-*- •> '> ^-y' ?.JL.; M,A *My ^•t^ JS '• ^. ->• ■^. ' V* »". ^. MRh 1 "i' ^^; ^ ^ .t^ /^/'^'; ^v> .^ ^ -^/^ iH > Oi THE GIFT OF J. D. WHITNEY, Stuvf/is Hooper Professor IN THE MUSEUM or OOMPAEATIVE ZOOLOGY >Jy\ ^sx^^voWl \ \ \\^ \- -r*^ •'»>. >- ri J' A V, :/r '^ "^ I' f^ !^=^ 1.;^ u r -X-^1 »*^' ^- '-^ :X --(«*". •w'St^ :iv; 7^ -70^ cC \ ■% > :^ -V^^ -V. ^^^r^. ^H ;^ ^-TV, K' Kl^V C •i; --v- <^/ S\ 1< «»=^j \<: -^- ,N ^'-kS !^ \ ^^ '7- w- ' ^' ^••1- '^^' •^. •• 4 THE CANADIAN aturalist aii^ #Mlomst, AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF MONTREAL. CONDUCTED BY A COMMITTEE OP THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. VOLUME VI. PUBLISHED BY B. DAWSON & SON, 23 GREAT ST. JAMES STREET. -"1861. CANADIAN NATURALIST. This magazine will appear bi-monthly, and be conducted by th© following Committee, appointed by the Natural History Society of Montreal : J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S., Principal of Mc Gill College. T. Sterry Hunt, A.M.. F.R.S., Chemist to Geological Survey of Canada. E. Billings, F.G.S. Polaontologist. " " " David Allan Pob, Rev. A. F. Kemp. W. H. Kingston, M.D., Corresponding Secretary^ Nat. Hist Society. John Lbkming, Recording Secretary. " " " Entered, according to the Act of Provincial Parliament, in the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-two by Benjamin Dawson & Son, in the Office of the Registrar of the Province of Canada. CONTENTS. ■ ■ ' t 86 I ' ■ PAGB. Article I.— -On the Cornus florida of the United States ; by George S. Blackie, A.M., M.D., 1 n. — A popular Treatise on the Fur-bearing Animals of the Mackenzie River District ; by B. R. Ross, 5 III.—Addenda to the Natural History of the Valley of the River Rouge ; by W. S. M. D'Urban, 36 iV. — On the occurrence of Freshwater Shells in some of our Post-tertiary Deposits ; by Robert Bell, 42 v.— Professor Guyot on the Physical Geography of the Appalachian Mountain System, 51 VI. — On some points in American Geology ; by T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S 81 Vn. — Correspondence of Joachim Barrande, Sir William Logan and James Hall on the Taconic System 106 VIII. — Catalogue of Plants collected in the Counties of Ar- genteuiland Ottawa, 1858 ; by W. S. M. D'Urban . 120 IX. — Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay, Lower St. Law- rence ; by J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S 138 X. — On the Pre-carboniferous Flora of New Brunswick, Maine, and Eastern Canada ; by J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S 161 XL — On the origin of some I\[agnesian and Aluminous Rocks ; by T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S. 180 XII. — On Canadian Caverns; by George D. Gibb, 184 XIII.— Flint-drift and Human Remains ; Extracted from the Duke of Argyll's opening address as President of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 190 XIV. — Considerations relating to the Quebec Group, and the Upper Copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior; by Sir W. E. Logan, F.R.S 19^ XV.— Notes on the History of Petroleum or Rock Oil ; by T. Sterry Hunt, M.A., F.R.S 241 XVI. — Remarks on some of the Birds that breed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; by Henry Bryant, M.D 255 XVIL— List of Recent Land and Fresh-Water Shells collected around Lakes Superior and Huron in 1859-60 ; by Mr. Robert Bell 268 XVIII.— Catalogue of Birds collected and observed around Lakes Superior and Huron in 1860 ; by Mr, Robert Bell 270 XIX. — On the Flora of Hamilton and its vicinity ; by Judge Logic 276 XX.— The Great Comet of 1861 278 XXI. — What to observe in Canadian Lichens ; by W. Lauder Lindsay, M.D. , F.L.S 282 XXII. — On the Mammals and Birds of the District of Montreal ; by Archibald Hall, M.D., L.R.C.S.E 284 XXIII. — On some of the Rocks and Fossils occurring near Phillipsburg, Canada East; by E. Billings, F.G.S.. 310 XXIV. — Recollections of the Swans and Geese of Hudson's Bay ; by George Barnston, Esq ......? 337 XXV. — On the occurrence of Graptolites in the base of the Lower Silurian ; by E. Billings, F.G.S 344 XXVI. — A short review of the Sylviadae or Wood-Warblers found in the vicinity of Montreal ; by H. G. Vennor. 349 XXVII. — Additional notes on Aboriginal Antiquities found at Montreal ; by J. W. Dawson, LL.D 362 XXVIII.— Mr. Barrande on the Primordial Zone in North Ame- rica, and on the Taconic System of Emmons, by T. Sterry Hunt, M.A., F.R.S 374 IV CONTENTS. XXIX. — List of Coleopterous Insects collected in the County of Lincoln, C. W; by D. W. Beadle 383 XXX.— On the recent discoveries of Gold in Nova Scotia ; by J. W. Dawson, L.L.D., G.G.S., &c 417 XXXL — On the origin of the name ' Canada ;' by Rev. B. Davies, LL.D., Member of the Council of the Philological Society of London 430 XXXIL — An account of the Animals useful in an economic point of view to the various Chippewyan Tribes; by B. R. ^ Ross, H.B.C.S 433 XXXIIL — On the unity of Geological Phenomena in the Solar Spstem ; by L . Seemann 444 XXXIV .—On the Land and Fresh Water Mollusca of Lower Canada, with thoughts on the general geographical distribution of Plants throughout Canada; by J. F. Whiteaves, F.G.S 452 Reviews and Notices op Books. Coins, Medals, and Seals ; Edited by W. C. Prime, 69 Contributions to the Natural History of the U. S ; by L. Agassiz. 60 Contributions to Palaeontology ; by Prof. J. Hall, 392 Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa , . . 393 Geological Gossip ; by Professor D. T. Ansted, 68 Introduction to the study of Gothic Architecture, 213 Lectures on the chemistry of a candle, * 214 Life on the earth, by Professor Phillips, 20 T Manual of Modern Geography, Physical and Political, 153 Memoirs of George Wilson, M.D., F.R.S.A., 388 Narrative of the Red-River Exploring Expedition of 1857, 68 Professor Hall, on Receptaculites 465 The life of William Scoresby ; by his Nephew, 152 The limits of exact science ; by Rev. C. Kingsley 151 The Romance of Natural History ; by P. H. Gosse, 66 Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 155 Voyage d' Andre Michaux en Canada, depuis le Lac Champlain jusqu'a la Bale d'Hudson ; by 0. Brunet 450^ Miscellaneous. Blanching of Flowers, 336 Botanical Society of Canada 331 394, 468 British Association for the Advancement of Science, 398 Chemical and Scientific Intelligence, 228 Geological Society of London 329 Natural History of Canada, 58 New Mineral 332 Notes on Chemical Analysis by the aid of the Spectrum, 224 Note on Indian Beads presented to the Nat. Hist. Society 27l Prof. Lawson on Botany, and on the Chemistry of Plants, 70 Steeps for Seeds 336 The Ancient Vegetation of North America, 73 The Earthquake of July 12, 1861 329 The Natural History Society. Annual Meeting, 232 Donations to Museum and Library, 230 President's Annual Address, 232 Report of the Council 237 Report of the Treasurer, 240 THE CANADIAN MTUEALIST AND &EOLOGIST. Vol. VI. FEBRUARY, 1861. No. 1. ARTICLE L—On the Coraus florida of the United States. By George S. Blackie, A. M., M. D., and Professor of Botany and Natural History, University of Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., Honorary Member of the Botanical Society of Canada, {Read before the Botanical Society by Professor Williamson, LL.D.j Kingston, llth January, 1861.] Common throughout all our forests, conspicuous in spring time by its festoons of large white blossoms, and equally so during the fall months from its clusters of scarlet berries, a handsome little tree usually about 15 to 30 feet high, is the Cornus florida L. of the United States. I have brought this plant to your notice for no particular reason, but that it this morning attracted my attention, as I walked in the neighbourhood of my home, and I conceive that much service may be done to the existing state of the botanical knowledge of our country, should each member of the society take up, meeting after meeting, some individual plant, no matter how common, and state all that he knows of that plant, whether such information be gleaned from his own studies or from those of others. On my first visit to the United States, one of the first objects which attracted my attention on travell- ing down the Mississippi, from the snows of Canada to the balmy spring of Louisiana, was this plant, and its extreme beauty, con- Ca». Nat. 1 Vol. VI. 2 On the Comus florida oj the United States. trasted witli the gloominess of the scenery from which I had just emerged, made so strong an impression on me, that I have ever since regarded the plant with a peculiar interest. Comus florida is probably the most generally distributed spe- cies of its genus in our country. In this genus, which is one of the family of Cornacece, there are about twenty species, of which America has, north of Mexico, eleven ; two are peculiar to Mex- ico ; three are found in Nepaul ; two in Japan ; two are found in both Europe and Asia, and one is found in the north of both hemispheres. They are all shrubs, with entire, deciduous leaves, covered with adpressed hairs, the calyx four toothed, minute, adhering to the ovary ; the petals four, distinct, oblong, inserted with the calyx into an epigynous disk, drupes baccate, flowers in cymes. In this State (Tennessee) we have at least five species ; C» paniculata, C. stricta^ C. asperi/oUa, C. sericea, and the sub- ject of my present paper. In addition to these, in the north there are the species C. Canadensis, C. circinnata, C. alba, G, alternifoUa, and C. sanguinea. The property of the bark of all these is very bitter and tonic. Some of them have underground stems, which send up branches dying annually down, others again have true permanent stems, the wood of which is excessively hard, a fact which has given rise to the name, from the Latin Cornu, a horn, the wood being believed to be as hard and as durable as horn. Hence the ancient Romans constructed spear-shafts and other warlike instruments from it, and Virgil alluded to it as hona belli comus. The wood of C, florida is not only remark- able for its hardness, but for its extremely fine texture. Comus florida, the flowering dogwood, is the most beautiful and showy plant of its genus. It is a round-headed small tree, usually fifteen or twenty feet high, but often reaching a height of twenty-five or thirty feet, and its stem a diameter of eight or nine inches. The new shoots are of grayish green, covered with down, those of the previous year are purple with slight rings, afterwards changing to gray and streaked with brown. The stem is rough, with short broken ridges, between which the bark is often divided into regular plates. The branches are numerous, spreading, and disposed with regularity, sometimes opposite, sometimes arising by fours. The leaves are three inches long, opposite, oval, en- tire, acuminated, and, at the base, abruptly tapering to a short channelled footstalk. Smooth on their upper surface, their low er is whitish, with hairs along the mid-ribs and veins, and a few On the Cornus florida of the United States, 3 scattered ones between, the upper surfaces having also numerous conspicuous ridges. The flowers are placed on the ends of the branches, supported by a club-shaped footstalk. They are ex- tremely small, and aggregated together in numbers of twelve or more in a head, surrounded by a showy involucre, three or four inches in length, and which is supposed by the non-scientific to be the flower. The flowers themselves are of a greenish yellow colour, but the four large obcordate leaves of the involucre are white, and sometimes tinged with violet. The outer extremity of each is notched as if from injury and this notch is purple or rose coloured. The calyx is extremely small. The petals and stamens are each four in number. There is one pistil with a filiform style nearly as long as the corolla. The fruit is a group of ob- long, oval, shining, bright scarlet berries, crowned with the rem- nant of the calyx. They appear placed in the fork of two branch- es, which arises from the fact that while the flowers are terminal, yet ere the fruit is perfected, the two branchlets for the flowers of the succeeding year are developed and grow up on each side. These berries ripen here about July or August, and are eagerly devoured, despite their bitterness, by birds in the winter season. In Louisiana, the C. florida flowers in February, in our vicinity in April and May, and farther north in June and July. It is in bloom for a fortnight, during which time the Indian farmers say, Indian corn should be planted. The plant is of slow growth, and has a hard, heavy, solid wood, of a close texture, and susceptible of a high polish. It is often called Boxwood, and used as a substi- tute for it in the manufacture of handles of chisels, hammers, and such tools, for the cogs of wheels, teeth of harrows, spoons, &c. Soon after the fruit commences to ripen the leaves begin to change their colour, turning to a purple and then to a rich crimson or purple colour, and a bright russet beneath, forming one of the most beautiful objects of our forests during the fall months. It is fig- ured in Botanical Magazine, t. 526. Chemical analysis shows that the bark of the root, stem, and branches, which are bitter, astringent, and aromatic, contain in difi'erent proportions, the same substances as are found in Cinchona, except that there is more gum, mucilage, galhc acid, and extractive matter, and less resin, quinine and tannin. The principle ob- tained from it is called Cornine, and its salts have all the properties of these of quinine, though not so strongly marked. The principle is also difficult to obtain in any quantity. The extract of Dog- 4 On the Cornus florida of the United States, wood, while inferior and less stringent than the best cinchona, is yet superior to the inferior kinds. This extract contains all the tonic properties, while the simple resin is merely a stimulant. Professor Barton says *' that it may be asserted with entire safety that as yet there has not been discovered within the limits of the United States any vegetable so effectually to answer the purpose of Peruvian bark, in the management of intermittent fevers as the Cornus florida^ It may be looked upon as our best native tonic. In some respects, however, it diff'ers from quinine, as the powdered bark quickens the pulse, and sometimes produces vio- lent pain in the bowels. On this account the preparations em- ployed are the sulphate of cornine and the extract. Dr. O'Keefe of Augusta, Georgia, has prepared a valuable alcoholic and wa- tery extract of the bark, which seems to possess all its medicinal properties. (See Trans, of Amer. Med. Association, vol. IL, p. 671.) This may be used in intermittent and remittent fevers, also in typhus and all febrile disorders. In cases of debility. Dog- wood is a valuable corroborant, for which purpose it may be com- bined with Colombo, Gentian, Chamomile, or Seneca root. Country people often use it as a decoction, or chew the twigs as a prophylactic against fevers. Drunkards sometimes employ a tinc- ture of the berries to restore the tone of the stomach, and combat the pains of dyspepsia. Many have recommended a decoction of equal parts of Dogwood and Wild Cherry barks, as a remedy in dyspepsia, and the debility in convalescence from fever. The flow- ers have similar properties, and a warm infusion of them was often employed by the Indians in cases of chills and indigestion. They named the plant Mon-hci-ean-ni-min-scM. The powdered bark of the plant makes one of the best tooth powders vrith which I am acquainted, as it preserves the gums hard and sound, and at the same time, renders the teeth extremely white. Rub- bing the fresh twigs on the teeth has this eff'cct, and the Creoles of the West Indies, the pearly whiteness of whose teeth is uni- versally acknowledged, use another species in this way. There are yet other uses to which Dogwood has been put. A sort of inferior ink may be made with the bark, using it instead of galls. A warm decoction of the bark with sassafras is a valu- able wash for foul ulcers, and in veterinary medicine a decoction of the bark has been used with very good effect in a malignant disease called yellow water, Canada distemper, &c., very fatal among horses. On Fur-bearing Animals* 5 Thus I have endeavoured to place before you a sketch of one of the denizens of our Tennessee woods, and if my effort has at all interested you, it will give me pleasure to repeat it should you call on me on another occasion. [Prof. Williamson, in remarking upon the above paper, stated to the meeting that he had not observed the Cornus florida in the immediate neighbourhood of Kingston, but he had seen it in the Niaojara district. Prof. Lawson exhibited specimens of the plant from various parts of the United States, and alluded to its wide range, but ap- parently southern tendency. It is no doubt correctly regarded as a Canadian species ; but it is absent from Prof. Barnston's list of the Holmes' herbarium, Montreal; from Mr. Billino-s' list of Prescott plants, and other accessible local lists, as well as from the various collections made in the neighbourhood of Kingston. It is not difficult to trace the distribution of so showy a plant, and it is to be hoped that Prof. Blackie's remarks will lead to the publication of Canadian localities.] ARTICLE II. — A popular Treatise on the Fur-hearing Ani- mals of the Mackenzie River District. By Bernard Rogan Ross, C. T. [Presented to the Natural History Society of Montreal.} In submitting the following Treatise to the notice of the Natu- ral History Society of Montreal, I will, previously to entering on my subject, mark out the extent of country to which only, my remarks apply. A residence of thirteen years in this District, during the great- est part of which time I have been a not unsuccessful trapper, has afforded me many opportunities of observation upon the nature and habits of the various fur-bearing animals inhabiting these high northern latitudes. I have throughout studied accuracy rather than effect, and the style of my remarks is doubtless rather popular than scientific ; yet the hope that my humble endeavours may perchance clear one doubtful point, or illustrate some new truth has lightened my labour, and will, if such should in reality happen, prove an ample recompense for my toil. The boundaries of the Mackenzie River District may be con- sidered to extend from Salt River, a tributary of the Slave to the Arctic Sea, and from 100° W. long, to the Rocky Mountains. 6 On the Fur-bearing Animals I cannot here omit mentioning the aid which I have received, in the scientific parts of the Treatise from the splendid, complete, and accurate work of Prof. Baird on North American Mammals. The general characteristics of Families are quoted verbation from his work. LrNx, Rafinesque. Gen. ch. Molars |:| the small anterior premolar of Felis wanting. Tail considerably less than half the body, exclusive of the head and neck, generally not much longer than the head, and abruptly truncate at tip. Baird. Lynx Canadensis, Raf, Sp. ch. Size between that of a Fox and Wolf. Tail thickly furred, shorter than the head, and tipped with black. Paws densely covered with hair, and armed with strong claws. Color in winter, a silver grey on the back, paling towards the belly, which is sometimes white ; a rufus undershade mixes with tints. The ears are pointed, not large, and tipped with a pencil of long black hairs. Whiskers generally white. Length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail about 3 feet. Average weight about 25 lbs. This species is the largest of the North American Lynxes, and is the only one found in the Mackenzie River District. It is called by the " winterers " indiflferently either Lynx Cat, Loup Cervier, or Pichen. In appearance it is rather formidable ; its teeth are long and sharp, while its powerful claws and immense spring ren- der it a dangerous opponent to any animal that it encounters. In its habits it is predatory. Hares and mice it devours with avidity ; birds it pursues to the tops of the loftiest trees, and it even kills fish in their own element ; while it has no objection to carrion, and, when pressed by hunger will even eat its own kind. Tales of the ferocity of this animal have been told by the early writers — of its attacking and mastering deer — but they are without founda- tion. It is a solitary beast, and I should consider its unaided strength perfc^ctly incompetent for such a purpose. In its motions, though very active, the Lynx is rather an un- gainly animal. Its favourite pace is a succession of long leaps much in the manner of the American Hare [Lepus Ajnericanus), which it also slightly resembles in shape. It is stupid, and easily caught. A sudden and loud cry from the hunter pursuing it is oj the Mackenzie River District, 7 sufficient to arrest its course for a time long enough to permit him to fire, and sometimes several shots are obtained at the same animal in this manner. It is easily killed, a not very heavy blow being sufficient to fracture its skull. The colour of the fur varies much with the seasons. In winter the hair is thick, long, and silky. The grey markings are of a dark silver colour, while the rufus undershade is scarcely observa- ble. In some specimens the dark stripe down the back would not disgrace a silver fox. In summer it wears a rusty look, the hair is short and thin ; and there is more rufus and little of the silvery grey in the tints, while the skin is marked with black spots, which serve to distinguish a prime from a common fur, in trading with the Natives. These spots appear generally in April and disappear in November. The Lynx is found ail over this District, in greater or lesser numbers, wherever there are trees, even within the Arctic Circle. It is subject, like most of the other Fur Animals, to periodical migrations, which appear to occur with great regularity in periods of ten years, and which in its case depend on the Hare its princi- pal food. One of the most curious of the idiosyncrasies of this animal is its passion for perfumes ; and particularly for the odor of castoreura, which forms the basis of all the " medicines " used by trappers in effecting the capture of the Lynx. There are four methods in which the death or capture of the Lynx is effected — by hunting — by the use of the steel-trap, or gin — by the simple snare — and by the medicated cabin : all of which I shall pass briefly in review : — By hunting. — In this method the hunter pursues the animal generally aided by a dog, and follows its track in the snow, until he forces it to take refuge in a tree, when it is shot : yet so tena- cious is the death grip of its powerful claws, that it is sometimes necessary for him to fell the tree, in order to obtain the body. By the steel-trap. — The gin covered inside the jaws, with a well fitting "pallet" of birch bark, is placed indifferently either under or upon the snow, and on the pallet a piece of hair skin, well rubbed with the ' medicine ' is tied. The Lynx on scenting his favourite perfume endeavours to withdraw the skin with his paw, and consequently springs the trap. It does not, like most of the other fur animals drag the trap to a distance, or make violent efforts to escape, it generally lies down until aroused by the ap- 8 On the Fur-bearing Animals proacli of the hunter when it endeavours rather to spring at him than to take to flight. By the simple snare. — A running noose of platted sinew, thread, or deer-hide thongs, is set in the track that the animal usually follows ; this snare is attached to a pole of sufficient weight to toss up the body, and it remains hanging until the hunter passes. The body is sometimes found devoured by crows, wolverines, and Lynx. By the medicated Cahin. — This is the most efficacious method of catching the Lynx. A round enclosure of some three feet in diameter is made of small willows, or branches of trees, loosely planted in the snow, and about four feet high. Two entrances are left at the opposite sides, each fitted with a snare. In the centre of the enclosure, the medicated skin is placed, inserted in a cleft stick, about eight inches distant from the snow. The snare is more commonly tied to the middle of a loose stick, about 30 inches long, by 3 in diameter, and which is supported on two pronged branches set on each side of the entrance, when circumstances are favorable the tossing pole is sometimes used, and it is the most certain fashion. The ani- mal on scenting the castoreum, inserts its head, or sometimes its forefoot into the noose, which, owing to the long tips on the Lynx's ears, remains securely on the neck when once passed there. After enjoying and rolling itself in the perfume, it moves off"; but on finding the stick thumping after its heels, it becomes alarmed and makes for the nearest woods ; the stick soon catches in the bushes, and in a short time, the animal, instead of cutting the line, strangles itself, or if caught by the paw remains fixed un- til the hunter arrives to give it a " coup de grdce^'' if he does not find it already frozen stifi". On some occasions it will gain the top of a lofty tree, and on springing off to rid itself, as it fancies, of the stick, it hangs, itself in a superior manner, and puts the trap- per to the trouble of cutting down the tree, which is generally a large one. As an article of food, the flesh of the Lynx, is highly esteemed both by the natives and the white residents. It is of a light colour, and well flavored, the fat, which is soft like that of the bear, lying mostly on the ribs. oj the Mackenzie River District, 9 Canis (Lupus) Occidentalis. var. Griseus (Richardson), Grey or Strongwood Wolf, Var. White and Barren ground Wolf,* Sp. eh. Size that of a large mastiff dog, but stands rather higher. Hair long and not coarse, under fur very thick and woolly. Tail very full but not so long in proportion as that of a fox. Colour varies. In barren grounds, variety generally white, in strong wood, dark grey, length from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail about 6j feet, weight about 50 lbs. This is the only species of Wolf in the Mackenzie River District but I am inclined to divide it into two varieties ; the dark grey, or the strong wood, and the white, or barren ground. These two are doubtless the same species, though in colouring, locality, and habits there is a considerable difference between them. The general appearance of both varieties of wolf is rather pre- possessing, resembling a good deal that of the native dogs. The head is full, broad between the ears, and tapering towards the snout. The legs, though rather long, are stout with good muscu- lar development. The paws are large, furnished with strong claws, and well furred. The teeth are long and white ; and the jaws are of immense power. The eyes are placed obliquely, the inner corner tending downwards. The tail is moderately long and very bushy. The white wolf is found inhabiting the barren grounds, and the wooded country bordering on them ; its migrations being dependent on the movements of the Rein-deer, its principal food. This kind of wolf lives in considerable bands, which unite in hunting parties to run down or surround the deer, driving them over cliffs, or into rivers or lakes as is most convenient. In size they are smaller than the grey variety, though much larger than the Prairie wolf. Their colour is generally a dirty yellowish white with most commonly a stripe of grey down the back ; but not always. The dark grey, or strong-wood variety, which I have styled ** Argentatus " from the resemblance of its color to that of the silver Fox, inhabits the wooded country. It most commonly is seen alone, but as many as 6 have been observed in a band. The only specimens of its skin which I have seen, were received at Fort Resolution on Great Slave Lake, and it is evidently still rarer 10 On the Fur-hearing Animals among wolves, than tlie silver is among Foxes. In its full winter pelage it is a magnificent animal. The color is a dark silver grey, with a rather browner tint than that of the silver Fox, under the belly a blueish black, the nose and paws black. The size of an old specimen is enormous, the skin being as large, when stretched and dried, as that of a barren ground reindeer. The northern wolf is a very knowing animal, quite as much so as the fox ; out of an immense number which I have heard, I will relate a few well authenticated anecdotes about it, most of which have fallen under my own observation. In the month of May, when the holes cut in the ice do not freeze up, the fisher- man at Fort Resolution on visiting his trout lines, set at some dis- tance from the fort, discovered that several had been visited, the lines and hooks were lying on the ice, as well as the remains of a partly eaten trout, and a wolfs track was observed about the place. The fact was that the wolf had hauled up the lines and helped himself to what fish he required. This occurred again and then ceased, the animal having been probably driven away by the dogs of the post. I have never heard of a wolf attacking man, though a dog has been carried off from the winter encamp- ment now and then. "When there is but a single wolf, one of our hauling dogs, which are a powerful cross between the pointer and native dog, will make a good fight and often beat off" his op- ponent. The wolf, when taken young, is easily domesticated. It is aff'ectionate and docile to its master, but snappish with strangers and rather quarrelsome with the dogs. A cross between a male wolf and a domestic bitch makes an excellent breed. The off"- spring are hardy, docile and strong, easily fed, and capable of enduring great fatigue. These hybrids will, contrary to the ge- neral rule, have young ones. When there are not too many dogs to drive him off", a male wolf will sometimes have connection with a bitch belonging to the fort, but I am doubtful if a female wolf would permit the attentions of a domestic dog. In the copulating season wolves become rabid, at which time their bite is generally fatal to dogs and other animals. Fearful of expatiating at too great a length upon the subject, I will conclude this anecdotary para- graph by a testimony to the sociability of the wolf, even in a wild state. A full grown wolf remained during the months of July and August IBS'? quite domesticated at Fort Resolution. Though rather shy of the people, it lived in great harmony with the dogs, playing and sleeping with them, and sharing their food. Around of the Mackenzie, River District, 11 the smoke made to keep off the myriads of noxious flies from the cattle it reposed with the other animals, and, although there was a small calf in the band, it never attempted mischief. It was shot at by an Indian and never seen after. Wolves, when pressed by hunger, often come into the square of the fort, and one was shot once when endeavourins: to affect an entrance into a meat store. There are five methods by which wolves are captured or des- troyed. By the pitfall ; by the gin ; by the trap ; by the set gun ; and by poison. JBy the PitfalL — This method is tolerably successful. A hole about 7 feet deep, broader at the bottom than at the top, is dug during the summer. It is covered with twigs and grass, and after the first fall of snow bears the same appearance as the surround- ing ground. In the centre of the hole the bait is laid, and on approaching the animal falls into the pit, when he is easily killed. By the Gin or Steel-trap. — The trap is set in the usual manner, covered with snow and baited ; when caught the wolf struggles violently, and if the trap be not very strong will escape, after which he is very difficult to catch, as he w^ill begin digging at some dis- tance from the trap, which, when reached he will throw aside with his nose, and devour the bait at his leisure. Once securely caught, the wolf will take the bar of wood, to which the trap is fixed by an iron chain in his mouth, and trot ofl' at a des- perate pace seeking the worst country he can find. I was once obliged to follow a wolf two days in this manner, and only secured him in the end by the aid of dogs. By the Wooden Trap. — A large trap of strong pieces of wood is made. First stakes are driven into the earth enclos- ing a circular space, with two convenient saplings for door-posts, a log of wood, or sleeper, is laid across the door, at the foot of these, with another longer and lighter piece on the top for the purpose of being lifted up when set. The roof of the trap is then covered with small sticks and brush, some logs of wood are laid as weights on the upper piece lying across the door, and a strong stake is driven into the ground to prevent the animal, when caught, from hauling the top piece off the sleeper. The trap is then prepared for setting, to effect this some of the weights are