by Mr. C. D. Walcott, of the United States Geological Survey. 

They were obtained by him from the base of the Carboniferous series

(181) 17
18 FOSSIL MOLLUSCA OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA. [BULL. 18.

in the Eureka mining district, Nevada; and he has given to them the 

following names: Ampullaria? powelli, Physa prisca, and Zaptycliius 

carbonaria.12 These three species were published with figures in Science, 

Vol. II, p. 808 (1883), and also in Monograph VIII of the United 

States Geological Survey, pp. 261-263 (1885).

These shells are especially interesting on account of their great geological age and the evidence which they present of the great antiquity 

of two of the common fresh-water genera among living mollusks. Pulmonate gasteropods belonging to the Geophila have long been known 

in Carboniferous strata, but these are the first fresh-water gasteropods 

that have yet been found in North American strata of that age.

There seems to be no room for doubt that the shell which Mr. Walcott refers to Physa is a typical species of that genus, nor that the animal which formed it was in all essential respects like its living congeners. The form which he refers with doubt to Ampullaria apparently 

belongs to that genus; and its association with Physa favors this view 

of its generic character. Zaptycliius is a new genus proposed by Mr. 

Walcott, which appears to belong to the Auriculidse. It is therefore 

suggestive of a more or less brackish condition of the water in; or near 

which it lived.

Under the head of " Spurious and Doubtful Species," as treated in 

the " Beview," mention should have been made of an Alaskan shell 

which Eichwald referred to the Unio martini of d'Orbigny. The 

shell in question was one of the collection which was made in Alaska 

by Peter Doroschin, and which was published by Dr. E. von Eichwald 

in a work entitled " Bemerkungen ueber der Halbinsel Mangischlak 

und die Aleutischen Inseln," page 168, Plate XVI, Figures 28 and 29. 

The specimen which he figures and describes, and which appears to 

have been the only one of the kind found by Doroschin, is less than a 

centimeter long, and is only a natural cast of the interior of the shell. 

Its generic identity could not therefore have been determined with 

certainty; and even if it had been found associated with a fresh-water 

fauna, it would have been impossible for any one to say with certainty 

that it belongs to the genus Unio, much less to say to what species it 

belongs. Having been found associated with Ammonites it is without 

doubt a marine shell and therefore not a Unio, and mention is made of 

it here only because it was referred by Eichwald to that fresh water 

genus.

CORRECTIONS.

On page 459 (53) of the " Review," I have said : "Although Cerithidea 

is a well known living genus of the Old World, this species at present 

stands alone, or without near known allies, either living or fossil, among 

North American mollusca, if its generic relations are correctly under12 See figures on next page. 

(182)
WHITE.] CORRECTIONS. 19

stood, as stated above." That the shell referred to (Cerithidea nebrascensis Meek & Hay den) does thus stand alone as a distinct type, I still 

think is true; but the implied statement that there are no living species 

of Cerithidea in North America is an error. Several typical species of 

that genus are known to exist on both coasts of the southern part of 

North America. None of those species, however, nor any other North 

American forms known to me, either fossil or living, are of the type of 

the fossil form referred to. Meek & Hay den placed it with doubt in the 

subgenus Pirenella, but it seems to be more like a true CeritMum.

Again, on page 423 (17) of the " Eeview " I have said that the genus 

Dreissena van Beneden "is not known to be represented in North 

America by a single species, either living or fossil." At that time I regarded the D. leucopheata of Conrad, which is found along our Atlantic 

coast, together with a similar if not identical form found in Florida, as 

belonging to the genus Modiola. The animal of these forms has not yet 

been studied, but conchologists now generally accept them as species 

of Dreissena.

On page 469 (63, of the u Eeview," eighteenth line from the top, for 

" Gampeloma rmdtistriata" read Campeloma multilineata.

\. Zaptychiua carbonaria.

2. Phyea prisca.

3. Ampullaria? powelli. 

3a. Operculuru of the same.

(183)

INDEX.

Page.

Addition to " Review of Non-Marine Fossil Mollnsca "........................ 17

Ainnionitella ............ ........................ ........................... 16

Anipullaria ? powelli............................................ ............ 18

Cardita hornii, referred to................ ............ ....................... 7

Cardita planicosta in Western Oregon................ ........................ 7

Cerithidea living on both coasts of North America........................... 19

Cerithidea nebrascensis.................................. ..................... 19

Condon, Prof. Thomas, collections referred to ................................ .10

Correction to "Review of Non-Marine Fossil Mollnsca "...........-..-...-.-. 18

Dreissenaleucopheata....................................................... 19

Errata to " Review .of Non-Marine Fossil Mollusca ........................... 19

Gouostoma yatesii........................................................... 16

Helicidae:................................................................... 14

Helix (Aglaia) fidelis.............-..........-...-........----..---.-.--..--. 14

Helix (Mesodon?) dallii ..................................................... 14

Helix (Patula) perspectiva .................................................. 14

John Day aud«Truckee groups compared ..................................... 11

John Day group, fossil mollusca of .................. ........................ 10

Phyea prisca................................................................ 18

Steams, Dr. R. E. C., on fossil Helices ................................. -.14,15,16

Supplementary notes on non-marine mollusca ................................ 17

Truckoe group referred to................................................... 11

Unio coudoui................................................................ 13

Unio martini................................................................ 18

Unionid£6................................................................... 13

Walcott, C. D., on Carboniferous non-niariue mollusca........................ 17

Wortmau, J. L., collections referred to..................... .......... ........ 10

Zaptychius carbonaria ...................................................... 18

(185) * 21
EXPLANATION OF PLATES.

PLATE I.

CAUDITA PLAN1COSTA.

Fig. 1. Lateral view of a lefc valve.

Fi£. 2. Similar view of another left valve.

Fig. 3. Similar view of a right valve.

22

(186]
IT. S. GEOLOGICAL SUBVEY BULLETIN NO. 18 PL. I

CARDITA PLANICOSTA.
PLATE II.

TJN1O CONDONI.

Fig. 1. Lateral view of a right valve aud part of a left valve.

Fig. 2. Right side view of an imperfect example, showing eroded beak.

Fig. 3. Vertical view of Fig. 2. All of natural size.

24

(188)
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BVLLETIN NO. 18 PL. II

UNIO CONDONI.
PLATE III. 

(AGLAIA) FIDELIS. 

Figs. 1, 2, and 3. Lateral, vertical, and basal views of the same individual.

HELIX (MESODON?) DALLII. 

Figs. 4, 5, and 6. Lateral, vertical, and basal view of the same individual.

TTKT.TX (PATULA) PERSPECTIVE. 

Fig. 7. Vertical view of an imperfect example.

GONO8TOMA YATE8II.

Figs. 8 and 9. Lateral and vertical views of an imperfect example.

Figs. 10,11, and 12. Lateral, vertical, and basal views of another imperfect example.

26

(190)
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. BULLETIN NO. 18 PL. Ill

HELICID.ZE.
3ST O T I O K.

Tin' bulletins of tin* United Stsites (ieolo^ie:il Survey will be iniiiibei'cd in n eoniinuoiis scries uiid will be bound in volume's nf convenient ,si/e. 

1'bis bulletin will be, included in Volume 111.