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The following descriptions were made out from specimens in a very large and fine collection of fossil shells which Mr. John Finch obtained with much labour and some expense in Maryland, and which that gentleman with great liberality submitted to my examination. Many of these shells appear to the eye nearly as perfect, in every respect, with the exception of colour, as the recent ones of the coast, and not a few of the bivalves have both valves attached together by the teeth of the hinge; circumstances which indicate an undisturbed deposition from the waters in which they had lived. Respecting the limits which circumscribe this body of shells, the relative situation in which the species are found, &c. we may expect much interesting information from Mr. Finch. I may, however, observe at present, that it seems probable that the formation extends much farther south than might at first be supposed, or that nearly a contemporary one exists in South Carolina. For a knowledge of this fact, I am indebted to Mr. Stephen Elliott, who sent me several shells from near the Santee river, one of which corresponds perfectly with a species in the collection of Mr. Finch.