thrown off, and one end of the top piece hfted sufficiently high to permit a stick about a foot long to be inserted upon the 12 On the Fur-bearing Animals butt of the bait stick wbich is about 18 inches long with a piece of fish or meat fixed on the point, and is placed inside the trap. The weights are then replaced and some pine brush thrown loose- ly on the top. This fashion of catching wolves is not very suc- cessful, except in the fall and beginning of winter. Bt/ the Set-gun. — This is a very sure method though rather dangerous to the hunter, if he do not take great care. The gun is tied upon two saplings or stakes, set on purpose, opposite the trigger is another thinner stick firmly planted on the ground, a piece of wood is laid across this stick one end pressing the trigger, the other attached to a line to the other extremity of which the bait is afiixed. This line is carried under the snow by boring holes in pieces of board and passing it through them ; this also prevents the animal from pulling the bait out of the aim of the gun, which he discharges as soon as he hauls upon the line to obtain the meat. Instances have been known of wolves cutting the line close to the trigger of the gun, after which they eat the bait in safety. By Poison. — In this case strychnine is used, which is an infal- lible method, though the animals sometimes go to such a distance that it is diflScult to follow their tracks ; and if a fall of snow come after they have eaten the bait their bodies are often lost. About two grains are required to kill a wolf quickly. But as this article is already too long, I will defer the detailed account of the effect of strychnia on wild animals, until I write the article upon Foxes. CaNIS FAMILIARI8. LlUU. Var. Borealis, or Esquimaux Dog, et Lagopus^ or Hare Indian Dog. Sp. ch, (of both). Size, about that of a pointer ; ears small and pointed; head broad between ears, and tapering towards muzzle ; colour varied, but whites and greys predominate ; hair long and fine mixed, with thick under fur ; tail long and bushy ; general appearance that of a wolf. In comprising the Hare Indian and Esquimaux dogs among the fur-bearing animals of this district, I am perfectly aware that, in a commercial point of view, they are not included among them; still, from their wild nature, as well as their long and thick fur, I consider that I may with strict propriety class them in the branch of the Mackenzie River District, 13 of natural history upon which these notices treat. I should also wish to point out a few errors into which previous writers on these animals have fallen, as well as to submit to the philosophical world some of the results of my experiments and investigations in this branch of animated natnre. The Esquimaux dog var. Borealis is found, as its name implies among the Huskey tribes of the Arctic coast. It is of considerable size, muscular and well-proportioned. The ears are small and pointed, and with a good breadth of skull between them, the muzzle is long and sharp, the eyes are placed at angles, not hori- zontally, the fur is deep and thick, the tail bushy, the feet broad and well covered, and the colour is generally pure white, though other shades are not uncommon. It is said, with what correctness I cannot venture to say, that the voice of the Esquimaux dog in its native wilds is not a bark but a long melancholy howl. I have had several in my possession all of which barked lustily, but they may have learnt this accom- plishment from the dogs of the fort. The similarity of appear* ance between this dog and the barren ground wolf is very great. It is a hardy animal capable of enduring great extremes of cold and hunger, but in the latter case it becomes very ferocious and instances have occurred of children being devoured by it. There is no want of sagacity in the Esquimaux dog, its whole look tells of its wisdom and cunning. It is very sociable and fond of its master. When two of this breed of dogs begin fighting, the whole band light on one of the pair and if not prevented will tear him in pieces. The Hare Indian dog, var. Lagopus^ is the race domesticated among the Indians of the Mackenzie River District. It is charac- terised by a narrow, elongated and pointed muzzle, by erect sharp ears, and by a bushy tail not carried erect but only slightly curved upwards, as well as by a fine silky hair mixed with thick under fur. Its colour is tolerably varied in the shades of brown, grey, black, and white. Of these tints the darkest are the most rare. A white or greyish white being the most usual shade. Some writers have supposed this animal to be a domesticated white fox but the thing is highly improbable. The Indian dog, though there are great differences in its size, has on an average more than treble the proportions of this species of fox, moreover it will not have connection with this or any other branch of the sub- 14 On the Fur-hearino; Animals & family Vulpinoe, while its varied shades of colour are never seen in the pure white pelt of the arctic fox ; with wolves on the contrary, not only will they cohabit but will also produce a hybrid offspring that will for several generations procreate one with another. This fact manifests the close connection that both these varieties of dogs have to the wolves, and would almost prove them identical. Thus far I admit, but I do not, for reasons which I shall afterwards give, consider them only domesticated wolves. They are in my opinion, specimens rather of the parent canine stock unaltered by human experiments, and in appearance such as Adam might have named in the garden of Eden. With foxes of any description neither these nor any other dogs will copulate. At Fort Resolution I had a very fine pair of cross foxes in confinement. They were kept within a roomy enclosure surmounted with lofty stockades. One of the windows of my dwelling-house commanded this enclosure, and at it I used to spend hours observing iheir actions and movements. When the bitch fox went in heat in the spring she had connection with her mate. And wishing to decide upon the extent of the affinity existing between the fox and the dog, I shut up a small terrier with her. There was no courtship, the parties were mutually indifferent. I tried Indian, half Indian, and our own hauling dogs, bui with no success, they evidently would not enter into a matrimonial speculation, though they were friendly enough. This experiment may perhaps be allowed to decide the case in point. Wild dogs are known to exist in many countries. The Ajuara of S. America, the Dhol of India, and the Dingo of Australia, for instance, all bear a close resemblance to each other, and to the Arctic American dogs, in the most essential particulars. Therefore, seeing that wild dogs as distinct from wolves exist, it is to some such animal that I am inclined to attribute the origin of the dog. From the earliest ages the dog and wolf have been distinguished from each other, and the varieties to which this article is devoted, may have derived their certainly very wolfish appearance from crosses in the breed. Whatever be the origin of these animals they are of the great- est service, in fact a necessity to the aboriginal dwellers in these dreary and barbarous wilds. They are the only beasts of bur- then, and although they have not the strength of the fort dogs, still a train or team of three good ones, will haul a load of up- wards of three hundred pounds, five hundred being considered a of the Mackenzie River District, 15 good load for the others. Their life is a hard one, far worse than that of a tinker's jackass, a blow or a kick is the usual caress bestowed upon them by their master. Their food is most- ly the excrement and offal of the camp, hare-skins and paws, and any other trash too wretched for the far from nice stomach of a Chippewayan Indian. I have seldom or ever seen a fat dog among the natives. They make very good hounds to follow deer or moose on the crust of the snow in spring ; for though they have not sufficient strength to bring down these animals them- selves, they retard their progress sufficiently to allow the approach of the hunter. I have seen some tolerable retrievers among them also. I will now conclude this article by offering a just tribute to tha affectionate disposition, and kindly habits of this poor and ill- used " friend of man." Scanty fare, harsh treatment and want, seem to make little difference in his love, and these miserable starvelino-s shew as much if not more affection for their hard- hearted and tyrannical master, than do the pampered and petted favourites of European old maidenhood. Sub-Family. — Vulpine . Gen. ch. Pupil of the eye elliptical ; head slender ; upper incisors scarcely lobed ; post-orbital process of the frontal bone bent but little downwards, the anterior edge turned up ; a longitudinal shallow pit or indentation at its base. VuLPES FuLvus. — Common American Fox, {Desm). Var. A. FulvuSj Red Fox. " B. Decussafus, Cross Fox. " C. ArgentatiLSj Silver Fox. Sp. ch. Hair long, silky and soft. Tail very full, composed of an under fur with long hairs distributed uniformly along it. Dis- tance in red variety between hairs, 6j inches. Tail with white tip, feet and ears black. Var. Fulvus. Reddish-yellow; back behind grizzled with greyish. Throat and narrow line on the belly white. Ears be- hind and tips of caudal hairs (except terminal brush) black. Var. Decussafus. Muzzle and under parts with legs blacky Tail blacker than in the other variety. A dark band between the shoulder, crossed by another over the shoulder. Var, Argentatus. Entirely black except on the posterior part 16 On the Fur-bearing Animals of the back, where the hairs are annulated with grey, this occa- sionally wanting. Tail tipped with white. Baird. In treating on the different varieties of foxes I have spoken of, it is extremely difficult to mark the line where one ends and the other commences. During my residence in these regions I have seen every shade of colour among them, from a bright flame tint to a perfectly black pelt, always excepting the tip of the tail, which in all cases is white. Even the judgment of an experienced fur trader is sometimes at fault to decide, in bartering, to which of the three varieties a skin should belong, as they bear different prices. Still, notwithstand- ing this, I consider these colours to have been produced by in- termixture of breed. The different varieties, being in my opin- ion, quite as distinct as those of the human race. And I do not think that any of the progeny of two pairs of red foxes would be either black or cross. In cohabiting the male foxes accom- pany the females in bands of from 3 to 10, much in the manner of domestic dogs. At Durwegan on Peace River, I have repeat- edly observed this. The males fight violently for the possession of the females, many are maimed and some killed. A number of males thus in all likelihood cohabit with the same female, which gives rise to the varieties of colour in a litter. Instances are reported as having occurred in which all the varieties were taken in one den, but of this I am rather doubtful. It is very difficult to tell the future colour of cub foxes, the red appear to be cross, and the cross to be silver, which may have caused an error, though I write under correction. I have seen many Indians even mistaken in this. They have brought me live cub foxes for silver, which on growing up proved to be cross. My own theory is that the silver fox is the offspring of two silver parents, the cross, of a silver and red, the red, of two reds, and the different shades being caused by fresh inter-breeds. Thus two negroes will have neither white nor mulatto children, nor will two whites have black or mulatto offspring. I do not know whether I have ex- plained my ideas on the subject clearly or not. They are the re- sult of my experience on a subject to which I have given no small attention. I have often robbed fox dens, and have also bred the animals, and the summing up of this part of my subject may be thus made — like colours reproduce like, black and red being ori- gins, the cross is the fruit of intermixture between these shades. I kept a pair of cross foxes in confinement at Slave Lake, their offspring were all cross, I had only one litter when the bitch died. of the Mackenzie River District, 17 Foxes are very shy animals and difficult to tame, indeed when old they appear to pine away in confinement, when young they are playful,but at all times rather snappish. They are far from soci- able and generally burrow alone, although it is not uncommon for the members of one family to live together. The fox-burrow or den is often many yards in length, with va- rious ramifications and side galleries to it, in the centre of which an excavation rather wider than the passages, serves for the sleep- ing apartment. To this there are always two entrances and often more. The den is kept very clean, and in some dozen which I have opened, I found neither bones of animals nor offal of any kind. To dig out a fox a flat piece of iron, called an earth-chisel, is tied to a stoat wooden handle, the trapper inserts a long slender pole of willow, or other flexible wood into the en- trance, having stopped up any other that exists, to find the direc- tion in which the passage runs. He then digs another hole and inserts his pole, finding with its point whether any other passao-e exists, and if so, marking the direction. In this manner he pro- ceeds till he digs to where the fox is, who is generally killed in one of the side galleries, or close to one of the closed entrances. This method of killing a fox entails a large amount of labour as it often takes a whole day to unearth the animal. Of all the natural gifts of the fox, the most remarkable is his exquisite sense of smell. When the fox finds a piece of meat or fish he almost invariably hides it, and returns to eat it at some fu- ture period. I have remarked this trait even in cubs, which I have reared in confinement, and which used, previous to eating, to dig holes in the snow to bury their food, pushing the snow with their noses to cover it. During the commencement of summer he will lay up a store of the eggs of wild-fowl, for his winter's consump- tion, these he deposits in holes dug in the sand bars of the river, or in beds of moss, and at the expiration of several months, will, when pressed by want, visit his caches. Even when there are several feet of snow on his deposit, he will readily distinguish the place by scenting his urine, with which a fox invariably sprinkles in a liberal manner, all his secret hoards. This animal is by no means choice in his food ; mice, birds, hares, fish, carrion, all come alike to him, and he will even make a meal of a fellow fox if he find one dead in a trap. In summer a great number of young water-fowl are killed by him, and when musk-rats are, by the freezing up of their houses, driven to mi- grate in the winter, he devours them without mercy. Can. Nat. 2 Vol. VI. 18 On the Fur-bearing Animals Respecting any special difference between the three varieties, I can see but very little. The cross fox is generally the largest, and the silver fox the most thickly furred. Some trappers profess to know by the shape of the foot, whether a specimen be that of a silver fox or not ; their idea being that the foot of that variety is more rounded than the others. But I have often seen them mistaken. The foot-prints of a young fox of whatever colour, have always this appearance, and the foot of the female is more pointed than that of the male. A popular fallacy also prevails among the " winterers," that a silver fox is more cunning than one of any other colour. I imagine the scarcity of the silver variety origin- ated this fancy. The foxes of this district are generally of a very large size, and I am doubtful if they do not belong rather to the Macrourus than the Fulvus species. A series of measurements which I will here- after get taken will decide the question. The foxes inhabiting the barren grounds often present an ap- pearance similar to that of the Sampson fox, the long hairs of the body and tail are wanting, leaving the soft woolly fur entirely exposed in some specimens, and in others partly so, particularly the sides of the thighs. The natives attribute this to their living so much in their holes, which are generally among rocks, and not roaming about so frequently as those inhabiting the wooded country which often do not visit their dens for weeks together. The following table shows the proportion of each color traded in this district during the last ten years, and will give a very accurate idea of the relative number of each variety. Red-i^ Cross-^g- Silver^g. Foxes are most prevalent around the great lakes, and on the shores of the Arctic sea. On the Mackenzie River they are also tolerably numerous, but towards the Mountains up the Liard's River they become very scarce. There are several- methods by which foxes are caught and killed, which I will pass in review, detailing those which differ from any already described. 1. By wooden traps ; 2. by gin or steei traps ; 3. by set guns; 4. by snaring; 5. by hook and line ; 6. by hunting ; T. by unearthing ; 8. by ice-trap, and 9. by poisoning. Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 7, have been already noticed, I shall therefore commence with No. 4, By snaring^ This is not a very efficacious method, of the Mackenzie River District. 19 and is used only by natives who have not steel traps or gins. An enclosure of twigs is made and the bait laid in the centre and a snare set in the entrance with a road fenced in like manner leading to it. The principle of construction is the same as in lynx-snaring, and alike in every respect excepting that the enclosure is larger. Foxes are sometimes found hung in snares set for rabbits. 5. By hook and line. This cannot be exactly considered a le- gitimate method of entrapping foxes, though I have seen one killed by it. An Indian at our establishment was visiting and arranging his lines for- catching Loche {Gadus lota), when he observed a fox at a short distance from him regarding his operations ; he immediately flung the baited hook towards it, and concealed him- self behind a block of ice. Reynard approached, smelt rather sus- piciously at the bait and at length swallowed it, whereupon the Indian without giving the animal time to cut the line, hauled in and killed it. 6. By hunting. This method is practised in the fall before there is enough snow to set the traps. The hunter conceals him- self close to the fox's hole, and shoots him as he passes to it. 8. By icC'traps. This is a tolerably successful way, more so than by wooden traps. A block of ice of considerable weight is tilted on end at an angle of about 45°, a piece of stick supports' this, placed well under the block, the lower end resting on the bait. The animal in his efforts to obtain the bait drags the stick off the perpendicular when the ice falls on him and kills him, This method is much used by the Yellow Knives to trap white foxes. 9. By poison. For this purpose strychnia is used. I have tried aconitine, atropine, and corrosive sublimate without suc- cess. The two former may not have been pure enough, though I obtained them from the first chemical works in Eno;land and at a very high price. The only poison that I have found strong is strychnia. One or two grains of this are mixed with a little tal- low, forming a small ball, and covered with a coating of grease outside to prevent the animal from tasting it. A quantity of pounded dried meat and morsels are strewn about so that the ani- mal after swallowing the poison may be detained a sufficient time for it to operate. The distances which animals go before they die vary greatly ; in* some instances they fall directly, in others they run several miles with the same dose, and arranged in like 20 On the Fur-beanng Animals manDer. This I attribute to several causes; to their fatness, and to the quantity of food in their stomachs, as lean and hungry foxes die much more quickly than others. The medium in which the poison is given also causes a great difference. When put up in fresh meat a very long time elapses before it operates. Wishing to preserve a specimen of the Hare-Indian dog for the Smithsonian Institution, I resolved to kill the animal by poi- sonino". Two grains of strychnia of the first strength were ad- ministered in a piece of fresh meat, at the end of two hours the animal was as well as ever. I then administered one grain more mixed with grease, in two minutes the spasms began, and in five the animal was dead. The first symptoms were a restlessness and contraction of the pupil of the eye, and a flow of saliva from the mouth, violent cramps then ensued, the head shook violently, like a paralytic person, the legs were drawn up, and the spine took a circular shape, a lull of a few seconds then ensued, when after an attack of great violence the animal died. On dissection the blood vessels of the head and neck were found very full of black and clotted blood, such as I have seen in the jugular vein of a person who had died of apoplexy. There was no inflammation of the stomach, and the fatal bait was found in the throat entire. Once seen, the symptoms of poisoning by strychnia are easily recog- nized, and I would be certain now of passing a correct opinion on a case of the kind. Dogs take a longer time to expire than either wolves or foxes ; the latter dying most quickly ; in fact according to the ratio of the wild nature of the animal who eats it will be the quickness and violence of its death. VuLPES Lagopus. — Arctic Fox. Var. A. Lagopus — White Fox. Sp. Ch. Smaller than American Red Fox; tail very full and bushy, soles of feet densely furred, tip of nose black. Var. B. Borealis. — Blue Fox. Sp. Ch. Similar to the white in every particular except that of color. Lagopus — White Fox. This diminutive Fox which is about as large as a small terrier inhabits the barren grounds and sea coast of this district. On only two occasions have I known it to be caught on the South of the Mackenzie River District. 21 side of Slave Lake, once at Resolution and once at Big Island. Its fur is thick, about 2 inches long, white in color with the under fur a lead tint. In winter the animal is white all over excepting the tip of the nose which is black, a light shade of lead is, however visible on the shanks and feet. These are densely furred and the nails are brown. In summer the fur is about an inch in length, white beneath the belly, but owing to the falling off of the long hairs a stripe of plumbous grey annulated with white, and about three inches broad extends from the nape of the neck to the tail? widening towards the rump and passing over the tops of the thighs. The whiskers white in winter, have brown hairs intermixed, and a yellowish tint surrounds the ears, eyes, and mouth, and tinges the shanks and feet. A. few long dark hairs may be perceived by careful examination, sprinkled down the back, and the tail has a slight plumbous shade mixed with faint yellow. The color does not approximate in either summer or winter pelage to that of the blue Fox which has been erroneously stated to be the young of the white. The white fox measures in a good specimen which I have before me 22 inches from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, which measures 13 inches to the end of the hairs. It is an extremely stupid animal, easily killed and very tame. It is sometimes knocked on the head in open day while following the sleds of the Indians, It lives on mice, carrion, birds, especially Ptarmigan, to which it is a deadly enemy. Borealis, — Blue Fox. In the lack of positive information upon the subject I am un- certain whether to consider this as a mere variety of the white fox, or to class it as a distinct species, but I will,for the present, con- sider it as the former. The Arctic Blue Fox measures 35 inches from the tip of the nose to the root of the tail, which is 13 inches in length to the end of the hairs. Its color in winter is a plumbous brown ; the under fur plumbous, and the larger hairs brown at the tips, with white hairs interspersed but not in great numbers. On the head and nape of the neck the color is a reddish grey, like the tint of a silver fox in summer pelage. Under the throat down to the chest, the color is nearly a pure chocolate paling on the belly into a shade similar to that of the back, the sides and flanks are nearly pure plumbous, mingled with white hairs. The legs are brownish grey, and the fur, which covers the soles of the feet 22 On the Fur-hearing Animals densely, is a dirty white. The claws are nearly an inch long, brown in color, strong, and well curved. The tail is of a like tint with the back, but of a lighter shade. The nose is reddish with a black tip. The fur is remarkably thick and fine, and the tail very full. In summer pelage it is difficult to define the color, but it may be called a smoky brown, on the forehead the grey of the winter coat still remains, and there is also a faint stripe of the same shade down the centre of the back. There is less of the reddish tint throughout than in the winter fur. It has been supposed that the blue fox is the young of the white fox but this I do not think possible. The specimen now before me is full grown, and in fact it would be a very large animal of the other color. The color is also very rare, for while hundreds of white are traded, not more than six, on an average, of the blue are exported yearly from this District. If they were the young of the white the number would be certainly greater. What are traded are all obtained from the Eskimos inhabiting the sea coast, so that it may justly be termed a littoral animal. On only two occasions, to my knowledge, has it been killed inland, and then at the eastern end of Slave Lake close to, or on the barren grounds. But on inspecting the two animals minutely, so close is their re- semblance to one another, except in color, that I am inclined, in default of more precise information, to class them as varieties of the same species, the blue being a rare one and holding the same posi- tion that the silver does in the Fulvus species. An examination of a number of skins would doubtless show shades of color filling up the intermediate position that the cross fox holds to the other group. Family. — Mustelidce, Fam. Ch. Carnivora with a single tubercular molar tooth only, on either side of the jaw ; the sectorial premolar of typical shape ; feet five toed : plantipode, or digitipode. Coccum wanting. The preceding diagnosis, taken from Wagner, expresses in a few words the characters of a group of the carnivora, of which there are several representatives in this District. In this family are contained three sub-families Martinae, Lutrinae and Melinse. These include several genera, comprising species of some of the most valuable and beautiful fur animals of North America. Of the Mephites, I found the bones, and a portion of . the skin of a common skunk, [Mephitis mephitica) lying partially of the Mackenzie River District* 23 decayed in the woods, at a short distance from Fort Resolution on th« shores of Great Slave Lake. But as I have never seen the animal alive there, and the natives report that it does not fre- quent the county within a considerable distance of that post, this sub-family must be considered as unrepresented in the fauna of Mackenzie's River. The food of the Mustelidse is animal. Birds, reptiles, eggs, and especially mice, are eaten by the martins; the otter, and mink eat fish; but the wolverine delights in carrion. This last is a most destructive beast, but an account of its propensities will be given when I come to review the subject in detail. Although these animals are so fierce and blood thirsty when in their natural state, they are far from difficult to tame, and I have seen martins, ermines, minks and otters, in confinment which ap- peared afi'ectionate and graceful pets ; and there is no reason why the wolverine, fisher, and skunk, should not become equal- ly docile, though I doubt if any person would much like the latter animal about the house. Sub-Family. — Martince. Upper true molar short, transversely elongated, molars unequal in the two jaws. Soles generally hairy, the walk more or less plantigrade. In this sub-family are included several animals in- habiting the colder regions of North America, and whose fur is among the most valuable produced on this continent. It contains 3 genera : 1. Mustela. 2. Putorius. 3. Gulo, All of which have representatives in this District. 1, Mustela. — Lin. Teeth 38. Molars one above, and two below, premolars four on each side above and below. Lower sectorial tooth with a small internal tubercle. Body slender : tail rather long. This Genus embraces the martins in distinction to the weasels. Its species are usually of large size, arboreal habits, and all of them yielding peltries of great value. Two and possibly three species inhabit this district, the largest of which is M,Fennanti, another is M. Americanus^ or American pine martin ; and the sable, M. Zebellina, will probably be found in the Northern and N. W. regions to constitute a third. 24 On the Fur-bearing Animals MusTELA Pennanti. — ErxUhen, Sp. Ch. Legs, tail, belly and hinder part of back, black, the back with an increasing proportion of greyish white to the head. Length over two feet. Vertebrae of tail exceeding twelve inches. This animal is the Pecan or Fisher of the fur traders. In this district it is not found except in the vicinity of Fort Resolution, which may be considered as its northern limit. In the numerous deltas of the mouth of Slave Kiver it is abundant, frequenting the large grassy marshes or prairies, for the purpose of catching mice, its principal food. In appearance it bears a strong family likeness to both the martin and the wolverine. Its general shape assimilates more to the former, but the head and ears have a greater simi- litude to those of the latter. It is named by the Chippewayan Indians " Tha cho," or great martin. Its neck, legs and feet are stouter in proportion than those of the martin, and its claws much stronger. In color and size it varies greatly. Young full'furred specimens, or those born the previous spring, can scarcely be dis- tinguished from large martins except by a darker pelage and a less full, and more pointed tail. As it advances towards old age, the color of the fur grows lighter, the long hairs become coarser and the greyish markings are of greater extent and more conspi- cuous. The largest fisher which I have seen, was killed by myself on the Riviere de Argent, one of the channels of the mouth of the Slave River, about 15 miles from Fort Resolution. It was fully as long as a Fulvus fox, much more muscular and weighed 18 lbs. In the color of its fur the greyish tints preponderated, ex- tending from half way down the back to the nose. The fur was comparatively coarse ; though thick and full. The tail was long and pointed, and the whole shade of the pelage was very light and had rather a faded look. Its claws were very strong and of brown color ; and as if to mark its extreme old age the teeth were a good deal worn and very much decayed. I caught it with difficulty. For about two weeks it had been infesting my martin road, tearing down the traps and devouring the baits. So, resolved to destroy it, I made a strong wooden trap. It climbed up this, entered from above, and ate the meat. A gun was next set but with no better success, it cut the line and ran off with the bone that was tied to the end of it. As a " dernier resort " I put a steel trap in the middle of the road, covered it of the. Mackenzie River District. 25 carefully, and set a bait at some distance on each side. Into this it tumbled. From the size of its foot-prints my impression all along was that it was a small wolverine that was annoying me, and I was surprised to find it to be a fisher. It shewed good fight, hissed at me much like an enraged cat, biting at the iron trap, and snapping at my legs. A blow on the nose turned it over when I completed its death by compressing the heart with my foot until it ceased to beat. The skin when stretched for drying was fully as large as a middle sized otter, and very strong, in this respect resembling that of a wolverine. In their habits the fishers resemble the martins. Their food is much the same, but they do not seem to keep so generally in the woods. They are not so nocturnal in their wanderings as the foxes. An old fisher is nearly as great an infliction to a martin trapper as a wolverine. It is an exceedingly powerful animal for its size, and will tear down the wooden traps with ease. Its re- gularity in visiting them is exemplary. In one quality it is how- ever superior to the wolverine, which is that it leaves the sticks of the traps lying where they where planted ; while the other beast if it can discover nothing better to hide, will cache them some distance off". It prefers flesh meat to fish, is not very cunning, and is caught without diflSculty in the steel-trap. Fishers are caught by methods similar to those employed in fox-trapping. MusTELA Americana. — Turton, PinCj or American Martin. Sp. ch. Legs and tail blackish, general color a deep and rich orange brown clouded with black along the back. Head generally light coloured, with the tips of the ears and a stripe along the cheeks yellowish white. A broad orange patch is visible on the throat in some, in others this is nearly pure white, and in many entirely wanting. Sometimes, but rarely, the tip of the tail is white. Tail vertebrae about a third of the length of the body, often longer, outstretched hind feet reach nearly to the end of the tail with the hairs. The M. Americana^ as found in this District, is smaller than the fisher, but larger than the ermine weasels. In its shape it is less muscular, but more graceful than the former of these animals. Its head is somewhat depressed, acute, and broader than might be looked for in so lengthened a skull. The ears are slightly pointed 26 On the Fur-hearing Animals and covered densely on both sides with a short velvety fur, over- laid with coarser hairs. The legs are robust, rather short, and clad with a closer and stiffer hair than that on the body. The claws are about half an inch long, not very stout but sharp, well curved, and white in color. The tail is considerably less than half the length of the body generally, though it is sometimes longer ; it is well covered and tolerably bushy. The feet are comparatively large, densely covered with short woolly fur, mingled with stiflfer hairs, which prevents the naked balls of the toes from being visible in winter, though they are distinctly so when the animal is in summer pelage. The winter fur of this species is full and soft, about an inch and a half deep with a number of coarse black hairs interspersed. The tail is densely covered with two kinds of hair, similar to those of the back but coarser. The hairs on the top are longest, measur- ing 2j inches and giving the end a very bushy appearance. The fur is in full coat from about the end of October until the begin- ning of May, according to locality. When in such a condition the cuticle is white, clean, and very thin. From the latter of these dates the skin acquires a darker hue which increases until the hair is renewed, and then gradually lightens until the approach of winter, the fur remaining good for some time before and after these changes. When casting its hair the animal has far from a pleasing appearance, as the under fur falls off leaving a shabby covering of the long coarser hairs, which have then assumed a rusty tint. The tail changes later than any other part, and is still bushy in some miserable looking summer specimens now lying before me. After the fall of these long hairs, and towards the end of summer a fine and short fur pushes up. When in this state the pelage is very pretty and bears a strong resemblance to a dark mink in its winter coat. It gradually lengthens and thick- ens as winter approaches, and may be considered prime after the first fall of snow. It is diflScult to describe the color of the martin fur accurately. In a large heap of skins (upwards of fifty) which I have just examined minutely, there exists a great variety of shades darken- ing from the rarer of yellowish-white and bright orange, into various shades, of orange-brown some of which are very dark. However, the general tint may with propriety be termed an orange brown, considerably clouded with black on the back and belly, and exhibiting on the flanks and throat more of the orange tint. oj the Mackenzie River District, 27 The legs and paws as well as the top of tlie tail are nearly pure black. The claws are white and sharp. The ears are invariably edged with a yellowish white, and the cheeks are generally of the same hue. The forehead is of a light brownish grey, darkening towards the nose, but in some specimens it is nearly as dark as the body. The yellowish marking under the throat, ( consi- dered as a specific distinction of the pine martins) is in some well defined, and of an orange tint, while in others it is almost per- fectly white. It also varies much in extent reaching to the fore- legs on some occasions. At other times it consists merely of a few spots, while in a third of the specimens under consideration it is entirely wanting. After minutely comparing these skins with Professor Baird's and Dr. Brandt's description of the martins, and the latter gentle- man's paper on the sables, I find that the M. Americana of this district agrees in general more closely with the latter, and am therefore disposed to coincide with that gentleman in his opinion that they are only varieties. The martins of this district bear a greater resemblance to the sables of Eastern Siberia than to the martins of Europe, holding, as it may be with propriety said, an intermediate position. I am also inclined to believe that the va- rious colors found in these regions are simply varieties of the same species, and that the diflference, if any, seen in the Zib. are merely continental. In summer when the long hairs have fallen off, the pelage of this animal is darker than in winter. The fore- head changes greatly, becoming as deeply colored as any other part of the body, which is of an exceedingly dark brown tint on the back, belly, and legs. The yellow throat-markings are much more distinct at this season, but vary much both in color and extent, though in only one summer skin are they absolutely want- ing. The white edging on and around the ears still remains, but the cheeks assume a greyer tint. The tail is not so full, but from the high North latitude (the Arctic coast) from which these skins were procured it is still rather bushy. One of the specimens has the dark hairs laid on in thin longitudinal stripes, causing a curi- ous appearance. Martins are found all over this district, except on the barren ground to which, as they are arboreal animals, they do not resort. Their dens are sometimes excavated, but more frequently are made in a tree. Their principal food is mice, and they are therefore abundant whenever these little creatures are plentiful. §8 On the Fur-hearing Animals The periodical disappearance of this species is very remarkable It occurs in decades, or thereabouts, with wonderful regularity and it is quite unknown what becomes of them. They are not found dead. The failure extends throughout the Hudson Bay Ter- ritory at the same time. And there is no tract, or region to which they can migrate where we have not posts, or into which our hunters have not penetrated. They are caught commonly in wooden traps baited with white- fish heads, pieces of flesh meat, or still better with the heads of wild-fowl, which the natives gather for this purpose, in the Au- tumn. When they are at their lowest ebb in point of numbers, they will scarcely bite at all. Providence appears thus to have implanted some instinct in them by which the total destruction of their race is prevented. Martins are easily tamed, and look exceedingly pretty as pets. When enraged they utter a sound somewhat like the hissing of a domestic cat. PrfTORius, Cuvier, "Teeth 34: molars one above and two below: pre-molars three above and three below, on each side. Lower sectorial tooth without an inner tubercle. Body slender ; tail unusually long. The most striking difference between this genus and the genus Mustela consists in having one molar less on each side above and below. The size is generally smaller, and the body more slender in the typical species. The genus includes many North American groups, which may almost be considered as generic, or at least of sub-generic value. They may be characterized as follows : — Putorius, Body stout, darker below than on the sides. Of this particular group America has no immediate representative. Gall. Body elongated and very slender. Lighter above than below on the sides. Naked pads on the feel small, more or less hidden by the hair. To this group belong all the American weasels, except the minks, unless the P. negripes of Aud. and Bach., should prove an additional exception. Lutreola. Color nearly uniform all over. Feet much webbed. The naked pads on the feet large, not covered up by the hairy soles ; the intervals between the metacarpal and metatarsal pads not occupied by hairs. Posterior upper molar longer than in Gale." Baird. of the Mackenzie River District. 29 Of the above the only species whicli can be included among our fur-bearing animals is : PuTORius VisoN, or common Mink, Sp. ch. Tail about half as long as the body. The winter color varies, according to the age of the specimen, from a very dark blackish brown, to a deep chesnut. Tail not bushy and very black. End of chin white. Length of head and body about 20 inches. Length of tail with hairs about 10 inches. In shape the mink resembles an otter, as it also does in the color and quality of its fur. In size it generally has about the same dimension as the M. Americana. The color of its pelt varies greatly. In winter its shades range from a dark chesnut to a rich brownish black. The tint of all the body is uniform, except that the belly is sensibly lighter, and that there is a series of white blotches, running with greater or smaller breaks from the end of the chin to some distance below the forelegs, and agaiu continued with more regularity from the middle of the belly to the anus. In some skins these markings are of small extent, but I have never seen them entirely wanting. There are commonly spots under either one or both of the forelegs, but not invariably. I have remarked that the coloration of this animal as well as that of the Otter and Beaver grows lighter as it advances in years, and that the white blotches or spots are of greater size and more dis- tinctness in the old than in the young. The fur of a young mink (under three years) when killed in season is very handsome, its color is often an almost pure black. The skin is thin and pliable, approaching nearly to the papery consistency of that of the martin. When aged the hide is thick and the color more rusty. The summer pelage is short, but tolerably close, and is of a reddish brown color, and the tail though still possessing black hairs, shews distinctly the under fur of a decidedly rusty hue. Its feet are rather pointed, and not large. Its legs are short but muscular, and its track in the snow is easily distinguished from that of the martin, whose longer and well covered paws do not sink so deep- ly. Indeed when the snow is at all deep and soft, the mink makes a regular furrow, similar to that made by an otter under like circumstances, though of com'se smaller. Its claws are white and about J- of an inch long. The mink is easily tamed and is exceedingly graceful in its movements. When it locates near 30 On the Fur-bearing Animals a settlement, such as Red River, it is a dreadful destroyer of domestic poultry. In tlie wilderness it exercises this propensity on birds and water-fowl. It is almost omnivorous, being equally fond of fish and flesh. The various methods of trapping this animal have been already detailed, and are similar to those employed in the capture of the martin. It is not difficult to catch in steel traps, though rather shy of wooden ones. I am strongly inclined to the opinion that there is only one species of mink on this continent, and consider it highly probable that the P. Nigrescentes of Aud. & Bach are merely common minks under 3 years of age. I have seen numbers of skins here of exactly the same color, size, and furring as those described under that head in Prof. Baird's work on North American Mam- mals, which were simply young P. visones. This gentleman also states that the American species of mink never has the edge of the upper Up white. I have never seen the whole of that part so colour- ed, but in one specimen now on my table there is a white spot beneath the nostrils. GuLo: Storr, *' Teeth 38, molars 5 above and 6 below. Lower sectorial teeth without any internal tubercle. Soles densely hairy with 6 small naked pads. Tail about as long as the head, very full and bushy Body stout, bear-hke. Baird. GuLO Luscus, Wolverine. Sp. Ch. — The, winter color, dark brown along the back. A broad band of much lighter yellowish browp passes from the shoulder downwards alono; each side to the root of the tail Forehead, cheeks, and nape of the neck grey. A number of yellow, orange, or while spots irregularly scattered from the throat to the foreleg. Feet and end of tail black. Dental formula incisors ff, cansores |f, premolars |-f, molars ii.=i|.=38. TTie head of the Wolverine bears, in colouring and in shape, a strong likeness to that of the M. Pennanti. In general appear- ance and movements it greatly resembles the JJrsus Americanus^ as well as in the consistency and length of its fur. Its walk, however, is not nearly so plantigrade as that of the latter animal, oj the Mackenzie River District. 31 as is evident from an inspection of the soles of its feet, which are densely covered with hair. The head is broad and rounded, and the nose not so acute as in members of the genus Mustela. The eyes are small and far apart, the ears low and rounded, thickly covered on the outside with a long soft far which nearly conceals them. The whiskers are comparatively short, stiff, and not numerous ; and there are over each eye sparse tufts of similar hairs. The body is long and stout, of great muscular power, and formed more for strength than activity. The feet are larger in proportion than those of any other species of the sub-family Mar- tinge, and are armed with strong claws, well curved and over an inch in length. The skin which I propose now to describe is that of a female killed in last March. It is that of an average sized animal, whose coloration also is of the ordinary shades, and may be accepted with great propriety as a type of the species as found in this dis- trict. The pelage in winter is formed of a soft woolly under-fur, tolerably fine and about an inch deep and overlaid by larger and coarser hairs, which are about 3 inches long on the rump, but shortening gradually towards the head where they measure only half an inch. The feet are large and broad — the hind feet larger than the fore feet — and all densely covered with mingled fur and hair about f of an inch in depth. The balls of the toes are naked, but from the thickness of the covering's of the feet, they leave no impres- sion upon the snow. By careful examination three additional small bare pads will be discovered on each foot. The nails are strong, sharp, well curved, white, and upwards of an inch in length, those of the fore feet being, if anything, the stronger, though there is little difference either in length or shortness. Comparatively speaking the tail is rather short, very bushy, particularly towards the end, which has the appearance as if a piece were cut off. The fur covering it is of the same kind as that on the body, but the under fur is not so thick, and there are more of the coarse hairs which are here from 5 inches long at the root to 6 at the tip. The color of the fur varies much according to the season and age. The younger animals are invariably darker in the shadings than the old, which exhibit more of the grey markings. In the speci- men under consideration, the back from the nape of the neck to the rump is a dark blackish brown perceptibly lighter on the 32 On the Fur-hearing Animals neck and shoulders. From the fore-leg a stripe of yellowish brown, about 3 inches broad, sweeps round each side, and grows lighter as it proceeds, passes over the tops of the thighs and ends at the root of the tail, giving the back of the animal almost the appear- ance of an Eskimo's tunic or shirt : and it is possible that these people may have borrowed their fashion from the Wolverine, whose fur is greatly in request among them. The colors of the head are thus arranged. From the nose to between the eyes and around them the hair is very short and is almost quite black. The forehead, ears, cheeks, and nape are of a brownish grey shade which gradually changes as it meets the darker tints and longer fur of the body. From the chin to the fore-legs along the throat, a black stripe of varied breadth extends, broken with large blotches of white or orange yellow. The belly is of the same shade as the back until near the anus, where a spot of bright orange yellow hairs extends to about four inches. The root half of the tail is light yellowish brown, and the top mostly black without any mixture of white hairs. The legs and feet are black. There is a yellowish spot on the inner side of the fore-legs about half way down, and the fur of the soles is of a light brown tint. The summer pelage is of a light color, course and thin. In some specimens the yellowish fringing of the sides and rump is almost entirely white and of larger extent, leaving but a narrow stripe on the centre of the back dark. In such the hoary markings of the head would be of greater extent, and descend, most probably, to the shoulders. In examining the skull of the Wolverine, the most striking points are the shortness and broadness of its muzzle, and the roundness of the cranium, giving promise of a certain quantity of reasoning powers, which the nature and habits of this animal do certainly not belie. The entire structure is massive, the skull and bones are thick and ponderous, and the muscles of the neck and limbs of immense volume. Indeed every requisite is appar- ently united to form a beast of extraordinary strength, and I do not wonder now at the almost fabulous feats, considering its size, that it has performed. The first measurements of the following table are taken from Prof. Baird's work on North American Mammals, and are inserted for comparison. He does not mention whether the specimen was measured before or after skinning, or whether it was an ordinary " case " skin, or purposely prepar- ed for a Natural History specimen. If it be a common trading of the Mackenzie River District, 33 peltry the measurements will appear of a mucli larger animal than the reality Length from nose to eye " % " ear " " occiput " " to root of tail Length of vertebrae of tail " tail to end of hairs .... Height of Ear Length of forefoot with claws. . . . " hind foot " claws (average) ..,,.,. " upper canines , " lower canines " longest hairs of tail . . . . , « " " of body..., Dimensions of the skin in Smith. Institute from F.Union Nebraska Dimensions of a female (March) from McKenzie River, Inches. Inches. 2.80 6.10 6.90 36.00 34.80 9.00 8.00 14.00 13.00 2.00 4.40 5.60 1.00 .90 .75 7.00 7.50 4.00 4.00 The habits and food of the Wolverine are similar to thos^ of the Martin. It hunts birds, hares, mice, and will also occasionally kill disabled animals of the deer kind. But its greatest notoriety arises from the mischief which it does to the caches of meat, and trapping roads, both of the natives and white residents. The strongest caches built of green logs, and a foot in diameter, and dove-tailed it will manage to effect an entrance into. After satis- fying its hunger, it is not yet contented, but carries off the remain- der of the pieces of meat, even those weighing upwards of 100 lbs., transporting them to some distance and burying them in the snow. Can. Nat. 3 Vol. VI. 34 On the Fur-hearing Aniinals By following tbe animal's footprints those hidden stores can be re- covered ; but in general quite uneatable, as the wolverine to protect its secret hoards from the attacks of other beasts of prey be- sprinkles all his larder plentifully with his urine, which has a strong and most disagreeable odour, and proves a good preserva- tion in most cases. But the desire for accumulating property seems so deeply implanted by nature in this animal, that hke tame ravens, it does not appear to care much what it steals so that it can exercise its favourite propensity to commit mischief. An instance occurred within my own knowledge in which a hunter and his family having left their lodge unguarded during their absence, on their return found it completely gutted, the walls were there, but nothing else. Blankets, guns, kettles, axes, cans, knives and all the other paraphernalia of a trapper's tent had vanished, and the tracks left by the beast shewed who had been the thief. The family set to work and by carefully following up all his paths recovered, with some trifling exceptions, the whole of the lost property. The damage which it does to a trapping road is very great, indeed, if the animal cannot be killed it is as well to abandon it as he will not only break the traps and eat the bait or animals caught, but also out of sheer malice will carry away the sticks and hide them at some distance. To kill or catch it is very difficult. An old stager is a regular bug-bear to the Indians. " Master," said one to me in his own language, " I cant hunt furs, the wolverine eats the martins and baits, and smashes my traps, I put a steel trap for him, he got in, but released himself by screw- ing off the nuts confining the spring with his teeth. I set a gun , he cut the cord attached to the trigger, ate the bait, and broke the stock, what shall I do ?" As the infallible strychnia had not then made its appearance in these parts, I could offer him neither advice nor assistance, and but little consolation. Suh-family, — Luteins. Mustelida with the upper posterior tubercular molar large? quadrate. The number of molars the same in each jaw. Feet short, palmated. The typical otters bear a strong resemblance to the minks, the last mentioned group of the weasels, although the skull and teeth approximate much more nearly to the Melina. The body is elongated, the feet short, the toes palmated. The species are generally of large size and all more or less aquatic. The group of the Otter embraces three principal genera ; Lutrai of the Mackenzie River District, 35 Pterura, Enhydris. The former again have been subdivided into those with claws well developed, and those with very rudimen- tary ones or none at all. Pterura is a distinct Genus, having the tail dilated laterally on either side. " Of Lutra N. America probably possesses two species, of Enhydris one." Baird. Lutra Canadensis. — American Otter. " Sp. ch. length about 4J feet muzzle longer than wide, send- ing down a naked point along the median line of the upper lips anteriorly. Under surfaces of the feet so covered with hair to- wards the circumference as completely to isolate the naked pads of the tips. A hairy strip extending forward from beneath the carpus on the palm. Color above, liver brown barely lighter beneath, inferior surface and sides of head dirty whitish." Baird. In appearance the otter is a magnified mink. Its walk, fur, and color bear strong simihtudes to those of the latter animal, and the lightening of the tints of the pelage in old age is the same in both. Its fur is short and thick, the under fur being of a silvery white shade, slightly waved and silky, and of similar texture to that of the beaver but not so long. The color of the overlying hairs varies from a rich and glossy brownish black to a a dark chesnut. In summer the color is a rusty brown, and the fur is shorter and thinner. The habits of the otter are aquatic. From the shortness of its legs its motions on shore are not so quick as when in the water and as its food is principally fish, it resides in winter near some lake or river where it keeps a hole open in the ice all the season. During this period of the year its migrations on land are toilsome and it leaves a deep furrow or path in the snow, which when seen by the trapper soon after the animal has passed, invariably leads to the distruction of the animal. If a trap be set on this road the otter is nearly certain to be caught, as it has a strong objection to opening new paths through the deep snow. In firing at an otter in the water care must be taken not to shoot it in an immediately vital part as if death ensue instantaneously the body will sink like a stone. Whether the Lutra Californica be found in this district, or whether that animal be only a variety of the species under consi- deration I cannot say : but an examination of a greater number of specimens will, in time, determine the matter. 36 Addenda to the Natural History Family. — Ursid^e. " Fam. Ch. Toes distinctly separated, five on each foot ; walk plantigrade ; coccum wanting. The sectorial tooth and the molars behind them tuberculated. Ursus. — Linn. Gen. Ch. Body thick, clumsy, and large. Feet entirely plantigrade ; soles naked ; nails long ; tail very short ; head very broad. Dentition, incisors |:| caniues \'.\ premolars |:f molars |:| II = 42." Baird. Of this sub-family those found in this district will probably be : 1. Ursus Americanus. 2. Ursus Horrihilis. 3. Ursus Mari- timus, and 4. Ursus Arctos or Barren Ground Bear. Of the identity of the second and fourth of these, I am not by any means certain, and one at least, if not both, will probably be found to be an unnamed if not an und escribed species. ARTICLE III. — Addenda to the Natural History of the Valley of the River Rouge. By W. S. M. D' Urban. {Seepages 81—99 Vol. V.) Lepidoptera. The names and descriptions of the following species were not received from Mr. Francis AValker in time for publication in their proper places, in the second part of the " Natural History of the River Rouge," contained in the April number of this Magazine. Sphingina. — Family, ^geriidae, Steph. Thyris vitrina^ Boisd. Bevin's Lake, Montcalm, 5th July. Bombycina. — Family, Liparidae, Walker. Dasychira clandestina, Walker, M. S. S., n. sp. Bevin's Lake, Montcalm, lih July. " Mas. Cinerea, nigroraria, dense pilosa ; antenna breves, late pecti- natse ; pedes breves, pilosissimi; alae nigro nebulosas, lineis quatuor denis undulatis nigris apud costam dilatatis.'"' " Male. Cinereous, varied with black, thickly pilose. Antennae short, broadly pectinated. Legs short, very pilose. Wings partly shaded with black, with four irregular undulating black lines which are dilated on the costa of the forewings ; under side paler, with the lines obsolete except by the costa. Length of the body 6 lines, of the wings 14 lines." Walker, M.S.S. of the Valley of the River Rouge. 37 Jludela. N. G. Walker, M.S.S. Mas. Corpus crassum, pilosissimum. Proboscis brevis, tenuis. Palpi breves, graciles, oblique ascendentes ; articulus 3us longi-conicus, 21 dimidio brevior. Antenna subpectinatae, ramis subclavatis. Ab- domen depressum, apice quadratum, alas posticas paullo superans. Pedes robusti, pilosissimi, calcaribus breviusculis. Alae validae ; an- ticae apice subrotundatae, margine exteriore vix convexo sat ob- liquo." " iJfaZe. Body thick, very pilose. Proboscis short, feeble. Palpi short, slender, obliquely ascending ; third joint elongate- conical, less than half the length of the second. Antennse slightly pectinated ; branches subclavate. Abdomen depressed, quadrate at the tip, extending a little beyond the hind wings. Legs stout, very pilose ; spurs rather short. Wings stout, moderately broad. Forewings somewhat rounded at the tips ; costa straight ; exterior border hardly convex, rather oblique ; interior angle not prominent." Jiudela acronyctoides, Walker, M.S.S. , n. sp. Township of Montcalm, June. " Mas. Albida, nigro-varia ; antennae fulvae ; abdomen nigricans, segmentis albido marginatis ; alae anticae nigricantes, fasciis tribus albidis, la lata diffusa informis, 2a 3a que angustis angulosis sub- parallelis, litura discali obliqua sublunata nigro marginata ; pos- ticae pallide cinereae, trilineatae." " Male. Whitish, mingled with black. Antennse tawny. Abdomen blackish ; hind borders of the segments whitish. Legs mostly black ; tarsi with white bands. Forewings blackish with three whitish bands, first band broad, diffuse, very irregular ; second and third slender, zigzag, nearly parallel to each other ; discal mark oblique, sublunate, black-bordered ; fringe blackish, with white streaks op- posite the veins. Hindwings pale cinereous ; discal mark, one inte- rior and two diffuse undulating exterior lines, dark cinereous : marginal line black. Length of the body 9 lines ; of the wings 18 lines." Walker, M.S.S. Family, Notodontidae, Steph. Heterocampa semiplaga, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Common, Township of Montcalm, June. ^^ Mas et FcBm. Cinerea, dense pilosa, olivaceo subtincta ; palpi ob- lique ascendentes ; thorax postice et abdomen basi nigra ; alae nigro nebulosae, lineis tribus nigris denticulatis indistinctis, linea marginali nigra, fimbria nigro punctata ; anticae linea submarginali e guttis nigris." ^^ Male and Female. Cinereous, thickly pilose, with a slight olive- green tinge, whitish cinereous beneath. Palpi distinct, obliquely ascending, ndt extending beyond the frontal tuft. Thorax by the hind border and abdomen at the base black. Wings partly clouded with black, adorned with three indistinct irregular denticulated black lines ; marginal line black ; fringe with black points. Fore- 38 Addenda to the Natural History wings somewhat rounded at the tips, with a submarginal line of black dots. Male. Antennae tawny, moderately pectinated to three- fourths of the length. Female. Antennae simple. Length of the body 9 lines ; of the wings 20 lines. Walker^ M.S.S. Noctuina. — Family, Bryophilidae, Guen. Bryophila ? spectans, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Township of Montcalm, June. " Mas. Alba, nigro varia ; palpi lanceolati, caput superantes, nigro fasciati ; abdomen cinereum, segmentis albo marginatis ; alae an- ticae lineis duabus nigris duplicatis valde dentatis, 2a valde flexa, orbiculari et reniformi e annulis duabus magnis incompletis nigris, guttis marginalibus nigris ; posticae litura discali lineaque dentata undulata nigricantibus." ^^ Male. White, varied above with black. Palpi lanceolate, extending somewhat beyond the head ; second joint with a black band. Ab- domen cinereous, white at the tip and on the hind border of each segment. Tarsi with black rings. Forewings with two pairs of very dentated black lines, of which the outer pair is much bent, orbicular and reniform marks forming two large incomplete black ringlets, of which the outer one has the usual form ; marginal dots black. Hindwings above and below, and forewings below, with a discal mark and an undulating dentate line blackish. Length of the body 5 lines ; of the wings 14 lines." Walker, M.S.S. Family, Bombycoidae, Guen. Microcelial retardata, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Locality not recorded. " Mas. Pallide cinerea ; palpi oblique ascendentes, nigro fasciati, ar- ticulo, 3o longiconico ; antennae breviusculae ; alae anticae lineisj tribus dentatis nigris, linea la basali, 2a 3a que duplicatis, 3a flexa orbiculari et reniformi nigricante notatis et marginatis, fimbria nigro punctata ; posticae litura discali lineaque exteriore undulata nigricantibus." "Male. Pale cinereous. Palpi obliquely ascending, not rising higher than the vertex ; second joint with a broad black band ; third elongate-conical less than half the length of the second. Antennae rather short. Abdomen not extending beyond the hindwings. Forewings with five dentated black lines, of which one is basal, and the other four form two pairs which are remote from each other, the outer pair much bent ; orbicular and reniform marks large, of the usual form, with blackish disks and black borders ; fringe with black points ; underside and hind wings with a discal mark and an undulating exterior line blackish, these are most dis- tinct on the under side of the hind wings. Length of the body 4^ lines ; of the wings 14 lines." Walker, M.S.S. Family, Noctuidae, Guen. jigrotis spissa ? Guen. Hamilton's Farm, August. of the Valley of the River Rouge, 39 Family, Orthosiidae, Guin. Cerastis anchocelioides^ Gu^n. Township of Montcalm, June. Geometrina. — Family, Ennomidae, Guin. Hyperetis alienaria^ Herr Sch. Township of Montcalm, June. Endropia refractaria, Guen. Common near Hamilton's Farm, 4th Sep- tember. Azelina Huhneraria^ Guen. Locality not recorded. Family, Boarmidae, Guen. Chora limitaria, "Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Sixteen-Island Lake, May. " F(sm. Albida ; palpi nigri, brevissimi, caput pallo superantes ; alae antice lineis quinque dentatis undulatis nigris, fasciis tribus fus- cente einereis, 3a postice abbreviata, linea marginali e punctis nigris ; posticae gutta discali, lineis duabus, exterioribus indis- tinetis." Walker^ M.S.S. '^Female. Whitish. Palpi black, very short, rising very slightly above the head. Antennae pale cinereous. Forewings with five dentated, undulating black lines, and three brownish-cinereous bands, the third abbreviated behind : the marginal line spotted with black. Hind wings with a faint discal spot, and two exterior indistinct lines. Length of the body 4^ lines ; of the wings 14^ lines." Chora diversaria, Walker. Township of Montcalm, June. " distinctaria^ Walker. Sixteen-Island Lake, Montcalm, May. Boarmia converzaria, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Township of Montcalm, June. (Description omitted). " inordinariaj Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Township of Montcalm, June. (Description omitted). " cunearia, Walker, M.S.S. , n. sp. Abundant, Sixteen-Island Lake, Montcalm, May. (Description omitted). " divisaria, Walker, M.S S., n. sp. Township of Montcalm, June. (Description omitted). " ? patularia, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Very numerous, Sixteen-Is- land Lake, June. (Description omitted). Family, Acidalidae, Guen. ^cidalia junctaria, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Locality not recorded. " Feem. Candida; caput antice nigrum; palpi brevissimi; thorax antice testaceus ; alae nigro subconspersae, lineis duabus testaceis indistinctis obliquis." *^ Femah. Pure white. Head black in front. Palpi very short. Foreborder of the thorax testaceous. Legs slightly testaceous- tinged. Wings very minutely black speckled with two indistinct oblique testaceous lines. Length of the body 4 lines ; of the wings 11 lines." Walker, M.S.S. 40 Addenda to the Natural History Family, Caberidae. Corycia hermineata, Guen, Township of Montcalm, June. Family, Macaridae. Macaria? subapiciaria, Walker, n. sp. Locality not recorded. <' Mas. Albida, gracilis ; palpi breves, subascendentes ; anteiinsfe pubescentes ; alae fusco dense conspersae, litura discali fusca, punctis marginalibus nigris ; anticse lineis quatuor fuscis diffusis indistinctis nigricante notatis ; posticae angulatee." " Male. Whitish, slender. Palpi short, slightly ascending, extending very little beyond the front. Antennae pubescent. Wings thickly speckled with brown ; discal mark brown ; marginal points black. Forewings with four diffuse and very indistinct brown lines, which are distinguished by some blackish marks, and end on the costa in four blackish spots ; the adjoining spaces more white than the wings elsewhere. Hind wings with the exterior border angular. Length of the body 5 lines ; of the wings 14 lines." Walker, M.S.S Family, Larentidae, Guen. Melanippe propriaria, Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Common, Sugar-bush Lake, Montcalm, June. " Fcem. Nigra ; corpus subtus albidum ; palpi porrecti, brevissimi ; anticse fascia exteriore lata nivea apud angulum interiorem sub- furcata." ^^ Female. Black, slender. Body and legs whitish beneath. Palpi porrect, very short, hardly extending beyond the front. Fore- wings with a broad exterior upright snow-white band, which is slightly furcate by the interior angle. Length of the body 3^ lines ; of the wings 10 lines." Walker, M.S.S. Cosemia ? palparia. Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Locality not recorded. ^^ Mas. Cinerea fusco-conspersae ; palpi porrecti, longi, compress!, pilosi ; alae anticae fascia obscure fusca lata albido marginata, extus undulata, intus postice dilatata, linea exteriore indistincta angu- losa obscure fusca, gutta subapicali punctisque marginalibus nigris, fimbria albo punctata." " Male. Cinereous, brown-speckled. Palpi porrect, long, compressed, pilose, extending rather far beyond the head. Forewings with a broad dark brown band which is undulating, whitish-bordered and slightly angular on the outer side, and is diffuse on the inner side, except hindward, where it is dilated and whitish bordered, and forms a prominent angle ; space near the exterior side of the band whitish, succeeded by an indistinct zigzag dark brown line, which is accompanied by a brown spot on each border ; subapical dot and marginal points black ; fringe with white points. Hindwings with a blackish marginal line. Length of the body 5 lines ; of the wings 14 lines." Walker, M.S.S. af the Valley of the River Rouge, 41 Cidaria ladispargaria, "Walker, M.S.S., n. sp. Abundant at Sixteen- Island Lake, May. " Mas. Pallida fusca ; palpi brevissimi ; alse linea alba undulata in- forme incompleta nigricante notata, punctis marginalibus nigris ; antice litura discali nigricante, linea interiore nigra undulata." " Male. Pale brown. Palpi very short. Abdomen and hindwings cinereous, brown speckled ; the former with a compressed apical tuft. Wings with an undulating irregular, incomplete blackish marked white line, and with black marginal points. ForewingS with the middle part somewhat darker, with a blackish discal mark, and with a black interior, irregular, undulating line. Length of the body 5 lines ; of the wings 13 lines." Walker, M.S.S. Pyralidina. — Family, Botydae, GuSn. Botys magniferalis, Walker, M.S.S. , n.sp. Sugar-bush Lake, Montcalm, June. " 3fas. Alba, subiridescens ; palpi extus fusci ; thorax fusco subcon- spersus ; abdomen fusio fasciatum ; alse anticae fusco varias, maculis duabus magnis anticis fuscis, fimbria fusco inter lineata ; posticse fusco conspersse." " 3Iale. White, slightly iridescent. Palpi brown on the outer side. Thorax slightly speckled with brown. Abdomen with irregular dark brown bands. Forewings excepting the discal part mottled with brown ; two large brown spots extending from the costa to the disk, the inner one narrower than the outer one and not half it3 length ; fringe diflfusedly interlined with brown. Hindwings irre- gularly speckled with brown. Length of the body 5 lines ; of the wings 14 lines." Walker, M.S.S. Euhulea tertialis, Guen. This is the species mentioned at p. 95 of Volume V, as so abundant on Raspberry blossoms in July, at Bevin's Lake, Montcalm. Note. — The new species mentioned above without descriptions, will probably be described in the British Museum Catalogues of the Geome- trina now publishing. The following three species of Neuroptera were determined for me at the British Museum : — PolystcBchotes nebulosus, Fabr. (sticticus, Buin.) and Osmylus validus^ Walker. This fine insect is very numerous in August in the pre- sent district, and also about Montreal near water. It flies at all hours of the night, often dashing into one's face, and with its large soft, gauzy wings communicates a very unpleasant sensation, especially to a solitary watcher by a lonely camp fire in the back- woods. It closes its wings and falls head foremost to the ground immediately it strikes against any object, and remains motionless for a few seconds before again taking wing. It is much attracted to light. 42 On the occurrence of Freshwater Shells Hermes maculatus. Common, flying by day in July the whole way up the Rouge. I have also taken it at Sorel, and it occurs in the Eastern Townships. It generally hovers over the water. Panorpa subfurcata. Observed at Bevin's Lake, Montcalm ; Huckleberry Rapids, De Salaberry ; and Hamilton's Farm ; July to September. Although the Diptera are so very numerous, not only in species but in individuals, that they are without exaggeration the worst evils of back-woods life, witness the various species of " Deer-fly " (Tabanus) J Golden-eye (^Chrysops), ''Black-fly" [Simulium), Mos' quito (^Culex), and " Sand-fly," all of which are more or less annoying. I am sorry to say I collected but a few specimens some of which were destroyed and most of the others I have been unable to determine. The Hymenoptera collected will be noticed elsewhere. Exeter, Devonshire, June 2nd, 1860. ARTICLE ly. — On the occurrence of Freshwater Shells in some of our Post Tertiary Deposits. By Robert Bell. (Presented to the Natural History Society of Montreal.) The various deposits described in the following paper are of diflfereut ages and have been formed under very difierent circum- stances, but are arranged under the same head for the sake of convenience. Montreal. Early in the spring of 1858 I accompanied Mr. D'Urban, who has done much for the cause of Natural History in Canada, on several excursions to collect fossils at the localities in the vicinity of Montreal where drift shells had been discovered. In examin- ing the sides of Mr. Peel's clay pits, which are excavated in the 120 feet terrace, we discovered a few specimens of Limncea cape- rata^ Say, in place, in a thin layer of sand immediately above the Leda clay and more than three feet below the surface of the ground, which is level at the place. In the same bed with these fresh water shells Saxicava rugosa^ Tellina greenlandica^ Mya arenaria, Mya truncata and Mytilis edulis are associated ; and in the clay immediately underlying it Leda Portlandica was found, but not in any abundance. About the same time that this Limnsea was found at Mr. PeePs in some of our Post Tertiary Deposits* 43 brick yard, I received a fine specimen of Limncea umhrosa, Say, from Sir Wm. Logan, -who obtained it from the tbin bed of sand at the same locality. A Cyclas and L. umhrosa were found by Dr. Dawson amongst marine shells thrown out of a ditch on Logan's Farm.* I have collected specimens of the latter at the same place and believe them to be contemporaneous with the marine shells. I might mention that the ponds on the highest part of Mon- treal Mountain, about 700 feet above the level of the sea, teem with Limncea umhrosa and L. caperata^ besides numerous other species of our common fresh water Gasteropods. Ponds, with all these species living in them, may have existed in the same situation when Montreal Mountain was an island in the sea which covered the surrounding plain, and from them the rills running down its sides may have carried the specimens found in the sand which was then being deposited around its base. Green's Creek. Green's Creek enters the Ottawa in the Township of Gloucester, on the south side, about ten miles below Ottawa City. Here, the Leda clay has aflforded a larger number and more interesting variety of fossils than at any other locality. At low water, which is generally in the month of September, the shore of the Ottawa for about two miles from the mouth of the creek upwards, is strewn with nodules of all manner of curious shapes washed from the base of the steep bank of clay which rises from high water mark. In looking over the collection of nodules from this locality in the Museum of the Geological Survey, I found two specimens oi Limncea stagnalis, one of our commonest living species. Both had been partially filled with clay, now a hard stone, while they still retained their original shape. With the exception of the splendid Limncea meyasoma, which inhabits the Ottawa valley, this is the largest species in Canada. It was called L. jugularis by Say, but is identical with the European L. stagnalis. One meets with these shells in almost every warm marsh or pond on the south side of the Ottawa, and it is interesting to know that their progenitors lived in this country while the Leda clay was being deposited and a deep sea covered their present abode. * Canadian Naturalist, vol. iv. p. 36, vol. 11, p. 422. 44 On the occurrence of Freshwater Shells Not only have marine shells and this fresh water species been found at Green's Creek, but also the remains of two seals, three kinds offish, leaves, wood and nuts of land plants, three or more species of marine algae and specimens of Asteracanthion polaris Mull, the most abundant starfish now inhabiting the Lower St* Lawrence, and future researches at this localitv will no doubt add many more fresh water, as well as marine species, to our Post Pliocene fauna. Terraces aroukd Lake Ontario. On the south side of Lake Ontario a remarkable ridsre* com- posed of loose materials, extends from Sodus in Wayne County wes- ward to Lewiston on the Niagara River, a distance of 100 miles and a continuation of the same ridge has been traced to the head of the lake. The general contour of this " Lake Ridge," as it is called, is parallel to the present shore of the lake, its extreme varia- tions being three miles at its least and eight at its greatest distance from the shore. A carriage road runs along its summit, the gene- ral elevation of which is so uniform, that when the road is toler- ably straight, a traveller can be seen as far as the eye can reach. A remarkable feature of this ancient boundary of the lake is that it declines more or less on the inland, as well as the lake side, thus constituting a true ridge, which damming the surface water, forms marshes on the upper side. This fact can be no objection to the supposition of its marking a former boundary of the lake, for we find similar ridges now forming along low exposed shores. The rarity of shells in it, is perhaps as a circumstance in favour o^ the supposition of its being of fresh water, and not marine origin, as shells are very scarce along the open shores of the great lakes, and one might search a long time in similar ridges now forming without finding any. The elevation of the summit of the ridge above Lake Ontario opposite Middleport is 185 feet, opposite Albion and Brockport it is 188 feet. The distance comprised within these three observa- tions is thirty miles, in which the elevation of the ridge varies only three feet; in Wayne County it is estimated at 200 feet. Fragments of wood, shells, &c., are found embedded in it; the shells were not collected by Mr. Hall himself but he has no doubt * The facts here given in regard to the " Lake Ridge " are derived from Hall's Geology of New York, Part IV. in some of our Post Tertiary Deposits. 45 of their occurrence. In his annual report of 1838 he remarks that Uhiones are said to have been found in the ridge. Should the shells of this deposit prove to be of fresh water origin, and since no marine shells have been found in it, we might be induced to beheve that Lake Ontario once stood far above its present level, and that a barrier which kept it at that level has since been removed ; but on the contrary, as there is no actual proof that such a barrier did exist, we have reason to conjecture that it was formed while the sea stood at that level. Allowing the water by which the Lake Ridge was thrown up to have been 175 feet over the present level of Lake Ontario, we should have about 410 feet as its elevation above the present sea level ; this corresponds exactly with that of the littoral deposit in Nepean on the Ottawa, in which Sir Wm. Logan has found marine shells, and it would not be surprising if future researches prove them to be contem- poraneous — perhaps also with the terrace on the back of Montreal Mountain which is 50 or 60 feet higher, — for littoral deposits at considerable distances apart may be of the same age though at different elevations, as these differences may be due to an unequal amount of upheaval or to a difference in the heights to which the tides rose. One of the numerous terraces which run along the north side of the lake will no doubt be found to mark an elevation corres- ponding to that of the " Lake Ridge " on the south ; probably the "Pine Ridge" which is so well marked is the one. The late Mr. Roy, who long ago levelled the terraces behind Toronto, gave 108, 208, 280, 308, 344, 420, 680 and 762 feet as the eleva- tions there of ancient beaches above Lake Ontario. Dr. Dawson the other day showed me two specimens of a 3fe- lania and one of Unio ellipsis from a sandy deposit not far from Toronto.* They are described as having been found immediately above the Silurian roek in the drift about five miles from the Asy- lum. Both the Melanias are filled with sand but on the back of the Unio there is a thin layer of clay which again is impre- gnated with sand. The deposit from which these shells are de- rived may be of the same age as the ridge on the other side of the lake. Professor Chapman informs me that he has collected specimens of a Planorhis in sand and gravel about 46 feet above the lake in the neighbourhood of Belleville. * Collected by B. Workman, Esq., M.D. 46 On the occurrence of Freshwater Shells Altliough some of the lower terraces behind Toronto might have been formed by the lake when at a greater elevation, the higher ones were doubtless formed during the period of the glacial drift. I will mention a circumstance which may be one reason for inferring that Lake Ontario was filled with fresh water at the time when the sea stood at one of the best marked zones of the Post Pliocene formation to the eastward. It is well known that the very common little bivalve Tellina groenlandica delights in salt water which is largely mixed with fresh and is most abundant in friths or bays where rivers enter the sea. In descending the St. Lawrence from Quebec, it is the first marine shell one meets with and is extremely abundant when the upper limit of other marine species is reached. When the salt water extended up the valley of the St. Lawrence to some point between Montreal and Kings- ton, we should naturally expect the same state of things to have existed. Now, in the drift deposits at Prescott, at about 250 feet above the sea, Tellina groenlandica is very abundant and T did Dot observe any other species ; from this fact, and considering the situation of the locality, it appears evident that the estuary was here diluted with fresh water when the sea stood at this level, but the argument is open to many objections. Niagara Falls. In 1859 an opportunity was afforded me of examining the an- cient bed of the Niasfara River near the Falls. Between the Clifton House and the toll-gate below, a deposit of gravel and sand, rich in fluviatile shells, occurs between the ancient bank of the river, and the cliff overhanging the present gorge. At a spot on the road-side where a quantity of the sand and gravel had been excavated, I collected the following species : — 1. Planorhis bicarinatus. 9. Amnicola porata. 2. Physa heterostropha. 10. Unio gibbosus. 3. Limncea caperata, ll. ** complanatus, 4. " stagnalis. 12. '* ellipsis. 5. Melania JViagarensis. 13. '* rectus. 6. " conica. 14. Margaritana marginata. 1. " acuta. 15. Cyclas similis. 8. Paludina decisa, 16. Psidium dubium ? A portion of a land snail, probably Helix albolabris was also in some of our Post Tertiary Deposits, 47 found. Many of the bivalves were perfect, having the valves closed, and from the position in which they were found, appeared to have lived on the spot where they are buried. These shells may have lain here for thousands of years, although their geolo- gical date is extremely recent. Similar terraces occur on Goat Island, and along the American side of the river from the Falls to the whirlpool. A mastodon's tooth was found in this ftuviatile terrace opposite Goat Island, at a depth of nine feet below the surface, but it does not follow from this, that the mastodon lived at the time of its formation, for the tooth might have been washed from an older deposit. These terraces being all on the same level, and the Uhiones occurring in them in the position in which they had lived, are facts which im- ply that they were once connected so as to form a continuous stratum, extending over the position occupied by the present gorge, and also that they have been deposited in a tranquil widening of the river, like that between Chippawa and Buffalo. They also afford a conclusive proof that the Falls have receded. These terraces are described by Hall, Lyell and Ramsay. Terraces around Georgian Bay. The more inaccessible parts of the Province have naturally re- ceived less of the attention of scientific men, than those in the vicinity of her cities or along her great thoroughfares. I am not aware of anything having yet been published in regard to the lake terraces of the region under notice, with the exception of a paper by Sandford Fleming, C. E., on '* The Valley of the Not- tawasaga,"* from which I extract the following : — " There are appearances in various parts of this region which lead us to infer that the waters of Lake Huron like those of Ontario, formerly stood at higher levels than they at present occupy. Parallel terraces and ridges of sand and gravel can be traced at different places winding round the heads of bays and points of high land with perfect horizon- tatlity, and resembling in every respect the present lake beaches ; one of them particularly strikes the attention in the Bay of Penetanguishene, at a height of about 70 feet above the level of the lake ; it can be seen dis- tinctly on either side from the water, or by a spectator standing on one bank while the sun shines obliquely on the other, so as to throw the deeper parts of the terrace in shadow. The accompanying section, sketched! from a cutting a little below Jeffrey's tavern, in the Village of * Read before the Canadian Institute in 1853, and published in the first volume of the Canadian Journal. t This sketch resembles a cross section of a side-hill road, where the earth has been excavated on the upper and thrown to the lower side. 48 071 the occurrence of Freshwater Shells Penetanguishene, will serve to show the manner in which the soil has been removed from the side hill and deposited in a position formerly under water, by the continued mechanical action of the waves. Not only does the peculiar stratification of the lower part of the terrace con- firm the supposition that it was deposited on the shore of an ancient lake, but the fact that such excavations have been made in this land- locked position, where the waves could never have had much force, goes far to prove that the lake stood for a long period at this high level, " Another ancient beach mark about 15 miles inland, and as far as yet ascertained, about the same level as the one at Penetanguishene, can be traced for a long distance in the township Tosorontio. It passes through the tract of burnt land already described, the soil of which be- ing pure sand, in all probability formed the shoals of a lake extending to the north and east, the outline of which is approximated by the dot- ted line* marked from 70 to 80 feet high on the accompanying map. Nor are these the only traces of old lake beaches met with in this region, although the dense forest nearly everywhere covering the surface is a great impediment to their easy discovery. In the Township of St. Vin- cent, near the village of Meaford, besides a very conspicuous one, cor- responding in level with those already mentioned, several others of lesser note are found at various heights ; at Owen Sound, also, they are remarkably well defined ; while Cape Croker, on the western side of Georgian Bay, viewed even from a distance and the well remembered shape of the Giant's Tomb, on the eastern, show striking evidences of having been acted on for ages by the storms of Lake Huron, when at a higher level. " It has been said that some of these terraces are estimated at 70 or 80 feet feet above the level of the lake ; by drawing a contour line co- inciding with this height around the lower part of the valley, it is found that the high ridge of sand now in some parts blown up into dunes near the mouth of the River (Nottawasaga), will form a narrow neck of land (supposing the lake at its former level), stretching across from shore 'to shore, and resembling in many respects the "Burlington Beach," on Lake Ontario, and also " Fond-du-Lac," on Lake Superior ; like the first it encloses a bay of considerable depth of water, but of far greater area. That this ridge has been formed in a manner precisely similar to those two, by the sand washed from the adjoining shores, there is great probability, in fact there is good reason to believe that the same natural agents, at present in active operation moving the out- let of the river eastward, have also formed this upper ridge by trans- porting the materials of which it is composed, from the base of the es- carpment in CoUmgwood. " In attempting to arrive at the geological age of these ancient beaches, it will be necessary to show whether their position, at a consi- * This line encloses a subtriangular space, having one corner in the north of Nottawasaga, another in the centre of Essa, and the third in the north-east corner of Vespra. in some oj our Tost Tertiary Deposits. 49 derable height above the level of the lake may be attributable to a gra- dual elevation of the land or to a subsidence of the water. The last hypothesis seems the most tenable, since the first would involve a local upheaval only, and an inclination of the plane of the terraces at variance with their apparent horizontality. Should further researches prove the existence of terraces or other indications of old beaches on the western margin of Lake Huron corresponding in height with those discovered along the eastern shore, the supposition that the level of the water has been lowered by the wearing away of some barriei' will be strongly supported ; and if this be allowed as a reasonable explanation for these geological monuments, we have then, by drawing contour lines coinciding with their level the means of discovering the probable position of this barrier. From all that I can learn regarding the relative levels of the country these lines would pass over the peninsula between Lakes Huron and Erie at some distance inland from the River St. Clair and would if continued eastward along the shores of Lake Erie fall within the summit of the neck of land through which the chasm of the Niagara Eiver is cut." The northern part of the Township of Nottawasaga is situated on the extensive sandy plain above aUuded to, which was no doubt for- merly covered by an extension of Georgian Bay to the south-east- ward. The whole has a general slope up from the bay, but here and there a ridge of gravel or coarser sand interrupts its general uni- form aspect. Hurontario Street, running from Collingwood Har- bour almost due south through the township, was carefully lev- elled by Wm. Gibbard, C. E., and it appears from his profile section of the street, that from Collingwood to the north side of the Pretty River at the Village of Melville or Nottawa Mills, a distance of two and a half miles, the ground rises very regularly from the edge of the water to an elevation of 138 feet, or at the rate of about 55 feet per mile. At the Pretty River a change begins both in the character of the surface and in the rate of its inclination, which continues regularly for three and a half miles fur- ther at 4*7 feet per mile. Thus, at a distance of six miles from the present shore, the surface has attained an elevation of more than 300 feet above the level of the lake ; beyond this it rises irregu- larly and much more rapidly. It is evident that the bank of sand and gravel on the north side of the Pretty River continued for a longtime to be the shore of the lake. The layers of sand and gra- vel are arranged exactly as on a modern beach, and among them I noticed several thin irregular beds of a light grey or white colour, composed principally of carbonate of lime. In the cutting through the top of this ridge the common land shells Helix al- Can. Nat. 4 Vol. VI. 60 On the occurrence of Freshwater Shells, holahris, H. tridentata, H. Sayii, H.alternata, a.nd R. fuliginosa were collected, at from three to four and a half feet below the surface. About a mile ]^south of Collingwood, a shallow cutting for the road, exhibits the arrangement of the beds of sand and gravel, which at the base of the exposure dip southward at an angle of 35° and are overlaid to the surface by unconformable horizontal layers. Here, from the surface to a depth of three feet, PlaTi- orbis trivolvis and Helix fuliginosa, H. tridentata and H. thyroi- des f were found. The summit of this rise is 78 feet above the level of the lake, and from its plotted section appears to have been thrown up by the waves when the edge of the lake ran along the base of its northern slope. There are a few specimens of Melania conica in the Geological Museum, from a railway cutting in sand near Collingwood. The greater part of the town of Owen Sound is built on a loose deposit of gravel and fine sand at the head of a long arm of the Georgian Bay of the same name. The flat formed by this deposit slopes gradually up from the head of the bay towards the falls of the Sydenham River, which has cut its way through it, and is bounded on either side by terraces of Silurian limestone or marl. Fresh water shells were observed in abundance wherever a section of the sand was exposed, and also, in one place, Helix alternata the most abundant land shell on the shores and islands of Lake Huron. The following species were collected in different places in the most central part of the town. One of these, on the bank of the river was about nine feet above the level of the lake ; the others appeared to be a little higher. 1. Limncea umbrosa, 7. Melania conica, 2. Planorhis campanulatus. 8. Paludina decisa. 3. " bicarinatus, 9. Valvata sincera. 4. " parvus, 10. " tricarinata. 5. Melania acuta, 11. Amnicola porata, 6. " Niagarensis, 12. Cyclas similis. About a mile south from the mouth of the river, or following the upward course of the valley, the road is cut through a slight eleva- tion in this lacustrine deposit and here also fresh water shells were found embedded in the sand, but neither the species nor individuals Professor Guijot on Physical Geography, 51 were so numerous as in the same deposit nearer the head of the bay. I had no means of ascertaining the elevation of this spot above the lake, but it seemed to be more than 30 feet and the shells bore evidence of great antiquity. The terraces before alluded to as bounding this flat are capped with fine sand and their summits appeared to exceed 80 feet above the level of the lake. They are well marked and extend for miles along each shore of the Sound. At Peiett's Harbour, or the French Village on the west side of Owen Sound and about twelve miles from the town of the same name, two steep and very well marked lake terraces rise, one above the other, near the water's edge. They are both composed, as far as I examined them, of shingle mixed with a little silt. The summit of the upper one appeared to be about 100 feet above the lake and is in all probability the continuation of the upper terrace running round the head of the Sound, while the lower one corresponds to that on which the town is built. When Lake Huron was at a sufficient elevation to form the higher of these terraces, it was probably connected by a wide expanse with Lake Erie, which is also proved to have stood at this high level from the fact of a ridge holding fragments of decayed wood and fresh water shells, running along its southern side at an elevation of 150 feet above its present level. Montreal, Feb. Ath, 18QI. ARTICLE V. — Professor Guyot on the Physical Geography of the Appalachian Mountain System. The great Appalachian backbone of Eastern America though much visited in some of its peaks by tourists, penetrated by many roads, and stretching through the midst of a civilised country, has hitherto been little known to Physical Geographers in its details. Prof. Guyot has made it a special subject of study since his arrival in America; and since 1849 has devoted his summer excursions to the accurate barometrical measurement of its eleva* lions at various points throughout its whole length. The results, including details of the methods of observation employed, and a table of the heights of all the principal peaks, table-lands and gaps, are published in Silliman's Journal ; from early sheets of 52 Professor Guyot on the Physical Geography which kindly forwarded to us, we extract the following general conclusions as to the physical structure of the chain. " The upheavals of ancient rocks which constitute this well connected physical structure, for which, as a whole, it is proper to retain the common name of the Appalachian system, extend in an undulating line thirteen hundred miles in a mean direction of N. E. to S. W., from the promontory of Gasp6 upon the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Alabama, where the terminal chains sink down and are lost in the recent and almost horizontal strata of the cretaceous and tertiary formations which cover the greater portion of the surface of this state. This long range of elevations is composed of a considerable number of chains, sensibly parallel to each other, occupying more particularly the eastern part which faces the ocean, and of an extended plateau which prevails to- wards the west and northwest and descends gradually towards the inland valleys of the St. Lawrence, the lakes Erie and Ontario and the Ohio River. The base on which this large belt of mountains rests, and which may be considered as bounded by the Atlantic Ocean on one side and by the Ohio and St. Lawrence Rivers on the other, is formed, in the east, by a plain slightly inclined towards the Atlantic. The width of that plain, in New England, does not vary much from fifty miles. Near the mouth of the Hudson, however, in New Jersey, it nearly disappears, but gra- dually increases towards the south to a width of over two hundred miles. Its elevation above the sea, at the foot of the mountains, is in New England, from 300 to 500 feet. From the neighborhood of the bay of New York, where it is nearly on a level with the ocean, it rises gra- dually towards the south to an altitude of over 1000 feet. On the west the table-lands which border upon the Ohio River, and which may be considered as the general base of the system, preserve a mass-elevation of a thousand feet or more, in the thickness of which the river bed is scooped out to the depth of from 400 to 600 feet, thus reducing the alti- tude of the Ohio River full one-half from that of the surrounding lands. The vast belt of the Appalachian highlands forms the marginal bar- rier of the American continent on the Atlantic side, and determines the general direction of the coast line, which in general, runs parrallel to the inflections of its chains with remarkable regularity. This system, composed of a series of corrugations tolerably uniform, does not, like the Alps, or the other great systems of fracture, have a central or main axis, to which the secondary chains are subordinated. But it is properly compared to the system of the Jura, for it is composed like that of a series of long folds, or chains, which run parallel to each other, often with great regularity. In the same part of the system the general height of the chains is sensibly equal and their summits show neither many nor deep notches. In the middle region, especially in Pennsylva- nia and New Jersey, they present the appearance of long and continuous walls, the blue summits of which trace along the horizon a uniform line of the A'p'palacJdan Mountain System. 53 seldom varied by any peaks or crags. In the extreme northern and southern portions, however, this character is considerably modified. There the system loses very much of its uniformity and its physical structure becomes far more complicated ; the form of simple parallel ridges almost entirely disappears. There is one feature of the Appalachian system which distinguishes it from the ranges of the Jura ; it is the well marked division into two longitudinal zones of elevation, one turned towards the shores of the Atlantic, in which the form of parallel chains just spoken of predomi- nates, and the other turned towards the interior, which is composed of elevated and continuous plateaus, descending from the summit of their eastern escarpment, in the centre of the system, in gentle stages towards the basins of the lakes and the valley of the Ohio. Occasionally minor chains, very little elevated from their base, wrinkle the surface of the table-lands. Their parallelism with those of the eastern mountainous zone shows that they are but the last undulations due to the action of the same forces which have upheaved and folded that region, and which have raised at the same time, the mass of these more uniform plateaus. Thus when from any point we traverse the Appalachian system from the Atlantic, we encounter first a plain more and more undulated and gradually ascending to the foot of the mountains ; then a mountainous zone with its ranges parallel and its valleys longitudinal ; at length a third zone of uniform plateaus slightly inclined towards the northwest, and cut with deep transverse valleys. Another feature not less conspicuous characterizes the region of cor- rugations properly so-called. This is a large central valley which passes through the entire system from north to south, forming, as it were, a negative axis through its entire length. This is what Mr. Rogers calls the Great Appalachian valley. At the north it is occupied by lake Champlain and the Hudson river ;• in Pennsylvania it bears the name of Kittatinny or Cumberland valley. In Virginia it is the Great valley j more to the south it is called the valley of East Tennessee. At the northeast and at the centre its average breadth is fifteen miles ; it con- tracts in breadth towards the south, in "Virginia, but reaches its greatest dimensions in Tennessee where it measures from fifty to sixty miles in breadth. The chain, more or less compound, which borders this great valley towards the southeast is the more continuous and ex- tends without any great interruption from Vermont to Alabama. In Vermont it bears the name of Green Mountains, which it retains to the borders of New York ; in the latter State it becomes the Highlands ; in Pennsylvania, the South Mountains; In Virginia the Blue Ridge; in North Carolina and Tennessee the Iron, Smoky, and Unaka Mountains. On the northwest of the great valley between the latter and the borders of the plateau parallel there extends a middle zone of chains separated by narrow valleys, the more continuous of which is the range which bounds the central valley. This zone has a variable breadth in different parts of the system, and the number of chains which compose it is by no means uniform throughout. 54 Professor Guyot on the Physical Geography Although these features are common to the Appalachian system throughout its entire length, nevertheless it may be divided from north to south into three divisions which present very remarkable differences of structure. Passing the eye over the physical chart which accom- panies this article we at once distinguish in the longitudinal extent of the Appalachian system two principal curvatures, the one at the north from Gasp6 to New York, the concavity of which is turned towards the southeast ; the other at the centre, from the Hudson to New River in Virginia, with its concavity also towards the southeast ; the third from New River to the southwest extremity of the system, the direction oj which is nearly straight or forming a gentle curve concave towards the northwest. These three divisions, diminishing in extent, from the north to the south, are well marked ; at the north, by the deep valleys of the Mohawk and the Hudson, which break through the Appalachian system to its base and across its entire breadth ; at the south, by the New River whose deep valley with vertical walls also separates regions whose orographic characters present remarkable diflferences. The northern division is much the most isolated ; it is geologically the most ancient, since its upheavals appear coeval with the Silurian and Devonian epochs, and are thus much anterior to the rest of the system, which only emerged after the deposit of the carboniferous rocks which it has elevated. Four hundred feet more of water would separate all the vast territory of the northern division from the American continent. One hundred and forty feet would convert into an island all New England and the British possessions as far as Gaspe ; for the bottom of the valley occupied by Lake Champlain and the Hudson does not in any part ex- ceed this level. I distinguish in this northern portion three physical regions ; 1st, the triangular plateau of the Adirondack, with its mountain chains more or less parallel, between Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence, Lake Ontario and the Mohawk : 2nd, New England, with the two swells of land separated by the deep valley of the Connecticut, and forming the base of the Green and White Mountains : 3rd, the northern region, with the prolongation, towards the northeast, of the same features of relief from the source of the Connecticut through Maine into Canada and New Brunswick to the promontory of Gaspe and the Bay of Chaleurs. The middle or central division extends in length about 450 miles. The eastern region, or region of folded chains, at first very narrow about New York, presents towards the centre, in Pennsylvania, its greatest breadth which again diminishes towards the south. It is composed of a considerable number of chains much curved towards the west, and remarkable'for their regularity, their parallelism, their abrupt acclivities, the almost complete uniformity of their summits, and their moderate elevation, both relative and absolute, which varies from 800 and 1500 to 2500 feet. The chains, however, increase in elevation towards the south, while they become more numerous and more indented. In the Peaks of Otter, in Virginia, they attain to 4000 feet. The western region, or the region of plateaus, is quite narrow in the of the ApyalackiaJi Mountain System, 55 southern part, but acquires towards the north the greatest breadht which it attains in any part of the Appalachian system. Its highest terraces occupy all the State of New York south of the Mohawk, and a considerable part of Pennsylvania and culminate in the plateaus in the neighborhood of Lake Erie, where the mean altitude of the plateau reaches 2000 feet, the ralleys preserving a height of 1500 feet, while the hills reach 2600 feet. This table land forms a remarkable water-shed from which the waters descend by the Susquehanna into the valley of the Chesapeake and the Atlantic Ocean, by the Genesee and St. Lawrence to the same ocean, and by the Alleghany and Ohio to the Gulf of Mexico. The Susque- hanna thus starts from Lake Erie at the extreme western border of the plateau, and runs across all the Appalachian system and its mountain- ranges to its eastern base. More to the southward the eastern escarp- ment of the plateau divides, as far as the sources ofthe Potomac, the waters of the Atlantic coast from those of the Gulf of Mexico. It is the same escarpment which bears the local name of Alleghany Mountain, a name which continues to be applied, south of the waters of the Potomac, to the dividing ridge along the sources of the various branches of James River, and even to the irregular hills which form a water-shed between the waters of the Upper Roanoke and New River, across the Great Valley, near Christiansburg. Through all this middle region the name of Blue Ridge is applied to the main eastern chain which separates the Great Valley from the Atlantic slope, and which is cut by all the rivers which flow out of it. The southern division, from New River to the extremity of the system, is much the most remarkable for the diversity of its physical structure and its general altitude. Even the base upon which the mountains repose is considerably elevated. Although the elevation of the Atlantic plain at the eastern base of the mountains is only 100 to 300 feet in Pennsylvania, and 500 in Virginia near James River, it is 1000 to 1200 feet in the region ofthe sources ofthe Catawba. In the interior of the mountain region the deepest valleys retain an altitude of 2000 to 2 TOO feet. From the dividing line in the neighborhood of Christiansburg and the great bend of New River the orographic and hydrographic relations undergo a considerable modification. The direction of the principal parts ofthe system is also somewhat changed. The main chain which borders the Great Valley on the east, and which more to the north, under the name of the Blue Ridge, separates it from the Atlantic plain, gradually deviates towards the southwest. A new chain detached on the east, and curving a little more to the south, takes now the name of Blue Ridge. It is this lofty chain, the altitude of which, in its more elevated groups, attains gradually to 5000 and 5900 feet, which divides in its turn the waters running to the Atlantic from those of the Mississippi. The line of separation of the eastern and western water, which, to this point, follows either the central chain of the Alleghanies, or the western border of the table-land region, passes now suddenly to the eastern chain 56 Professor Guyot on the Physical Geography of upon the very border of the Atlantic plain. The reason is that the terrace which forms the base of the chains, and the slope of which usually determines the general direction of the water courses, attains here its greatest elevation, and descends gradually towards the north- west. The base of the interior chain which runs alongside the Great Valley is thus depressed to a lower level, and though the chain itself has an absolute elevation greater than that of the Blue Ridge, the rivers which descend from the summits of this last, flow to the northwest towards the great central valley which they only reach, in southern Virginia and North Carolina, by first passing across the high chain of the Unaka and Smoky mountains through gaps of 3000 or 4000 feet in depth. This southern division thus presents from southeast to northwest three regions very distinct. The first is the high mountainous region comprised between the Blue Ridge and the great chain of the Iron, Smoky, and Unaka mountains which separate North Carolina from Tennessee. It commences at the bifurcation of the two chains in Virginia, where it forms, at first, a valley of only ten to fifteen miles in breadth, in the southern part of which flows New River ; it then enlarges and extends across North Carolina and into Georgia, in length more than 180 miles, varying in breadth from twenty to fifty miles. The eastern chain, or Blue Ridge, the principal water- shed, is composed of many fragments scarcely connected into a continu- ous and regular chain. Its direction frequently changes and forms many large curves. Its height is equally irregular. Some groups elevated from 5000 feet and more, are separated by long intervals of depression in which are found gaps whose height is 2200 to STOO feet, often but little above the height of the interior valleys themselves with which they are connected. The interior, or western chain, is much more continuous, more elevated, more regular in its direction and height, and increases very uniformly from 5000 to nearly 6700 feet. The area comprised between these two main chains, from the sources of the New River and the "Watauga, in the vicinity of the Grandfather Mountain, to the southern extremity of the system, is divided by trans- verse chains into many basins, at the bottom of each one of which runs one of those mountain tributaries of the Tennessee, which by the abund- ance of their waters merit the name of the true sources of that noble river. Between the basin of the "Watauga and that of the Nolechucky rises the lofty chain of the Roan and Big Yellow mountains. The northwest branch of the Black mountain and its continuation as far as the Bald mountain separate the basin of the Nolechucky from that of the French Broad river. Between the latter and the Big Pigeon river stretches the long chain of the Pisgah and the New Found mountains. Further to the south the elevated chain of the Great Balsam mountains separates the basins of the Big Pigeon and the Tuckasegec ; next comes the chain of the Co wee mountains between the latter river and the Little Tennes- see. Finally the double chain of the Nantihala and Valley River mountains separates the two great basins of the Little Tennessee and of the Ap'palachian Mountain System. 57 the Hiwassee. The bottom of these basins preserves in the middle, an altitude of from 2000 to 2700 feet. The height of these transverse chains is greater than that of the Blue Ridge, for they are from 5000 to 6000 feet and upwards ; and the gaps which cross them are as high, and often higher than those of the Blue Ridge. In these interior basins are also found groups, more or less isolated, like that of the Black mountains, which, with the Smoky mountains, present the most elevated points of the system. Here then through an extent of more than 150 miles, the mean height of the valley from which the mountains rise is more than 2000 feet ; the mountains which reach 6000 feet are counted by scores, and the loftiest peaks rise to 6700 feet; while at the north, in the group of the White mountains, the base is scarcely 1000 feet, the gaps 2000 feet, and Mount Washington, the only one which rises above 6000 feet, is still 400 feet below the height of the Black Dome of the Black Mountains. Here then in all respects is the [culminating region of the vast Appalachian system. It is worthy of notice that in the Appalachian, as in many other sys- tems of mountains, the culminating points are situated, neither near the middle, nor in the neighborhood of what may be called its central axis, which is here the Great valley, but near the northern and southern extremities, and on the eastern side, almost outside of the system. These culminating regions seem almost exceptions to the normal struc- ture of the system. The high mountainous region of North Carolina which has just been described is, from the bifurcation of the Blue Ridge near the great bend of the New River, an additional fold which attaches itself on the east along the principal chain which bounds the Great Valley, just as the swell, which runs along the east of the Connecticut River, upon which the group of the White mountains is situated, is an additional fold attaching itself to the east of the normal chain of the Green mountains. The second region of this southern division is the continuation of the Great Central Valley which is divided by a general swell of the land about the sources of the Holston, into two distinct basins, the one in Virginia, narrower and more elevated, which in the basin of the New River, rises gradually towards the south from an elevation of 1600 feet to 2600 feet ; the other in Tennessee, where the valley widens to nearly sixty miles between the Smoky mountains and the Cumberland mountains, but where it has a mean elevation of not more than about 1000 feet, that is, only one-half of the height of the neighboring valleys in the mountainous region of North Carolina. The third region is that of the plateaus which, in Tennessee, are reduced to a table land about thirty or forty miles wide, called the Cumberland mountains on account of the abrupt edges which it pre- sents upon the east and the west, and which give to it the appearance of a mountain chain. Further north, in Virginia, the plateaus expand and fill a vast area to the west of the Clinch and the Cumberland mountains and extend over a part of Kentucky, the central portion of which, near Lexington, preserves an altitude of more than 1000 feet. 5S Natural History of Canada, The rapid sketch here given shows that in a hypsometrical, as Trell as from a geological, point of view, and even to a certain extent from its physical structure, the Appalachian system seemed to be divided into two sections of nearly equal extent ; a northern section^ which is geolo- gically more ancient, comprehending the northern division from the mouth of the Hudson to Gaspe ; and a southern section, which is morfe modern, comprising the central and southern divisions, which are bound together by more than one characteristic common to both. The separa- tion is distinguished by a remarkable general depression of all the alti- tudes of the eastern zone, or parallel mountain chains, a depression which attains its lowest point in New Jersey in the parallel of New York City. Passing from this region, where the Blue Ridge and the Kittatinny mountains are but little more than 800 or 1000 feet high, and the Great valley 50 to 150 feet, the altitude in the northern section increases rapidly, but regularly, towards the northeast, where, almost in the same parallel, lat. 44° N., we find the culminating points at Mount Washing- ton 6288 feet high in the White Mountains, Mount Mansfield 4430 feet in the Green Mountains, and Mount Tahawus or Mount Marcy 5139 feet, in the Adirondack group. Further north the Adirondack group terminates, and the Green Mountains lose somewhat of their continuity, but show here and there, as far as Gaspe, scattered groups of mountains which still preserve an elevation of 3000 or 4000 feet. In the southern section the altitude increases from the northeast to the southwest with the same regularity but less rapidly, and it is only towards the extremity of the system in North Carolina that they attain their maximum elevation in the Black Mountains 6700 feet, and the Smoky Mountains 6660 feet. Here, as at the north, beyond the culmi- nating points the general altitude is but little diminished until we arrive almost to the termination of the mountains." INQUIRIES BY THE COLONIAL OFFICE RELATIVE TO CANADIAN NATURAL HISTORY. Governor's Secretary's Office, Quebec, Dec. 22nd, 1860. Sir, — I am directed by His Excellency the Administrator of the Government to transmit herewith a copy of a circular despatch from His Grace the Duke of Newcastle enclosing a series of ques- tions relative to the Natural History of the British Colonies : and I am to request you will have the goodness to furnish His Excel- lency for the information of the Secretary of State with such answers as you may possess the means of giving, I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, R, T. Pennefather, Governor's Secretary, The Secretary Natural History Society, &c., &c., &c., Montreal. Natural History of Canada. 59 Downing Street. 28tli June, 1860. Sir, — With the view of ascertaining what materials may have been collected, or what works published, descriptive of the Natural History of the British Colonies, and relative also to some other Scientific subjects, I shall feel obliged to you to furnish me with such answers as you may possess the means of giving, within your Government, to the questions contained in the enclosed paper. In any of the colonies where Scientific Societies are constituted, it will be advisable to make use of any aid which they may be so good as to contribute towards answering these enquiries. I have, &c., (Signed,) Newcastle. Governor, the Rt. Hon. Sir E. Head, Bart. 1. Have any works been published on the Botany of the Colony, and if so state the title of each work, the name of the author, and the year of publication adding, if requisite, any remark on the esteem in which it is held ? 2. The same question as to Zoology. 3. The same question as to any works or published reports on Geology. 4. Does any public botanical garden exist in the Colony, and if so, briefly state the authority under which it is superintended and funds by which supported ? 5. Is there any Zoological Museum, or any collection of living animals in a Zoological Garden, or any accredited set of correct drawings of the chief animals of the Colony ? 6. Is there any Geological Museum, or any well known private collection of Geological specimens or unpublished records of Geological Surveys by competent observers ? T. What are the best known records, if any, of the Meteoro- logy of the Colony, and are they published and easily procurable? 8. Are there any well known records of the phenomena of the tides, and if so, by what observers, and at what date ? 9. The same question as to magnetical phenomena. 10. Have the latitude and longitude of the principal places on the coast been determined by careful celestial observations, and if so, by what observers and at what periods ? 60 Reviews and Notices of Books, 11. The same question as to tlie latitude and longitude of prin- cipal places inland. N. B. — It is requested that the answers maybe sent on a sepa- rate sheet prefixing to each the number of the question in this paper. EEVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. Contributions to the Natural History of the United States, hy Louis Agassiz. Vol, 3. This volume is more than a worthy successor to the two pre- vious. The author is here completely on his own ground, and dealing with a group of animals peculiarly requiring such labour as he can perform better than any other naturalist, at least on this continent. All dwellers by the sea side or visitors thereto, know the curi- ous "jelly fishes" that swim lazily on the calm summer sea, or are cast on the shore by the storms of autumn. Yet few know the complex structures, the strange transformations, the peculiar habits of these little masses of living jelly, so delicate that they cannot be touched without injury, and having so little solid mat- ter in their composition, that when dried on the beach they leave a mere pellicle on the sand. Look for instance at the great blue jelly fish — the Cyanea Arctica of our shores, of which in the work before us, a series of admirable portraits is given. There it floats, six inches or a foot in diameter, its flat purple disk looking like a mould of jelly cast into the sea, but slowly and regularly contracting and expand- ing as the creature urges its way along. Behind trails a long tassel of red tentacles, capable of benumbing and entangling in their meshes any unwary fish, crustacean or mollusk, that may come in their way, and from the blistering properties of the poisoned thread or lasso cells with which they are filled, not harmless to thin skinned bathers. In the ^dst of the tentacles hangs the proboscis, expanding into a multitude of complex labial processes like frills of most delicate membrane ; and at the base of the prob- oscis are the ovaries laden with the germs of a numerous progeny. A most singular creature truly, and presenting in its minute structures peculiarities quite as wonderful as in its external form j Reviews and Notices of Boolcs, 61 as for instance in the numerous radiating tubes that serve it for veins and arteries, and in the little eye specks protected by com- plex lids, that are placed at the margin of the disk, and are its ors'ans of vision. The changes whicb these creatures undergo in the progress of their growth, are perhaps more wonderful than any other part of their history. The egg is hatched into a minute animalcule or planula of oval form, and with cilia or spontaneously moving threads on its surface. This fixes itself and becomes a scyphis- toma or hydroid polyp of sack-like form, attached by the base, and stretching forth numerous tentacles from the mouth in search of food. The polyp multiplies by gemmation or budding, so that many may originate from one egg. When full grown it subdivides transversely and becomes a strohila^ which resembles a number of cup-like polyps stuck one into the mouth of another. The strobila eventually breaks up and its separate parts become little freely swimming umbrella-shaped medusae, called epJiyroe^ still quite dissimilar from the parent, to whose form they at length attain in process of growth. The earlier fixed states are passed through during winter, and at the bottom of the sea ; and it is evidently the intention of these remarkable transformations that these creatures shall be capable of quickly filling the summer sea with an abundant brood in each succeeding year, much to the benefit no doubt of multitudes of roving fishes which make the Acalephs their prey. The Cyanea thus roughly sketched may be regarded as a ty- pical Acaleph ; but the class embraces a variety of other forms, which are grouped by Agassiz in three orders, (1) Hydroidea, (2) Discophora, (3) Ctenojphora, and it is to the second of these that our Cyanea belongs. In the first and lowest of these orders we have the hydra-like polyps, with bodies hollowed into digestive sacks open at top and furnished with prehensile tentacles. Some are solitary and naked, others protected by horny or stony cells, and often grouped by gemmation or budding in complex branching structures, some of them small and resembling sea weeds, and others hard and calca- reous like the true corals ; others again are specialized into sepa- rate tentacular, reproductive and digestive polyps. To understand these difi'erences let us suppose an animal re- duced to a mere digestive sack, with or without a horny case or cell, and having tentacles at top, and the power of producing 2 Reviews and Notices of Booh. buds which may either remain attached or become free and found new colonies. This gives us the condition of the HydrcB and Tubularioe. Next let us suppose that by budding, such a creature founds a complex branching structure, furnished with little horny cells, in each of which resides an animal contributing its quota to the general nourishment of the whole community. This is the condition of the Sertularlce, Gampanular ice, &c., so abundant in the ocean, and forming so large a part of the zoo- phytes of the older naturalists. Further, these colonies of Hy- droids, conspire to produce capsules, growing like fruits on their tree-hke structures, and giving birth not to young polyps, but to little medusae like the Cyanea, but simpler in structure, and which produce the eggs destined to form new colonies of Hy- droids. It is here that we perceive the connecting link between the Hydroids and the true Medusse. But another modification of the hydroid structure is found in nature. Let us suppose that we have taken one of the complex branching structures last mentioned, and have cut off all the tentacles of the polyps, and taken out of the cells all the digestive sacks, and placed by themselves all the reproductive buds or capsules. Let us farther suppose that we have stuck these parts separately, and still alive, upon a living animal film spread over the surface of a shell or stone, or attached to the underside of a hollow gelatinous sack floating on the sea, so as to produce a complex group of separate tentacular, digestive, and reproductive parts, we shall then have the structures of the Hy- dractinia, that clothes some of the dead shells of our cabinets with a rough, unsightly film, and of the Physalia or Portuguese man-of-war, that floats hke a purple and orange bubble on the tropical seas. Such are the general aspects of the Hydroidea. In the second order, the, Discophora, already illustrated by the example of the Cyanea^ the animal is greatly expanded lat- erally into a locomotive disk, to the edges of which the tentacles are attached. In the third order, the Ctenophora, the parts become fewer but more complex, and the normal form is a transparent gelatinous ball, with the digestive cavity in the centre, the mouth in front, two pulsating vessels for circulating the blood at the sides, loco- motive fins arranofed in bands like the ribs of a melon, two longr and complicated tentacles behind, where are also the eye specks. It is the last order that is specially described and illustrated in Reviews and Notices of BooTcs. 63 the present volume, in a very full and satisfactory manner. As an example of a description interesting to every reader who takes pleasure in contemplating the " creeping things innumerable " that God has made in the sea, we quote the following description of the habits of the Pleurohrachia rhododactyla, a little ball of living jelly very common on our coasts in summer, and about the size of a large pea. " The Ctenophorre differ essentially from the Discophorse. Both their form and organs of locomotion give them a different appearance. The Discophorse, setting aside the various modifications arising from marked peculiarities of their outline, move like an umbrella, which, by alter- nately opening and shutting, would make its way under water by means of such movements. It is by the contraction of the body alone, or rather by the agency of the motory cells which form the mass, that motion is produced in these animals. Not so in the Beroid Medusae, where, besides the action of the motory cells, the whole body, more or less spherical or ovate, compact or split at one end, is kept swimming by the flapping of innumerable small paddles arranged in vertical rows, like the ribs of an orange, upon the outer surface. These rows are generally eight in number, extending from one pole of their spheroid body to the opposite, like the meridians of an artificial globe. But, owing to the inequalities in the motions of their vertical flappers, and their radiated arrangement upon the more or less spherical body, these animals have a somewhat rotatory motion, unless the paddles move on all sides with perfect steadiness and uniformity. ' There can be scarcely anything more beautiful to behold than such a living transparent sphere sailing through the water, coursing one way or another, now slowly revolving upon itself, then assuming a straight course, or retrograding, advancing or moving sideways, in all directions with equal precision and rapidity; then stopping to pause, and remaining for a time almost immovable, a slight waving of some of its vibrating organs easily counterbalancing the difference of its specific gravity and that of the water in which it lives. So Pleurohrachia may appear at times, and so does it also appear when moving in a state of contraction. But generally, when active, it hangs out a pair of most remarkable appendages, the structure and length and contractility of which are equally surprising, and exceed in wonderful adaptation all I have ever known among animal structures. Two apparently simple^ irregular, and unequal threads hang out from opposite sides of the sphere. Pre- sently these appendages may elongate, and equal in length the diameter of the sphere, or surpass it, and increase to two, three, five, ten, and twenty times the diameter of the body, and more and more ; so much so that it would seem as if these threads had the power of endless exten- sion and development. But as they lengthen they appear more compli- cated : from one of their sides other delicate threads shoot out like fringes, forming a row of beards like those of the most elegant ostrich 64 Reviews and Notices of Boohs, feather, and each of these threads itself elongates till it equals in length the diameter of the whole body, and bends in the most graceful curves. These two long streamers, stretching out in straight or undulating lines, sometimes parallel, then diverging or variously curving, follow the motions of the main sphere, being carried on with it in all its movements, which are no doubt influenced by them to a considerable extent. Upon considering this wonderful being, one is at a loss which most to admire, the elegance and complication of that structure, or the delicacy of the colors and hues, which, with the freshness of the morning dew upon the rose, shine from its whole surface. Like a planet round its sun, or, more exactly, like the comet with its magic tail, our little animal moves in its element as those larger bodies revolve in space, but unlike them and to our admiration, it moves freely in all directions ; and nothing can be more attractive than to watch such a little living comet as it darts with its tail in undetermined ways and revolves upon itself, unfolding and bending its appendages with equal ease and elegance, at times allowing them to float for their whole length, at times shortening them in quick contractions and causing them to disappear suddenly, then dropping them as it were from its surface so that they seem to fall entirely away, till, lengthened to the utmost, they again follow in the direction of the body to which they are attached, and with which the connection that regulates their movements seems as mysterious as the changes are extraordinary and unexpected. For hours and hours I have sat before them and watched their movements, and have never been tired of admiring their graceful undulations. And though I have found contractile fibres in these thin threads, showing that these move- ments are of a muscular nature, it is still a unique fact in the organiza- tion of animal bodies, that parts may be elongated and contracted to such extraordinary and extensive limits by means of muscular action. And what is so surprising, is not so much the sudden and powerful contraction which brings within the compact limits of a pin's head the whole mass of these tentacles that a moment before were floating so elegantly through such a great extent in the water, as the relaxation, which takes place in an absolutely passive manner ; for when watching them we are suddenly struck with astonishment on finding that the tentacle which we expected to see drop to the bottom of the jar is still in organic connection with the body from which it hangs. Plate I. of my paper in the Memoirs of the American Academy represents some few of the attitudes of our Pleurobrachia in its various movements, one of which is reproduced in this work (PI. II". Fig. 25) ; but I cannot find words to describe all the beautiful changes which the parts thus in motion assume in different attitudes. At one moment the threads, when contracted, seem nodose ; next, when more elongated, these knots are stretched into the appearance of a spiral ; next, the spiral, elonga- ting, assumes the appearance of a straight or waving line. But it is especially in the successive appearances of the lateral fringes arising from the main thread that the most extraordinary diversity is displayed. Reviews and Notices of BooJcs, 65 Not only are they stretched under all possible angles from the main stem, at times seeming perpendicular to it, or bent more or less in the same direction, and again as if combed into one mass ; but a moment afterwards every thread seems to be curled or waving, the main thread being straight or undulating ; then the shorter threads will be stretched straight for some distance and then suddenly bent at various angles upon themselves, and perhaps repeat such zigzags several times, or they may be stretched in one direction and bent at various angles in the plane of another direction ; then they may be coiled up from the tip and remain hanging like pearls suspended by a delicate thread to the main stem, or like a broken whip be bent in an acute angle upon them- selves with as stiff an appearance as if the whole were made up of wires ; and, to complete the wonder, a part of the length of the main thread will assume one appearance and another part another, and pass from one into the other in the quickest possible succession : so that I can truly say, I have not known in the animal kingdom an organism exhib- iting more sudden changes and presenting more diversified and beautiful images, the action meanwhile being produced in such a way as hardly to be understood. For, when expanded, these th/eads resemble rather a delicate fabric spun with the finest spider's thread, at times brought close together, combed in one direction without entangling, next stretched apart, and preserving in this evolution the most perfect paral- lelism among themselves, and at no time and under no circumstances confusing the fringes of the two threads : they may cross each other, they may be apparently entangled throughout their length, but let the animal suddenly contract, and all these innumerable interwoven fringes unfold, contract, and disappear, reduced as it were to one little drop of most elastic india-rubber. "Week after week I have preserved these animals alive, and have never been tired of comparing again and again their changes in these thousand-fold developments of their appen- dages. I have called together those who felt the slightest curiosity for such objects to witness these phenomena, and have found them all interested to the utmost ; and if I have anything to regret, it is not the time lost in this contemplation, — for the more I became familiar with the sight, the more was I impressed with its beauty, as I could contrast with the new forms presenting themselves before my eyes those different states with which I had been familiar before, — but the circumstance that the time was too short to trace such a connection between all the microscopic details of their structure and their functions, as would fully explain the latter ; although I am aware that I have noticed many par- ticulars which had not been observed before." The following statements show that these creatures possess both vision and intellio-ence. " Having recently seen myriads of these animals, it may not be super- fluous to add, that all the various attitudes in which I have formerly seen them in confinement may be observed at one glance, when coming Can. Nat. 5 Vol. VI. 66 Reviews and Notices of BooTcs. suddenly upon a bank of them slowly drifting -with the tide. Under these circumstances, however, they are not altogether at the mercy of the current ; and it is curious to see how they resist its action by stretching their tentacles in a straight line in opposite directions and at right angles with the vertical axis of the body. I have also satisfied myself that they are aware of the approach of danger ; for day after day I have seen thousands of them, which were quietly moving near the surface with the mouth wide open in search of food, suddenly turn upon themselves and with a quick jerk dive into the deep as my boat drew nearer and nearer. In fact, all Acalephs dive away from the sur- face when approached, and make accelerated motions to escape the net or glass dipped into the water to catch them. It seems as if they were endowed with the power of seeing, for noise has no effect upon them." In the earlier chapters of the work much space is devoted to the classification of the Acalephs in general, and their place among the Radiates. This as held by the author may be repre- sented by the following table, the groups being numbered from the lowest to the highest. Province Radiata. Class I. Class II. Class III. Polyps. Acalephs. Echinoderms. Order 1. Actinoids. Order 1. Hydroids. Order 1. Crinoids. 2. Alcyonoids. 2. DiscopTiores. 2. Asteroids, 3. Ctenophores, 3. Echinoids, The only fairly disputable point in this table is the question whether the Acalephs are not lower than the Polyps, a question on both sides of which much may be urged, but on which we are scarcely as yet inclined to agree with Prof, Agassiz. One important point to geologists illustrated in this work is the affinity of the Millepore corals with the Acalephs rather than the Polyps, and the consequent probability that the orders Tdb- ulata and Rugosa, which are the prevailing Palaeozoic corals, and which have built up so many of our Silurian limestones, are also Acalephs. j. w. d. The Romance of Natural History.^ By Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S. 3*72 pp. demy 8vo ; twelve plates. London : Nis- bet & Co. Montreal : B. Dawson & Son. {From the Zoologist.) " There are more ways than one of studying Natural History. Reviews and Notices oj 'Books, 67 There is Dr. Dryasdust's way ; which consists of mere accuracy of defination and differentiation ; statistics as harsh and dry as the skins and bones in the museum where it is studied. There is the field observer's way ; the careful and consciencious accumula- tion and record of facts bearing on the life-history of the creatures ; statistics as fresh and bright as the forest or meadow where they are gathered in the dewy morning. And there is the poet's way ; who looks at nature through a glass peculiarly his own, the aes- thetic aspect, which deals, not with statistics, but with emotions of the Iruman mind, — surprise, wonder, terror, revulsion, admira- tion, love, desire, and so forth, — which are made energetic by the contemplation of the creatures around him. " In my many years' wanderings through the wide field of Natu- ral History, I have always felt towards it something of a poet's heart, though destitute of a poet's genius. As Wordsworth so beautifully says. To me the meanest flower that blows can give Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.' " Now this book is an attempt to present Natural History in this aesthetic fashion. Not that I have presumed constantly to indicate — like the stage directions in a play, or the 'hear, hear!' in a speech — the actual emotion to be elicited ; this would have been obtrusive and impertinent : but I have sought to paint a series of pictures, tne reflections of scenes and aspects in nature, which in my own mind awaken poetic interest, leaving them to do their proper work." — Preface, In these words does Mr. Gosse herald in his new publication, whicb is one of the most readable and ag^reeable of all his read- able and agreeable books. The } Ian, if there be a plan, is most desultory — just that touch-and-go style which will secure the at- tention even of the most indolent reader : thus we leap from lions to butterflies ; then plunge into brine and boiling springs ; ascend the blue vaults of heaven after insects, and seek flying fish in beds and shoals of swimming fish in a parlour : next we enjoy a sojourn with serpents ; then wander among groves of Cacti ; and then mount the dragon tree of Oratava. Afterwards we are introduced to the whale and the elephant, the mammoth tree of California and life in a drop of water : to the jackal, the wolf and gorilla ; and witness a fatal encounter with bees. I have really enjoyed this book, it is most delightful ; and al- though the mixture of subjects strikes one as rather heterodox in 68 Reviews and Notices of Booh, a work on Natural History, there will be found a method running through the whole that strings the diverse subjects together, pro- ducing a pleasant combination, like beads of various size and colour. Mr. Gosse patronizes the sea serpent, and pleads for him apolo- getically, but gives us without any hesitation the history of that arch-myth the tsetse ; I believe, whenever a competent naturalist shall investigate the subject he will find the tsetse a disease, which the ignorant aborigines have falsely attributed to an insect but this is of no moment ; diflference of opinion detracts nothing from merit ; and I may truly say that I never read a book with more real pleasure than the ' Romance of Natural History,' and I know none that I can more cordially and unhesitatingly recommend to my subscribers. I hope to return to it again and again for amus- ing and instructive scraps to insert in the pages of the ' Zoologist.' Narrative of the Canadian Red River Exploring Expedition of 1857, and of the Assinnihoine and Saskatchewan Exploring Expedition of 1858. By H. Y. Hind, M. A., F. R. G. S. Professor, Trinity College, Toronto. Vols 2, London, Long- man ; Montreal, B. Dawson & Son. These explorations were undertaken for the purpose of ascer- taining the practicability of establishing an emigrant route between Lake Superior and Selkirk settlement and of acquiring some knowledge of the natural capabilities and resources of the Valleys of the Red River and the Saskatchewan. In pursuance of these objects the author has given in these volumes a minute, clear and most readable account of the districts through which his course lay. The work is really a credit to the Province. The two volumes are profusely illustrated with beauti- ful and artistic views of interesting localities. This book should be in all our public libraries and be carefully studied by those who interest themselves in the prosperity and extension of the Pro- vince to the Westward. Distances, topography, natural productions, geological structure and climatal conditions of these regions are carefully noted. Intending emigrants will find the work invalu- able. ■Geological Gossipy or Stray Chapters on Earth and Ocean, By Professor D. T. Ansted, M.A., F.R.S., &c. London : Routledge & Co. Montreal : B. Dawson & Son. A delightful book, both scientific and popular. It may be read Reviews and Notices of Booh. 69 by joxirg persons and amateurs with great pleasure and profit. The name of the author is a guarantee for the accuracy of its facts and the thorough treatment of its topics. Coins, Medals, and Seals, Ancient and Modern ; illustrated and described, with a sketch of the history of coins and coinage, instruction for young collectors, tables of comparative rarity, price lists of English and American coins, medals, and tokens, &c. Edited by W. C. Prime. New York : Harper & Brothers. Montreal : B. Dawson & Son. Mr. Prime has done good service to the young numismatist in the preparation of this book. The engravings of coins and me- dals, with the descriptions of their devices and legends, appear to be from English sources, and with the exception of the Ameri- can coins, medals, and tokens, have, if we mistake not, come from the hands of English engravers. It is too much the habit of Messrs. Harper to conceal the sources from which many of their works are derived, thus depriving the legitimate author of the credit which he merits. This practice cannot be too strongly re- probated by every lover of fair dealing and of sound literature. Notwithstanding this stricture we cannot withold our meed of praise for the excellent and practical way in which the editor has treated his valuable materials. No better book on this subject can be put into the hands of young persons. The historical mat- ter and hints to young collectors will be found most useful. The book is beautifully printed, and with the exception noted reflects credit upon the publishers. The Zoologist. No. 224, London, Van Voorst, has been re- ceived. It contains many interesting and original notices on the subjects to which its pages are devoted and is indispensable to the student of Natural History. The Geologist. No. 37, Vol. 4, London, has also come to hand and contains excellent and highly interesting articles by Roberts, Salter & Salmon. Also, the continuation of a paper on the Fos- sil Flint implements by the editor, Mr. Mackie, with well exe- cuted illustrations. This Magazine happily combines the popular and the scientific elements. The Canadian Journal. No. 31, for January, Toronto, has been received and contains original articles by Professors Chapman Croft and Hincks, and Messrs. Mcllwraith & Ptobb, together with 70 Miscellaneous. well selected scientific and literary notes. Under the careful edi- torship of Prof. Chapman, this sister journal of western Canada continues to maintain its high standard of scientific and literary excellence. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has sent us pages 325 to 360 of their Proceedings which are chiefly taken up with descriptions of new species of North American serpents in the Smithsonian Institution"^ by Kennicott ; and contributions to American Lepidopterology by Clemens. The Natural History Society of Boston has also sent us pages 385 to 416 of their Proceedings^ in which we find some valuable geological notes by Prof. Rogers to which we hope to draw atten- tion in a future number. The Essex Institute has sent us its Proceedings^ Vol. II, Part 2, 1857 to 1859, the chief interest of which is the record they contain of the Field Meetings of this Society. These meetings we have long admired, and consider them most effective and pleas- ing means of promoting the interests of Natural Science. The Historical Collections of the same Institute, Vol. 2, No. 6, have also been received, and contain much curious and ancient lore. MISCELLANEOUS. Botanical Society of Canada^ abstract of Recent Discoveries in Botany and the Chemist?^ of Plants. By Professor Lawson. sea-weed as a manure. The attention of the English farmer has been recently called to the use of sea-weed as a manure. This material is thrown up in enormous quantities on the shores of Britain, and on the east coast of Scotland it is extensively employed to fertilize sand dunes that would otherwise be worthless. In dry sandy soils it acts in two ways ; first, by directly contributing food materials to the crop, and, secondly, by the hygroscopic action of the mucilagi- nous tissues in maintaining a certain degree of humidity in the arid soil, a result that is no doubt aided by the presence of the sea-salt accompanying the weed. The richness of the ash of the common sea-weed in potash, soda, phosphates, and other materials Miscellaneous, 71 of plant growth, shows that it has a high manurial value. In Greenland specimens, the ash has been found to contain ten per cent of phosphates. The proportion of water in the recent weed is so large, however, that sea-weed cannot be profitably carried to great distances, but along the shores of the lower St. Lawrence and in other maritime provinces, where it can be readily obtained at certain seasons, its value can scarcely be overrated. The processes that have been suggested for converting the sea-weed into a paste for transport, mixing with peat ashes, i:t • "iMonthly Mean, 29.9S3 Thermometer. (Monthly Range, 1*350 r Highest, the 2nd day. 31 °8. 1 Lowest, the 12th day.-Sl^T. ■) Monthly Mean, 10° 43. (Monthly Range. 66°5. Greatest intensity of the Sun's rays, 33 "4, Lowest point of terrestrial radiation, 36 °0. Mean of humidity, .762. REMARKS FOR JANUARY, 1861. Rain fell on 1 day, amounting to 0.100 of an inch; it wa^ raining 4 hours 10 minutes. Snow fell ouii days, amounting to 31,88 inches, it wassnowing 69 hours aud 30 minutes. Most prevalent \vind, the N. by E. Least prevalent wind, the N. Most mnd^ day, the 19th day ; mean miles per hour, 43.08. Least wintly day, the 27th day. mean miles per hour, 0.29. Zodiacal light vtry bright, aud well deilued. Aurora Borcalis visible on 2 uights. The Electrical state of the Atmosphere has indicated con- stant and moderate intensity. ^ M/vir vv» THE CANADIAN MTUEALIST AND GEOLOGIST. Vol. YI. APRIL, 1861. No. 2. ARTICLE VI. — On some points in American Geology. By T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada. {From the American Journal of Science No. 93, 1861.) The recent publication of two important volumes on American geology seems to afford a fitting occasion for reviewing some questions connected with the progress of geological science, and with the history of the older rock formations of North America, The first of these works is the third volume of the Palaeontology of New York by James Hall ; we shall not attempt the task of noticing the continuation of this author's labors iu the study of organic remains, labors which have by common consent placed him at the head of American palaeontologists, but we have to call attention to the introduction to this 3rd volume, where in about a hundred pages Mr. Hall gives us a clear and admirable summary of the principal facts in the geology of the United States and Canada, followed bv some theoretical notions on the formation of mountain chains, metamorphism and volcanic phenomena, where these questions are discussed from a point of view which we conceive to be of the greatest importance for the future of geological sci- ence. A publication of this introduction in a separate form, with some additions, would we think be most acceptable to the scientific public. Can. Nat. 1 Vol. VI. No. 2. 82 Mr. T, Sterry Hunt The other work before us is Prof. H. D. Rogers' elaborate report on the geology of Pennsylvania, giving the results of the Survey of that State for many years carried on under his direction, and embracing a minute description of those grand exhibitions of structural geology, which have rendered that State classic ground for the student. The volumes are copiously illustrated with maps, sections and fig:ures of ors^anic remains, and the admirable studies on the coal fields of Pennsylvania and Great Britain add much to its value. The oldest series of rocks known in America is that which has been investigated by the officers of the Geological Survey of Ca- nada, and by them designated the Laurentian system. It is now several years since we suggested that these rocks are the equiva- lents of the oldest crystalline strata of western Scotland and Scan- dinavia.* This identity has since been established by Sir R. I. Murchison in his late remarkable researches in the north-western Highlands, and he has adopted the name of the Laurentian system for these ancient rocks of Ross, Sutherland, and the Western Islands, which he at first called fundamental gneiss.f These are undoubtedly the oldest known strata of the earth's crust, and therefore off"er peculiar interest to the geologist. As displayed iu the Laurentide and Adirondack mountains, they exhibit a volume which has been estimated by Sir William Logan to be equal to the whole palaeozoic series of North America in its greatest devel- opment. The Laurentian series consists of gneiss, generally granitoid, with great beds of quartzite, sometimes conglomerate, and three or more limestone formations, (one 1000 feet in thick- ness) associated with dolomites, serpentines, plumbago, and iron ores. In the upper portion of the series an extensive formation of rocks, consisting chiefly of basic feldspars without quartz and with more or less pyroxene, is met with. "The peculiar characters of these latter strata, not less than the absence of argillites and talcose and chloritic schists, conjoined with various other mineralogical char- acteristics seem to distinguish the Laurentian series throughout its whole extent, so far as yet studied, from any other system of crystalline strata. It appears not improbable that future researches will enable us to divide this series of rocks into two or more distinct systems. * Esquisse Geologique du Canada, 1855, p. 17. t Quar. Journal Geol. Society, vol. xv, 353 ; xv. j 215. on American Geology, 83 Overlying the Laurentian series on Lake Huron and Superior, we have the Huronian system, about 10,000 feet in thickness, and consisting to a great extent of quartzites, often conglomerate, with limestones, peculiar slaty rocks, and great beds of diorite, which we are disposed to regard as altered sediments. These constitute the lower copper-bearing rocks of the lake region, and the immense beds of iron ore at Marquette and other places on the south shore of Lake Superior have lately been found by Mr. Murray to belong to this series, which is entirely wanting along the farther eastern outcrop of the Laurentian system. This Huronian series appears to be the equivalent of the Cambrian sandstones and conglomerates described by Murchison, which form mountain masses along the western coast of Scotland, where they repose in detached portions upon the Laurentian series. Besides these systems of crystalline rocks, the latter of which is local and restricted in its distribution, we have along the great Appalachian chain, from Georgia to the Gulf of St. Lawrence, a third series of crystalline strata, which form the gneissoid and mica slate series of most American geologists, the hypozoic group of Prof. Rogers, consisting of feldspathic gneiss, with quartzites, argillites, micaceous, epidotic, chloritic, talcose and specular schists, accompanied with steatite, diorites and chromiferous ophiolites. This group of strata has been recognized by Safford in Tennessee, by Rogers in Pennsylvania, and by most of the New England geologists as forming the base of Appalachian system, while Sir William Logan, Mr. Hall, and the present writer have for many years maintained that they are really altered palaeozoic sediments, and superior to the lowest fossiliferous strata of the Silurian series. Sir William Logan has shown that the gneissoid ranges in Eastern Canada have the form of synclinals, and are underlaid by shales which exhibit fossils in their prolongation, while his sections leave no doubt that these ranges of gneiss, with micaceous, chloritic, talcose and specular schists, epidosites, quartzites, diorites and ophiolites, are really the altered sediments of the Quebec group, which is a lower member of the Silurian series, corresponding to the Calciferous and Chazy formations of New York, or to the Primal and Auroral series of Pennsylvania. Prof. Rogers indeed admits that these are in some parts of Pennsylvania metamorphosed into feldspathic, micaceous and talcose rocks, which it is extremely diffi- cult to distinguish from the hypozoic gneiss, which latter, however, he conceives to present a want of conformity with the palaeozoic strata. 84 Mr, T, Sterry Hunt To this notion of tbe existence of two groups of crystalline rocks similar in lithological character but different in age, we have to object that the hypozoic gneiss is identical with tbe Green Moun- tain gneiss, not only in lithological character, but in the presence of certain rare metals, such as chrome, titanium, and nickel which characterise its magne^ian rocks ; all of these we have shown to be present in the unaltered sediments of the Quebec group, with which Sir William Logan has identified the gneiss formation in question. Besides which the lithological and chemical characters of the Appalachian gneiss are so totally distinct from the crystalline strata of the Laurentian system, with which Prof. Rogers would seem to identify them, that no one who has studied the two can for a moment confound them. Prof. Rogers is therefore obliged to assume a new series of crystalline rocks, distinct from both the Laurentian and Huronian systems, but indistinguishable from the altered palseozoic series, or else to admit that the whole of his gneissic series in Pennsylvania is, like the corresponding rocks in Canada, of palseozoie age.* We believe that nature never repeats herself without a difference, and that certain variations in the chemical and mineralogical constitution of sediments mark suc- cessive epochs so clearly that it would be impossible to suppose the formation in adjacent regions of a series of crystalline schists like those of the AUeghanies contemporaneous with the sediments which produced the Laurentian system. We have elsewhere in- dicated the general principles upon which is based this notion of * Dr. Bigsby in 1824 described an extensive tract of gneissoid rocks on Rainy Lake and Lake Lacroix, north of Lake Superior. The general course of the strata he states to be " from N. W. to N. by W., with a corresponding easterly dip ;" but he elsewhere speaks of the gneiss as running (dipping ?) E. N. E. This gneiss often contains beds and disse- minated grains of hornblende, and passes in some places into micaceous, chloritic and greenstone slates, and syenite. Staurotide is abundant in the mica schists, and octahedral iron occurs in the chloritic slates. A porphyritic granite containing beryl is also met with in this region. This gneiss is regarded by Dr. Bigsby as belonging '' to transition rocks, from its constant proximity to red sandstone, the oldest organic lime- stone, and trap." (Am. Jour. Sci, (1) viii, 61). The lithological and mineral characters of these crystalline strata seem to be distinct from those of the Laurentian system, and to resemble those of the Appala- chians. Too much praise cannot be ascribed to Dr. Bigsby for his early and extensive observations on the geognosy and mineralogy of British North America. on American Geology. 85 a progressive change in the composition of sediments, and shown how the gradual removal of alkalies from aluminous rocks has led to the formation of argillites, chloritic and epidotic rocks, at the some time removing carbonic acid from the atmosphere, while the resulting carbonate of soda by decomposing the calcareous and mag- nesian salts of the ocean, furnished the carbonates for the formation of limestones and dolomites, at the same time generating sea salt.* Closely connected with these chemical questions is that of the commencement of life on the earth. The recognition beneath the Silurian and Huronian rocks of 40,000 feet of sediments analogous to those of more recent times, carries far back into the past the evidence oftheexistenceofphysical and chemical conditions, similar to those of more recent periods. But these highly altered strata exclude, for the most part, organic forms, and it is only by applying to their study the same chemical principles which we now find in operation that we are led to suppose the existence of organic life during the Laurentian period. The great processes of deoxydation in nature are dependent upon organization ; plants by solar force convert water and carbonic acid into hydrocarbonaceous substances, from whence bitumens, coal, anthracite and plum- bago, and it is the action of organic matter which reduces sulphates, giving rise to metallic sulphurets and sulphur. In like manner it is by the action of dissolved organic matters that oxyd of iron is partially reduced and dissolved from great masses of sediments, to be subsequently accumulated in beds of iron ore. We see in the Laurentian series beds and veins of me- tallic sulphurets, precisely as in more recent formations, and the extensive beds of iron ore hundreds of feet thick which abound in that ancient system, correspond not only to great volumes of strata deprived of that metal, but as we may suppose, to organic matters, which but for the then greater diffusion of iron oxyd in con- ditions favourable for their oxydation, might have formed deposits of mineral carbon far more extensive than those beds of plumbago which we actually meet with in the Laurentian strata. All these conditions lead us then to conclude to the existence of an abundant vegetation during the Laurentian period, nor are there wanting evidences of animal life in these oldest strata. Sir "William Logan has described forms occuring in the Laurentian * Am. Journal of Science (2) xxv. 102, 445. xxx. 133 ; Quar. Journal Geol. Soc. XT. 488, and Can. Naturalist, December 1859. 88 Mr. T. Sterry Hunt detected by him in specimens from tlie sandstones of Wisconsin with JDikeUocephalus, which genus has there been found to pass upwards into the magnesian limestones. On the other hand, the sandstones of Bastard in Canada, having the char- acters of the Potsdam, contain Lingula acuminata and Ophileta compacta, species regarded as characteristic of the Calciferous, to- gether with two undescribed species of Orthoceras, and in another locality a Pleurotomaria resembling P. Laurentina. The re- searches of Mr. Billings have extended the fauna of the Calcifer- ous in Canada to forty-one species, and the succeeding Chazy for- mation to 129 species. The thickness of this latter division in the St. Lawrence valley is about 250 feet, and it includes in its lower part about fifty feet of sandstones with green fucoidal shales and a bed of conglomerate. The Calciferous has a thick- ness of about 300 feet, while the Potsdam may be estimated at not far from 600 feet. We have then seen that along the north-eastern outcrop of the great American basin in Canada and New York, the base of the palaeozoic series is represented by less than 1000 feet of sand- stones and dolomites, reposing directly upon the Laurentian sys- tem. A very different condition of things is, however, found in the more central parts of the basin. According to Prof. Rogers, the older Primal slates, which form the base of the palaeozoic sys- tem, attain in Virginia a thickness of 1200 feet, and are succeeded by 300 feet of Primal sandstone marked by Scolithus, which he considers the Potsdam, followed by the upper Primal slates, con- sisting of YOO feet of greenish and brownish talco-argillaceous shales with fucoids. To these succeed his Auroral division, con- sisting of sixty feet or more of calcareous sandstone, the supposed equivalent of the Calciferous sandrock, followed by the Auro- ral limestone, which is magnesian, and often argillaceous and cherty in the upper beds. Its thickness is estimated at from 2500 to 5500 feet, and it is supposed by Rogers to include the Chazy and Black River limestones, while the succeeding Matinal divi- sion exhibits first, from 300 to 550 feet of limestone, (Trenton), secondly, 300 to 400 feet black shale, (Utica), and thirdly, 1200 feet of shales with red slates and conglomerates, (Hudson River group), thus completing the Lower Silurian series. In Eastern Tennessee, Mr. Safford describes, (1st.) on the con- fines of North Carolina, a great volume of ^neissoid and micace- ous rocks similar to those of Pennsylvania, succeeded to the on American Geology, 89 west by (2nd.) the Ococee conglomerates and sandstones, with argillites, chloritic, talcose and micaceous slates, and occasional bands of limestone, all dipping, like the rocks of the 1st division, to the S. E. In the 3rd place we have the Chilhowee sandstones and shales, several thousand feet in thickness, including near the summit beds of sandstone with ScoUthus, and considered by Mr. Safford the equivalent of the Potsdam. (4th.) The Magnesian limestone and shale group, also several thousand feet thick, and divided into three parts ; first, a series of fucoidal sandstones approaching to slates and including bands of magnesian limestone ; second, a group of many hundred feet of soft brownish, greenish, and buff shales, with beds of blue oolitic limestone, which as well as the shales, contain trilobites. Passing upward these lime- stones become interstratified with the third sub-division, consisting of heavy bedded magnesian limestone,more or less sparry and cherty near the summit. The limestones of Knoxville belong to this group, which with the 3rd or Chilhowee group is designated by Mr. Saf- ford as Cambrian, corresponding to the Primal and Auroral of Rogers, or to the Potsdam and Calciferous sandrock, with the pos- sible addition of the Chazy, being equivalent to the great Magne- sian limestone series of Prof. Swallow in Missouri. To these strata succeed Safford's 5th formation, consisting of limestones, the equivalents of the Black River, Trenton and higher portions of the Lower Silurian. In Eastern Canada we find a group of strata similar to those described by Rogers and Safford, and distinguished by Sir Wil- liam Logan as the Quebec group. It has for its base a series of black and blue shales, often yielding roofing slates, succeeded by grey sandstone and great beds of conglomerate, with dolomites and pure limestones, often concretionary and having the character of travertines. These are associated with beds of fossiliferous limestones, and with slates containing compound graptolites, and are followed by a great thickness of red and green shales, often magnesian, and overlaid by 2000 feet of green and red sandstone, known as the Sillery sandstone, the whole from the base of the conglomerate, having a thickness about 7000 feet. These red and green shales resemble closely those at the top of the Hudson River group, and the succeeding sandstones are so much like those of the Oneida and Medina formations, that the Quebec group was for a long time regarded as belonging to the summit of the Lower Silurian series, the more so as by a great break and upthrow to 88 Mr, T. Sterry Hunt detected by him in specimens from the sandstones of Wisconsin with Dikellocephalus, which genus has there been found to pass upwards into the magnesian limestones. On the other hand, the sandstones of Bastard in Canada, having the char- acters of the Potsdam, contain Lingula acuminata and OpJiileta compacta, species regarded as characteristic of the Calciferous, to- gether with two undescribed species of Orthoceras, and in another locality a Pleuroiomaria resembling P. Laurentina. The re- searches of Mr. Billings have extended the fauna of the Calcifer- ous in Canada to forty-one species, and the succeeding Chazy for- mation to 129 species. The thickness of this latter division in the St. Lawrence valley is about 250 feet, and it includes in its lower part about fifty feet of sandstones with green fucoidal shales and a bed of conglomerate. The Calciferous has a thick- ness of about 300 feet, while the Potsdam may be estimated at not far from 600 feet. We have then seen that along the north-eastern outcrop of the great American basin in Canada and New York, the base of the palaeozoic series is represented by less than 1000 feet of sand- stones and dolomites, reposing directly upon the Laurentian sys- tem. A very diflferent condition of things is, however, found in the more central parts of the basin. According to Prof. Rogers, the older Primal slates, which form the base of the palaeozoic sys- tem, attain in Virginia a thickness of 1200 feet, and are succeeded by 300 feet of Primal sandstone marked by ScoUthus, which he considers the Potsdam, followed by the upper Primal slates, con- sisting of YOO feet of greenish and brownish talco-argillaceous shales with fucoids. To these succeed his Auroral division, con- sisting of sixty feet or more of calcareous sandstone, the supposed equivalent of the Calciferous sandrock, followed by the Auro- ral limestone, which is magnesian, and often argillaceous and cherty in the upper beds. Its thickness is estimated at from 2500 to 5500 feet, and it is supposed by Rogers to include the Chazy and Black River limestones, while the succeeding Matinal divi- sion exhibits first, from 300 to 550 feet of limestone, (Trenton), secondly, 300 to 400 feet black shale, (Utica), and thirdly, 1200 feet of shales with red slates and conglomerates, (Hudson River group), thus completing the Lower Silurian series. In Eastern Tennessee, Mr. Safford describes, (1st.) on the con- fines of North Carolina, a great volume of gneissoid and micace- ous rocks similar to those of Pennsylvania, succeeded to the on American Geology, 89 west by (2nd.) the Ococee conglomerates and sandstones, with argilHtes, chloritic, talcose and micaceous slates, and occasional bands of limestone, all dipping, like the rocks of the 1st division, to the S. E. In the 3rd place we have the Chilhowee sandstones and shales, several thousand feet in thickness, including near the summit beds of sandstone with Scolithus, and considered by Mr. Safford the equivalent of the Potsdam. (4th.) The Magnesian limestone and shale group, also several thousand feet thick, and divided into three parts ; first, a series of fucoidal sandstones approaching to slates and including bands of magnesian limestone ; second, a group of many hundred feet of soft brownish, greenish, and buff shales, with beds of blue oolitic limestone, which as well as the shales, contain trilobites. Passing upward these lime- stones become interstratified with the third sub-division, consisting of heavy bedded magnesian limestone,more or less sparry and cherty near the summit. The limestones of Knoxville belong to this group, which with the 3rd or Chilhowee group is designated by Mr. Saf- ford as Cambrian, corresponding to the Primal and Auroral of Rogers, or to the Potsdam and Calciferous sandrock, with the pos- sible addition of the Chazy, being equivalent to the great Magne- sian limestone series of Prof. Swallow in Missouri. To these strata succeed Safford's 5th formation, consisting of limestones, the equivalents of the Black River, Trenton and higher portions of the Lower Silurian. In Eastern Canada we find a group of strata similar to those described by Rogers and Safford, and distinguished by Sir Wil- liam Logan as the Quebec group. It has for its base a series of black and blue shales, often yielding roofing slates, succeeded by grey sandstone and great beds of conglomerate, with dolomites and pure limestones, often concretionary and having the character of travertines. These are associated with beds of fossiliferous limestones, and with slates containing compound graptolites, and are followed by a great thickness of red and green shales, often magnesian, and overlaid by 2000 feet of green and red sandstone, known as the Sillery sandstone, the whole from the base of the conglomerate, having a thickness about 7000 feet. These red and green shales resemble closely those at the top of the Hudson River group, and the succeeding sandstones are so much like those of the Oneida and Medina formations, that the Quebec group was for a long time regarded as belonging to the summit of the Lower Silurian series, the more so as by a great break and upthrow to 90 Mr, T, Sterry Hunt the S. E., the rocks of this group are made to overlap the Hud- son River formation. " Sometimes it may overlie the overturned Utica formation, and in Vermont, points of the overturned Tren- ton appear occasionally to emerge from beneath the overlap.*'* This great dislocation is traceable in a gently curving line from near Lake Charaplain to Quebec, passing just north of the fort- ress ; thence it traverses the island of Orleans, leaving a band of higher strata on the northern part of the island, and after passing under the waters of the Gulf, again appears on the main land about eighty miles from the extremity of Gaspe, where on the north side of the break, we have as in the island of Orleans, a band of Utica or Hudson River strata. To the south and east of this line the rocks of the Quebec group are arranged in long, narrow, parallel, synclinal forms, with many overturn dips. These synclinals are separated by dark gray and black shales, with lime- stones, hitherto regarded as of Hudson River age, but which are perhaps the deep-sea equivalent of the Potsdam. The presence of conglomerates and sandstones, alternating with great masses of fine shales, indicates a period of frequent distur- bances, with elevations and depressions of the ocean's bottom,while the deposits of dolomite, magnesite, travertine and highly metal- liferous strata show the existence of shallow water, lagoons and springs over a great area and for a long period between the forma- tion of the upper and lower shales . We may suppose that while the Potsdam sandstone was being deposited along the shores of the great palaeozoic ocean, the lower black shales were accumula-^ ting in the deeper waters, after which an elevation took place, and the magnesian strata were deposited, followed by a subsidence during the period of the upper shales and Sillery sandstones. Associated with the magnesian strata at Point Levis and in several other localities in the same horizon of the Quebec group, an extensive fauna is found, of which 137 species are now known, embracing more than forty new species of graptolites, which have been described by Mr. James Hall in the report of the Geological Survey of Canada for 1857, and thirty-six species of trilobitea described by Mr. Billings in the Canadian Naturalist for August 1860. These species are as yet distinct from anything found in the Potsdam below or the Birdseye and Black River above ; * See Sir William Logan's letter to Mr. Barrande, Canadian Naturalist for Jan. 1861, and Am. Journal, of Science (2) x xxl. 216. on American Qeology, 91 although the trilobites recall by their aspect those found by Owen in the Lower Sandstone of the Mississippi. Seven species alone out of this fauna have been identified with those known in other formations, and of these one is Chazy, while six belong to the Calciferous, to which latter horizon Mr. Billings considers the Quebec group to belong. The Chazy has not yet been identified in this region, unless indeed it be represented in some of the upper portions of the Quebec group. The Calciferous sand-rock is want- ing along the north side of the St. Lawrence valley from near Lake St. Peter to the Mingan Islands, but at Lorette behind Que- bec, at the foot of the Laurentides, the Birdseye limestone is found reposing conformably upon the Potsdam sandstone. It is not easy to find the exact horizon of the Potsdam sandstone among the black shales which underlie the Quebec group. The JScolithus of Rogers' Primal sandstone, and of the summit of Safford's 3rd or Chilhowee formation is identical with that found in the quartz rock at the western base of the Green Mts, and fig- ured by Mr. Hall in the 1st volume of the Palaeontology. It is however distinct from what has been csWed ScoUthus in the Pots- dam of Canada. The value of this fossil as a means of identifi- cation is diminished bv the fact that similar marks are found in sandstones of very difi"erent ages. Thus a Scolithus very like that of the St. Lawrence valley occurs in the sandstone of Lake Superior and in the Medina sandstone, while in Western Scot- land, according to Mr. Salter, the two quartzite formations above and below the Lower Silurian limestones of Chazy age are alike characterized by these tubular markings, which are regarded by him as produced by annelids or sea-worms. We find however in shales which underlie the Quebec group at Georgia in Vermont, trilobites which were described by Mr. Hall in 1859 as belong- ing to the genus Olenus, a recognized primordial type ; he has since erected them into a new genus. Again at Braintree in Eastern Massachusetts occur the well known Parad oxides in an argilla- ceous slate. These latter fossils Mr. Hall suggests probably belong to the same horizon as certain slaty beds in the Potsdam sand- stone, or perhaps even at the base of this formation. (Introduction, page 9.) In this connection we must recall the similar shales of Newfoundland,in whieh Salter has recognized trilobites of the same genus. These shales containing Faradoxides, like those underlying the Quebec group, thus appear to belong to the so-called Primor- dial zone, and are to be regarded as the equivalents of the Potsdam 92 Mr. T. Sterry Hunt sandstone, which both on Lake Champlain and in the Mississippi valley is characterized by primordial types. The intermingling of Potsdam and Calciferous forms to which we have already alluded, seems however to show that it will be diflScult to draw any well defined zoological horizon between the different portions of these lower rocks, which at the same time offer as yet no evidences of any fauna lower than that of the Potsdam. So that we regard the whole Quebec group with its underlying Primordial shales as the greatly developed representative of the Potsdam and Calciferous (with perhaps the Chazy), and the true base of the Silurian system. The Quebec group with its underlying shales is no other than the Taconic system of Emmons. Distinct in their lithological characters from the Potsdam and Calciferous formations as devel- oped on Lake Champlain, Mr. Emmons was led to regard these strata as belonging to a lower or sub-Silurian group. "We have how- ever shown that the palseontological evidence afforded by this formation gives no support to such a view. To Mr. Emmons is however undoubtedly due the merit of having for a long time maintained that the Taconic hills are composed of strata inferior to the Trenton limestones, brought up into their present position by a great dislocation, with an upthrow on the eastern side. We would not object to the term Taconic if used as indicating a sub- division of the Lower Silurian series, but as the name of a distinct and sub-Silurian system it can no longer be maintained. The Quebec group evidently increases in thickness as we proceed to- wards the south, and the calcareous parts of the formation are more developed. In 1859, 1 visited in company with Mr. A. D. Ha- ger the marble quarries of Rutland and Dorset, in Vermont. The latter occur in a remarkable synclinal mountain of nearly horizontal strata of marble and dolomite, capped by shales, and attaining a height of 2700 feet above the railway station at its base. I then identified these marbles with the limestones of the Quebec group, considering them to be beds of chemically precipitated carbonate of lime or travertine, and not limestones of organic origin. The existence of great dislocations in the Appalachian chain is amply illustrated in the sections of Prof. Rogers, and in those given by Safford in Eastern Tennesse, where by the aid of fossils it becomes comparatively easy to trace them. See the Map accom- panying his Geological Reconnaissance of Tennessee^ 1855; where the magnesian limestones of formation IV, are shown to be not on American Geology, 93 only brought up on the east against the Upper Silurian and De- vonian, but even to overlap the black shales at the base of the Car- boniferous system. It is remarkable to find that as early as 1822, the idea of a great dislocation of this nature in Eastern New York was maintained by Mr. D. H. Barnes in his description of Canaan Mountain. [Am. Journal of Science, Ql) v. pp. 15-18.] To the southeast of this great fault in Canada we have as yet no evidence of Lower Silurian strata higher than those of the Quebec group. At the eastern base of the Green Mts. we find limestones of upper Silurian and Devonian age reposing uncon- formably upon the altered strata of the Quebec group, themselves also having undergone more or less alteration. Immediately suc- ceeding are the chiastolite and mica slates of Lake St. Francis, which as we have long since stated are probably also of Upper Silurian asfe. The White Mountains as we suggested in 1849, (Am.Jour.Sci. (2) ix. 19) are probably, in part at least, of Devonian age, and are the representatives of the 7000 feet of Devonian sandstone observed by Sir William Logan in Gasp^. Mr. J. P. Lesley has more re- cently, after an examination of the White Mts. shown that they possess a synclinal structure, and has adduced many reasons for regarding them as of Devonian age. (Amer. Mining Journal, January 1861, p. 99. It will be seen from what has been previously said that we look upon the 1st and 2nd divisions described by Mr. Saffbrd in Eastern Tennessee, as corresponding to the hypozoic series of Rogers and to the Green Mountain gneissic formation, which instead of being beneath the Silurian series, is really a portion of the Quebec group more or less metamorphosed, so that we re- cognize nothina: in New Eno-land or south-eastern Canada lower than the Silurian system, nor do we at present see any evidence of older strata, such as Laarentian or Huronian, in any part of the Appalachian chain. The general conclusions which we have previously expressed with regard to thelithological, chemical and mineral relations of the Green Mts. rocks remain unchanged. [Am. Journal of Science (2) ix. 12.] The remarkable parallelism between the rocks of Western Scot- land and Canada has already been shown in the existence of the Laurentian, and Cambrian (Huronian) systems, overlaid by quartz- ites containing ScoUthus, to which succeed limestones containing a numerous fauna, identified by Mr. Salter with that of the Chazy J>4 Mr. T. Sterry Hunt limestone. These strata, with an eastward dip, are covered by other quartzites and limestones, to which succeeds the great gneissoid formation of the western Highlands, consisting of feldspathic, chlo- ritic, micaceous, and talcose schists resembling closely the gneissoid rocks of the Green Mts. and including the chromiferous ophiolites of Perthshire, Banff and the Shetland Isles. This gneissoid series was by Prof. Nicol suggested to be the older or Laurentian gneiss brought up by a dislocation on the east of the Silurian limestones, but Sir Roderick Murchison, with Messrs. Ramsay and Harkness, has shown not only from the dif- ferences in lithological character, but from actual sections, that the eastern gneissoid series is made up of altered strata newer than the Sikirian limestones.* Thus in geological structure and age, not less than in lithological and mineralogical characters, the rocks of the western Highlands are the counterparts of the Lau- rentian and Silurian gneiss formations, as seen in the Laurentides and Adirondacks, and in the Green Mts. The same parallelism may be extended to Scandinavia, (where Kjerulf and Forbes have shown much of the crystalline gneiss to be of Silurian age,) mark- ing as it would seem the outer edge of a vast Silurian basin, which may be followed in the other direction across the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. We also remark in Great Britain as in America, that whereas the northern outcrop of the palaeozoic basin offers at its base only a series of quartzose sandstones reposing upon the Laurentian system and characterized by fiicoids and Scolithus, we find further south in England an immense development of shales, sandstones and conglomerates, which form the base of the Silurian system and correspond to the Primordial zone and the Quebec group. We have said that upon Lake Huron and Superior the sand- stones of the upper copper-bearing rocks are the equivalents of the Quebec group. The clear exposition of the question by Mr. J. D. Whitney in the Am. Mining Jour, for 1860 (p. 435) left little more to be said, but the sections made last year by Mr. Alex. Murray of the Canada Geological Survey place the matter beyond all doubt. On Campment d'Ours, a small island near St. Joseph's, the sand- stones of Sault St. Mary are seen reposing horizontally on the upturned edges of the Huronian rocks, and overlaid by limestones ■which contain in abundance the fossils of the Black River and * Murchison, Quar. Jour. Geol. Society, Vol. xv. 353 and xvi. 215. on American Geology, 95 Birdseye divisions. The only fossil as yet found in these sand- stones is a single Linr/ula from near Sault St. Mary, which may be either of Potsdam or Chazy age. The sandstones in question form the upper member of a series of strata which on Lake Supe- rior attain a thickness of several thousand feet, and passing down- wards we find a succession of limestones, marls and argillaceous sandstones, interstratified with greenstone and amygdaloid, and fol- lowed by about 2000 feet of bluish slates and sandstones, with cherty beds containing grains of anthracite, the whole underlaid by conglomerates, and reposing unconformably upon rocks of the Hu- ronian system. The presence of such slates is the more significant from the occurrence already mentioned of fragments of green and black slates in the coarse grained sandstones near the base of the Potsdam, at Hemmingford mountain, showing the existence of ar- gillaceous shales before the deposition of the quartzites of the Pots- dam ; these are perhaps more recent than the lowest shales of the Primordial zone, to which however, palseontologically they appear to belong. This Quebec group is of considerable economic interest inas- much as it is the great metalliferous formation of North America. To it belongs the gold which is found along the Appalachian chain from Canada to Georgia, together with lead, zinc, copper, silver, cobalt, nickel, chrome and titanium. I have long since called attention to the constant association of the latter metals, particu- larly chrome and nickel, with the ophiolites and other magnesian rocks of this series, while they are wanting in similar rocks of Laurentian age. Am. Jour, of Science (2) xxvi. 237. The immense deposits of copper ores in Eastern Tennessee, and the similar ones in Lower Canada, both of which are for the most part in beds subordinate to the stratification, belong to this group. The lead, copper, zinc, cobalt and nickel of Missouri, and the copper of Lake Superior, also occur in rocks of the same age, which ap- pears to have been pre-eminently the metalliferous period. The metals of the Quebec group seem to have been originally brought to the surface in watery solution, from which we conceive them to have been separated by the reducing agency of organic matter in the form of sulphurets, or in the native state, and mingled with the contemporaneous sediments, where they occur in beds, in disseminated grains iormmg fahlbands^ or as at Acton, are the cementing material of conglomerates. During the subsequent metamorphism of the strata these metallic matters being taken 96 Mr, T. Sterry Hunt into solution by alkaline carbonates or sulpburets, have been redeposited in fissures in the metalliferous strata, forming veins, or ascending to higher beds, have given rise to metalliferous veins in strata not themselves metalliferous. Such we conceive to be in a few words the theory of metallic deposits ; they belong to a period when the primal sediments were yet impregnated with metallic compounds which were soluble in the permeating waters. The metals of the sedimentary rocks are now however for the greater part in the form of insoluble sulphurets, so that we have only traces of them in a few mineral springs, which serve to show the agencies once at work in the sediments and waters of the earth's crust. The present occurrence of these metals in waters which are alkaline from the presence of carbonate of soda, is as we have elsewhere pointed out, of great significance when taken in connection with the metalliferous character of certain dolomites, which as we have shown, probably owe their origin to the action of similar alkaline springs upon basins of sea water. The intervention of intense heat, sublimation and similar hy- potheses to explain the origin of metallic ores, we conceive to be uncalled for. The solvent powers of solutions of alkaline carbonates, chlorids and sulphurets at elevated temperatures, taken in connection with the notions above enunciated, and with De Senarmont's and Daubr6e's beautiful experiments on the crys- tallization of certain mineral species in the moist way, will suffice to form the basis of a satisfactory theory of metallic deposits.* The sediments of the carboniferous period, like those of earlier formations, exhibit towards the east a great amount of coarse sedi- ments, evidently derived from a wasting continent, and are nearly destitute of calcareous beds. In Nova Scotia Sir William Logan found by careful measurement, 14,000 feet of carboniferous strata; and Professor Rogers gives their thickness in Pennsylvania as 8000 feet, including at the base 1400 feet of a conglomerate, which disap- pears before reaching the Mississippi. In Missouri Prof. Swallow finds but 640 feet of carboniferous strata, and in Iowa their thick- ness is still less, the sediments composing them being at the same time of finer materials. In fact, as Mr. Hall remarks, throughout the whole palaeozoic period we observe a greater accumulation and a coarser character of sediments along the line of the Appa- lachian chain, with a gradual thinning westward, and a deposition of finer and farther transported matter in that direction. To the ♦ Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. xv, 580. on American Geology, 97 west, as this shore-derived material diminishes in volume, the amount of calcareous matter rapidly augments. Mr. Hall concludes therefore that the coal-measure sediments were driven westward into an ocean, where there already existed a marine fauna. At length, the marine limestones predominating, the coal measures come to be of little importance, and we have a great limestone formation of marine origin,which in the Rocky Mountains and New Mexico occupies the horizon of the coal, and itself unaltered, rests on crystalline strata like those of the Appalachian range. In truth, Mr. Hall observes, the carboniferous limestone is one of the most extensive marine formations of the continent, and is charac- terized over a much greater area by its marine fauna than by its terrestrial vegetation. " The accumulations of the coal period were the last that gave form and contour to the eastern side of our continent, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico ; and as we have shown that the great sedimentary deposits of successive periods have followed essentially the same course, parallel to the mountain ranges, we naturally inquire : What influence this accumulation has had upon the topography of our country, and whether the present line of mountain elevation from north-east to south-west is in any way connected with the original accumulation of sediments?" HalVs Introduction^ p. QQ. The total thickness of the palaeozoic strata along the Appala- chian chain is about 40,000 feet, while the same formations in the Mississippi valley, including the carboniferous limestone, which is wanting in the east, have according to Mr. Hall, a thickness of scarcely 4000 feet.* In many places in this valley we find the Silurian formations exposed, exhibiting hills of 1000 feet, made up of horizontal strata, with the Potsdam sandstone for their base, and capped by the Niagara limestone, while the same strata in the Appalachians would give from ten to sixteen times that * In Michigan, according to the late report of Prof. Winchell, the total observed thickness of the strata from the top of the Sault St. Mary sandstones to the top of the carboniferous series is little over 1790 feet, divided as follows : — Trenton and Hudson River groups, 50 feet, Upper Silurian 185, Devonian 782, Carboniferous tOO ; of this last the true coal measures constitute 123 feet, including from 3 to 10 feet of workable bituminous and cannel coals, while near the base of the carboniferous series are found 169 feet of gypsiferous marls, which yield strong brine springs. Can. Nat, 2 Vol. VI. No. 2. 9S Mr. T. Sterry Hmt thickness. Still, as Mr. Hall remarks, we have there no mountains of corresponding altitude, that is to say, none whose height, like those of the Mississippi valley, equals the actual vertical thick- ness of the strata comprising them. In the west there has been little or no disturbance, and the highest elevations mark essentially the aggregate thickness of the strata comprising them. In the disturbed regions of the east on the contrary, though we can prove that certain formations of known thickness are included in the mountains, the height of these is never equal to the aggre- gate amount of the formations. " We thus find that in a country not mountainous, the elevations correspond to the thickness of the strata, while in a mountainous country, where the strata are im- mensely thicker, the mountain heights bear no comparative pro- portion to the thickness of the strata." '" While the horizontal strata give their whole elevation to the highest parts of the plain, we find the same beds folded and contorted in the mountain region, and giving to the mountain elevations not one-sixth of their actual measurement." Both in the east and west, the valleys exhibit the lower strata of the palaeozoic series, and it is evident that had the eastern region been elevated without folding of the strata, so as to make the base of the series correspond nearly with the sea level, as in the Mississippi valley, the mountains exposed between these valleys, and including the whole palaeozoic series, would have a height of 40,000 feet; so that the mountains evidently correspond to depressions of the surface, which have carried down the bottom rocks below the level at which we meet them in the valleys. In other words, the synclinal structure of these moun- tains depends upon an actual subsidence of the strata along certain lines. " We have been taught to believe that mountains are pro- duced by upheaval, folding and plication of the strata, and that from some unexplained cause these lines of elevation exten4 along certain directions, gradually dying out on either side, and subsiding at the extremities. We have, however, here shown that the line of the Appalachian chain is the line of the greatest accu- mulation of sediments, and that this great mountain barrier is due to original deposition of materials, and not to any subsequent forces breaking up or disturbing the strata of which it is composed." We have given Mr. Hall's reasonings on this subject, for the most part in his own words, and with some detail, for we on American Geology, 99 conceive that the views which he is here urging are of the highest importance to a correct understanding of the theory of mountains. In the Canadian Naturalist for Dec. 1859, p. 425, and in the Am. Jour. Sci. (2) xxx, 13*7 will be found an allusion to the rival theories of upheaval and accumulation as ap- plied to volcanic mountains, the discussion between which we conceive to be settled in favour of the latter theory by the reasonings and observations of Constant-Prevost, Scrope and Lyell, A similar view applied to mountain chains like those of the Alps, Pyrennees and AUeghanies, which are made up of aqueous sediments, has been imposed upon the world by the autho- rity of Humboldt, Von Buch and Elie de Beaumont, with scarcely a protest. Buffon, it is true, when he explained the formation of continents by the slow accumulation of detritus beneath the ocean, conceived that the irregular action of the water would give rise to great banks or ridges of sediments, which when raised above the waves must assume the form of mountains; later, in 1832, we find De Montlosier protesting against the elevation hypothesis of Von Buch, and maintaining that the great mountain chains of Europe are but the remnants of continental elevations which have been cut away by denudation, and that the foldings and inver- sions to be met v^rith in the structure of mountains are to be looked upon only as local and accidental. In 1856 Mr. J. P. Lesley published a little volume entitled Coal and its Topography^ (12 mo. pp. 224,) in the second part of which he has, in a few brilliant and profound chapters, discussed the prin- ciples of topographical science with the pen of a master. Here he tells us that the mountain lies at the base of all topographical geology. Continents are but congeries of mountains, or rather the latter are but fragments of continents, separated by valleys which represent the absence or removal of mountain land [p. 126] ; and again "mountains terminate where the rocks thin out." (p. 144.) The arrangement of the sedimentary strata of which mountains are composed may be either horizontal, synclinal, anticlinal or vertical, but from the greater action of diluvial forces upon anti- ciinals in disturbed strata it results that great mountain chains are generally synclinal in their structure, being in fact but fragments of the upper portion of the earth's crust, lying in synclinals, and thus preserved from the destruction and translation which have exposed the lower strata in the anticlinal valleys, leaving the intermediate 100' Mr. T. Sterry Hunt mountains capped with lower strata. The effects of those great and mysterious denuding forces which have so powerfully modi- fied the surface of the globe become less apparent as we approach the equatorial regions, and accordingly we find that in the south- ern portions of the Appalachian chain many of the anticlinal folds have escaped erosion, and appear as hills of an anticlinal structure. The same thing is occasionally met with further north ; thus Sutton mountain in Canada, lying between two anticlinal valleys, has an anticlinal centre, with two synclinals on its opposite slopes. Its form appears to result from three anticlinals, the middle one of which has to a great extent escaped denudation. The error of the prevailing ideas upon the nature of mountain chains may be traced to the notion that a disturbed condition of the rocky strata is not only essential to the structure of a mountain, but an evidence of its having been formed by local upheaval, and the great merit of De Montlosier and Lesley, (the latter altogether independently,) is to have seen that the upheaval has been in all cases not local but conti- nental, and that the disturbance so often seen in the strata is neither dependent upon elevation nor essential to the forma- tion of a mountain. The synclinal structure of portions of the Alps, previously observed by Studer and others, has been beautifully illustrated by Ruskin in the fourth volume of his Modern Painters, and in a late review of Alpine geology we have endeavoured to show that the Alps, as a whole^ have likewise a synclinal structure. (Am. Jour. Science, xxix. 118.) Such was the state of the question when Mr. Hall came forward bringing his great knowledge of the sedimentary formations of North America to bear upon the theory of continents and moun- tains. These were first advanced in his address delivered before the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as its president, at Montreal in August, 1857. This address was never published, but the author's views were brought forward in the first volume of his Report on the Geology of Iowa, p. 41, and with more detail in the introduction to the third volume of his Paleon- tology of New York, from which we have taken the abstract already given. He has shown that the difference between the geographical features of the eastern and central parts of North America is directly connected with the greater accumulation of sediment along the Appalachians. He has further shewn that so far from local elevation being concerned in the formation of these on American Geology, 101 mountains, the strata which form their base are to be found beneath their foundations at a much lower horizon than in the undisturbed hills of the Mississippi valley, and that to this depres- sion chiefly is due the fact that the mountains of the Appalachian range do not, like those hills, exhibit in their vertical height above the sea the whole accumulated thickness of the palaeozoic strata which lie buried beneath their summits. Mr. Hall has made a beautiful application of these views to explain the fact of the height of the Green Mountains over the Laurentides, and of the White Mountains over the former, by remarking that we have successively the Lower and Upper Silurian strata superimposed on those of the Laurentiau system. The same thing is strikingly shown in the fact that the higher mountain chains of the globe are composed of newer formations, and that the summits of the Alps are probably altered sediments of tertiary age. (Am. Jour. Sci, xxix. 118.) The lines of mountain elevation of De Beaumont are according to Hall, simply those of original accumulations, which took place along current or shore lines, and have subsequently, by continental elevations, produced mountain chains. " They were not then due to a later action upon the earth's crust, but the course of the chain and the source of the materials were predetermined by forces in operation long anterior to the existence of the mountains or of the continent of which they form a part." p. 86. It will be seen from what we have said of Buffon, De Montlosier and Lesley that many of the views of Mr. Hall are not new but old ; it was, however, reserved to him to complete the the- ory and give to the world a rational system of orographic geo- logy. He modestly says, " I believe I have controverted no established fact or principle beyond that of denying the influence of local elevating forces, and the intrusion of ancient or plutonio formations beneath the lines of mountains, as ordinarily understood and advocated. In this I believe I am only going back to the views which were long since entertained by geologists relative to continental elevations." p. 82. The nature of the palaeozoic sediments of North America clear- ly shows that they were accumulated during a slow progressive subsidence of the ocean's bed, lasting through the palaeozoic per- iod, and this subsidence, which would be greatest along the line of greatest accumulation, was doubtless, as Mr. Hall considers, con- nected with the transfer of sediment and the variations of local pres- 1 02 Mr. T. Slerry Hunt sure acting upon the yielding crust of the earth, agreeably to the view of Sir John HerscheL This subsidence of the ocean's bottom would, according to Mr. Hall, cause plications in the soft and yield- ing strata. Lyell had already in speculating upon the results of a cooling and contracting sea of molten matter, such as he imagined might have once underlaid the Appalachians, suggested that the in- cumbent flexible strata, collapsing in obedience to gravity would be forced, if this contraction took place along narrow and paral- lel zones of country, to fold into a smaller space as they con- formed to the circumference of a smaller arc, " thus enabling the force of gravity, though originally exerted vertically, to bend and squeeze the rocks as if they had been subjected to lateral pressure.* Admitting thus Herschel's theory of subsidence and Lyell's of plication, Mr. Hall proceeds to inquire into the great system of foldings presented by the Appalachians. The sinking along the line of greatest accumulation produces a vast synclinal, which is that of the mountain ranges, and the result of such a sinking of flexible beds will be the production within the greater synclinal of numerous smaller synclinal and anticlinal axes, which must gradually decline toward the margin of the great synclinal axis. This process the author observes appears to furnish a satis- factory explanation of the difi'erence of slope on the two sides of the Appalachian anticlinals, where the dips on one side are uni- formly steeper than on the other, p. 71. An important question here arises, which is this ; — while admit- ting with Lyell and Hall that parallel foldings may be the result of the subsidence which accompanied the deposition of the Appal- achian sediments, we inquire whether the cause is adequate to produce the vast and repeated flexures presented by the Alle- ghanies. Mr. Billings in a recent paper in the Canadian Natu- ralist (Jan. 1860), has endeavoured to show that the foldings thus produced must be insignificant when compared with the great undu- lations of strata, whose origin Prof. Rogers has endeavoured to ex- plain by his theory of earthquake waves propagated through the igneous fluid mass of the globe, and rolling up the flexible crust. We shall not stop to discuss this theory, but call attention to another agency hitherto overlooked, which must also cause contraction and folding of the strata, and to which we have already alluded. (Am* Jour. Sci.(2)xxx. 138.) It is the condensation which must take place when porous sediments are converted into crystalline rocks like * Travels in North America, 1st visit, vol. i. p. *78. on American Geology. 103 gneiss and mica slate, and still more when the elements of these sediments are changed into minerals of high specific gravity, such as pyroxene, garnet, epidote, staurotide, chiastolite and chloritoid. This contraction can only take place when the sediments have be- come deeply buried and are undergoing metamorphism, and is, as many attendant phenomena indicate, connected with a softened and yielding condition of the lower strata. "We have now in this connection to consider the hypothesis which ascribes the corrugation of portions of the earth's crust to tiie gradual contraction of the interior. An able discussion of this view will be found in the American Journal of Science (2) iii. 1*70, from the pen of Mr. J. D. Dana, who, in common with all others who have hitherto written on the subject, adopts the notion of the igneous fluidity of the earth's interior. We have however elsewhere given our reasons for accepting the conclusion of Hopkins and Hennessy that the earth, instead of being a liquid mass covered with a thin crust, is essentially solid to a great depth, if not indeed to the centre, so that the volcanic and igneous phenomena generally ascribed to a fluid nucleus have their seat, as Keferstein and after him Sir John Herschel long since suggested, not in the anhydrous solid unstratified nucleus, but in the deeply buried layers of aqueous sediments which, per- meated with water, and raised to a high temperature, become reduced to a state of more or less complete igneo-aqueous fusion. So that beneath the outer crust of sediments, and surrounding the solid nucleus, we may suppose a zone of plastic sedimentary material adequate to explain all the phenomena hitherto ascribed to a fluid nucleus. (Quar. Jour. Geol. Society, Nov. 1859. Canadian Naturalist, Dec. 1859, and Amer. Jour, Sci.(2)xxx. 136.) This hypothesis, as we have endeavoured to show, is not only completely conformable with what we know of the behaviour of aqueous sediments impregnated with water and exposed to a high temperature, but ofl"ers a ready explanation of all the phenomena of volcanos and igneous rocks, while avoiding the many difiiculties which beset the hypothesis of a nucleus in a state of igneous fluidity. At the same time any changes in volume resulting from the contraction of the nucleus would affect the outer crust through the medium of the more or less plastic zone of sediments, precisely as if the whole interior of the globe were in a liquid state. The accumulation of a great thickness of sediment along a 104 Mr, T. Sterry Hunt given line would, by destroying the equilibrium of pressure, cause the somewhat flexible crust to subside ; the lower strata becoming altered by the ascending heat of the nucleus would crystallize and contract, and plications would thus be determined parallel to the line of deposition. These foldings, not less than the softening of the bottom strata, establish lines of weakness or of least resistance in the earth's crust, and thus determine the contraction which results from the cooling of the globe to exhibit itself in those regions and along those lines where the ocean's bed is subsiding beneath the accumulating sediments. Hence we conceive that the subsi- dence invoked by Mr. Hall, although not the sole nor even the principal cause of the corrugations of the strata, is the one which determines their position and direction, by making the effects pro- duced by the contraction not only of sediments, but of the earth's nucleus itself, to be exerted along the lines of greatest accumulation. It will readily be seen that the lateral pressure which is brought to bear upon the strata of an elongated basin by the contraction of the globe, would cause the folds on either side to incline to the margin of the basin, and hence we find along the Appalachians, which occupy the western side of such a great synclinal, the steeper slopes, the overturn dips or folded flexures, and the overlaps from dislocation are to the westward, so that the general dip of the strata is to the centre of the basin, on the other side of which we might expect to find the reverse order of dips pre- vailing. The apparent exceptions to this order of upthrows to the south-east in the Appalachians appear to be due to small downthrows to the south-east, which are parallel to and immedi- ately to the north-west of great upheavals in the same direction. Mr. Hall adopts the theory of metamorphism which we have expounded in the paper just quoted above, Canadian Naturalist^ Dec. 1859, (see also Am. Jour. Sci. (2) xxv. 28*7, 435, xxx. 135,) which has received a strong confirmation from the late researches of Daubree. According to this view, which is essentially that put forward by Herschel and Babbage, these changes have been effected in deeply buried sediments by chemical reactions, which we have endeavored to explain, so that metamorphism, like folding, takes place along the lines of great accumulation. The appearance at the surface of the altered strata is the evidence of a considerable denudation. It is probable that the gneissic rocks of Lower Silu- rian age in North America were at the time of their crystalliza- tion overlaid by the whole of the palaeozoic strata, while the on American Geology, 105 metamorphism of carboniferous strata in eastern New England points to the former existence of great deposits of newer and over- lying deposits, which were subsequently swept away. On the subject of igneous rocks and volcanic phenomena, Mr. Hall insists upon the principles which we were, so far as we know the first to point out, namely their connection with great accumula- tions of sediment, and of active volcanos with the newer deposits. We have elsewhere said : " the volcanic phenomena of the present day appear, so far as are aware, to be confined to regions of newer secondary and tertiary deposits, which we may suppose the central heat to be still penetrating, (as shewn by Mr. Babbage,) a process which has long since ceased in the palaeozoic regions." To the accumulation of sediments then we referred both modern volcanos and ancient plutonic rocks ; these latter, like lavas, we regard in all cases as but altered and displaced sediments, for which reason we have called them exotic rocks. (Am. Jour. Sci. (2) XXX. 133). Mr. Hall reiterates these views , and calls attention moreover to the fact that the greatest outbursts of igneous rock in the various formations appear to be in all cases connected with rapid accumulation over limited areas, causing perhaps disruptions of the crust, through which the semi-fluid stratum may have risen to the surface. He cites in this connection the traps with the palaeozoic sandstones of Lake Superior, and with the mesozoic sandstones of Nova Scotia and the Connecticut and Hudson valleys. It may sometimes happen that the displaced and liquified sub- stratum will find vent, not along the line of greatest accumulation, but along the outskirts of the basin. Thus in eastern Canada it is not along the chain of the Notre Dame mountains, but on the north-west side of it that we meet with the great outbursts of trachyte and dolerite, whose composition and distribution we have elsewhere described. (Keport of Geological Survey for 1858, and Am. Jour. Science, (2) xxix. 285.) The North American continent, from the grand simplicity of its geological structure and from the absence, over great areas, of the more recent formations, off'ers peculiar facilities for the solution of some of the great problems of geology ; and we cannot finish this article without congratulating ourselves upon the great progress in this direction which has been made within the last few years by the labors of American geologists. Montreal, March 1, 1861. 106 Barrande, Logan and Hall ARTICLE VII. — Correspondence of Joachim Bakrande, Sir William Loqan and James Hall, on the Taconic System and on the age of the Fossils found in the Hocks of Northern New England^ and the Quebec Group of Hocks, {From the American Journal of Science No, 92, 1861.) I. Introductory Remarks. As some of our foreign readers may not be acquainted with the question to which the following important correspondence relates, we think it advisable to make a few explanatory observa- tions by way of introduction. A complete history of the whole subject would require a greater amount of space than can be afforded, and we shall therefore touch only upon a few of the more salient points. The rocks under discussion occupy a belt of country east and west from twenty to sixty miles wide, stretching from the vicinity of the city of New York in a northerly direction to Lake Cham- plain and thence through Vermont and Lower Canada to Cape Gasp6 at the mouth of the St. Lawrence. The strata, consisting of slates, limestones, sandstones and conglomerates are greatly disturbed, plicated and dislocated, and are often, especially along the eastern side of the belt, in a highly metamorphic condition. On this side they are overlaid unconformably by Upper Silurian and Devonian rocks, but on the western and northern margin they are in contact with and in general seem to be a continuation of the Lower Silurian. Some of the slates of the formation closely resemble in lithological characters those of the Hudson River group, and thus along the western side of the region, where the junction of the two formations occurs, it is often almost impossi- ble to draw the line between them. The dip and strike of both are in the same direction, and throughout extensive areas the newer rocks appear to plunge beneath the older. The whole district affords an excellent example of those cases, so well known to field geologists, where the true relations of the different masses cannot be clearly worked out without the aid of fossils, and where the best observers may arrive at diametrically opposite opinions. Dr. Emmons, one of the geologists of the New York Survey, early convinced himself by a careful examination of these rocks, that they constituted a distinct physical group more ancient than the Potsdam sandstone, the latter being regarded by him as the base of the Lower Silurian System in North America. His on the Taconic System, 107 views were given in detail in 1842 in his final report on that part of the State confided to his charge, and in a more special manner in another work entitled " The Taconic System," pub- lished in 1844. In this latter work he figured several species of fossils which had been collected in diff"erent parts of the forma- tion. Two of these were trilobites, and were described under the names of Atops trilineatus and Elliptocephala asaphoides* The others were graptolites, fucoids and apparently trails of anne- lides ; he considered all the species to be distinct from any that had been found in American rocks of undoubted Silurian age. The pre-silurian age of the formation has also been maintained by him in several more recent publications such as his " Ameri- can Geology " — the several repoiis on the geological survey of North Carolina and in his "Manual of Geology." On the other hand, Professor Hall placed the whole region in the Hudson River group. In the first volume of the Palaeontol- ogy of New York he identifies Atops trilineatus with Triarthrus Beckii, the characteristic trilobite of the Utica slate ; — Ellipto- cephala asaphoides he refers to the genus Olenus, and describes as congeneric therewith, another trilobite {0. undulostriatus) said to be from the true Hudson River shales. It is scarcely necessary to state that these identifications have always afibrded an ex- tremely powerful objection against the correctness of the position assumed by Emmons, because no species of trilobite is known to range from the Primordial zone up to the top of the Lower Si- lurian. Hall's first volume was published in 1847 and as it is unquestionably the most important work on the Lower Silurian fossils of North America it has been very generally accepted by our physical geologists as a guide. It is not surprising there- fore, that in all the discussions that have taken place during the last fourteen years upon the age of these rocks, the majority of those who did not profess to be naturalists should have arranged themselves on the side of the leading palaeontologist of the country. The formation was traced from New York through Vermont, and there identified by Prof. Adams, the State Geologist, with the Hudson River group. The Canadian Surveyors continued it with great labor through a mountainous and partially unin- habited country for nearly five hundred miles further, from the northern extremity of Vermont to the neighborhood of Quebec, and thence along the south side of the St. Lawrence to the mouth 108 Barrandet Logan and Hall of that river at Cape Gaspe. In Canada the nomenclature of the New York Survey was adopted for all the formations, and it ap- pears from his several reports that Sir W. E. Logan could find nothing in the physical structure of the country to authorize him to make an exception in favor of this particular series of rocks. It has therefore always been called the Hudson River group in the publications of the Canadian Survey. It will be seen by the following correspondence that the new light thrown upon the question of the age of these rocks by the fortunate discovery of a large number of fossils near Quebec, now leads Sir William to place them at the base of the Lower Silurian, and as he states that the shales in Vermont, in which the trilobites noticed in Mr. Barrande's letter to Prof. Bronn have been found, may be subordinate to the Potsdam, it seems probable that the sequence contended for by Emmons will turn out to be at least for the greater part the true one. II. On the Primordial Fauna and the Taconic System of Emmons, IN A LETTER TO PrOF. BrONN OF HeIDELBERG.* "Paris, July 16, 1860. " I have recently received, thanks to the kindness of Mr. E. Billings, the learned palaeontologist of the Geological Sur- vey of Canada, a very interesting pamphlet entitled ' Twelfth An- nual Report of the Regents of the University of the State of New York, 1859.' If you possess this publication, you will find there, at page 59, a memoir of Prof. J. Hall, entitled * Trilobites of the shales of the Hudson River group.' This savant there describes three species under the names Olenus Thompsoni^ Olenus Ver- montana, and Peltura ( Olenus) holopyga. The well-defined cha- racters of these trilobites are described with the clearness and precision to be expected from so skilful and experienced a pal- aeontologist as James Hall. " Although the specimens are incomplete, their primordial na- ture cannot admit of the least doubt, when the descriptions are read, accompanied with wood engravings, which the large dimen- sions of these three species render suflBciently exact. The first is 105 millim. long by 80 broad, the other two are somewhat smaller. * Proceed, Boston S. N. Hist., Vol. vii, Dec. 1860, p. 371. on the Taconic System* 109 "The heads of tlie two Oleni being injured, the furrows of the glabella cannot be recognized . The thorax has a common and remarkable character, which consists in the greater develop- ment of the third segment, the point of which is stronger and longer than in all the other pleura. This is a striking resem- blance to the Paradoxides, the second segment of which has the same peculiarity. Besides, there is an intimate relation between these two primordial types, and we should not be surprised if America furnished us with forms uniting most of their characte- ristics. The pygidium of 0. Thompsoni^ the only one that is known, shows no segmentation, and attests by its exiguity its re- lation to a primordial trilobite. P. holopygay by its whole ap- pearance, resembles the Swedish species so well known by the name of P. scarabceoides. " Thus all the characters of these three trilobites, as they are recognized and described by J. Hall, are those of the trilobites of the primordial fauna of Europe. This is so true, that I think T may say without fear, if M. Angelin, or any other palaeontologist practised in distinguishing the trilobites of Scandinavia, had met with these three American forms in Sweden or Norway, he would not have hesitated to class them among the species of the primor- dial fauna, and to place the schists enclosing them in one of the formations containing this fauna. Such is my profound convic- tion, and I think any one who has made a serious study of the trilobitic forms and of their vertical distribution in the oldest form- ations will be of the same opinion. " Besides, all who have seriously studied palaeontology know well that each geological epoch, or each fauna, has its proper and characteristic forms, which once extinct reappear no more. This is one of the great and beautiful results of your immense re- searches, which have generalized this law, recognized by each one of us within the limits of the strata he describes. " The great American palaeontologist arrived long since at the same conclusion, for in 1847 he wrote the following passage in the Introduction to the first volume of the monumental work con- secrated to the Palaeontology of New York. " ' Every step in this research tends to convince us that the succession of strata, when clearly shown, furnishes conclusive proofs of the existence of a regular sequence among the earlier organisms. We are more and more able, as we advance, to ob- serve that the Author of nature, though always working upon 110 Barrande, Logan and Hall the same plan and producing an infinite variety of forms almost incomprehensible to us, has never repeated the same forms in successive creations. The various organisms called into existence have performed their parts in the economy of creation, have lived their period and perished. This we find to be as true among the simple and less conspicuous forms of the palaeozoic series, as in the more remarkable fauna of later periods.' — J. Sail, * Fal. of New YorhJ i. p. xxiii." " When an eminent man expresses such ideas so eloquently, it is because they rise from his deepest convictions. It must then be conceived that Mr. Hall, restrained by the artificial combinations of stratigraphy previously adopted by him, has done violence to his palaeontological doctrines, when, seeing before him the most characteristic forms of the Primordial fauna^ and giving them names the most significant of this first creation, he thinks it his duty to teach us that these three trilobites belong to a horizon superior to that on which the second fauna is extinguished. ** In effect, according to the text of Mr. Hall, the three trilobites in question were found near the town of Georgia, Vermont, in schists which are superior to the true Hudson River group. In his works Mr. Hall does not go beyond indicating the horizon of certain fossils, and no one would think of asking from him a guar- anty for such indications. But on this occasion the great American palaeontologist thinks it necessary to support his stratigraphical de- termination by another authority, chosen from the most respecta- ble names in geology. The following is the note which terminates his Memoir. " ' Note. — In addition to the evidence heretofore possessed regarding the position of the shales containing the Trilobites, I have the testimony of Sir W. E. Logan, that the shales of this locality are in the upper part of the Hudson River group^ or form- ing a part of a series of strata which he is inclined to rank as a distinct group, above the Hudson River proper. It would be quite superfluous for me to add one word in support of the opinion of the most able stratigraphical geologist of the American continent.' " Now, when a savant hke Mr. Hall thinks himself obliged to invoke testimony to guarantee the exactness of the position of certain fossils, it is clear that the determination of this position presents some difficulties. *'In order to understand these difficulties I have consulted the on the Taconic System. Ill maps and documents relating to the State of Vermont and the country in which the town of Georgia is situated, and although the library of our Geological Society does not contain all that one could wish on this subject, I recognized easily that Georgia is placed in the region where the order of succession of the deposits is the most obscured by foldings and dislocations ; so that the position of the schists in question could not have been determined by the incontestable evidence of direct superposition. Besides, the physical appearance of these schists is not that of the rocks con- stituting the typical group of Hudson River. This is verified by the note of Mr. Hall, for he tells us that Sir W. E. Logan is in- clined to make a distinct group of these schists superior to that of the Hudson, and which consequently would crown the whole Lower Silurian division of the continent. " For the above reasons, the geological horizon on which the three Oleni of Georgia were found appears to me, at first view, to have been but doubtfully determined, and in complete opposition to palseontological documents. *' I do not think, then, that I weaken in the least degree the respect and confidence justly inspired by the labors of the Ameri- can savants whose names have just been mentioned, when I ask them in the name of science to make new researches and new studies, that may lead to a final and certain solution of this impor- tant question. ** Doubtless, thanks of the progress of our knowledge, we are now no longer bound by the ancient conception of the simultane- ous extinction and the total renovation of the faunae. As for my- self, in particular, it would not be possible to accuse me of similar views at the moment when I am publishing the explanation of my doctrine of colonies. But you will perceive that the facts which I invoke in support of this doctrine are far from sustaining the reappearance of a fauna after the extinction of the following fauna, which the three trilobites of Georgia would do, if they had really lived after the deposit of the Hudson River group. ^' This reappearance would be still more astonishing, as among the three great Silurian faunas the second fauna occupies the greatest vertical space and is probably the one which enjoyed the longest existence. Thus, to verify such a reappearance, the most incontestable proofs are required, for such a decision would com* pel the entire re-formation of one of our most important scientific creeds. « Yoursj very truly, J. BARRANDE." 112 Barrande, Logan and Hall . In another letter, dated Paris, 14th August, 1860, Mr. Barrande says : — " You will easily perceive the interest and importance of the question, even if it were only raised on account of the three Oleni of Georgia ; but it takes it now a much wider field, owing to a letter I have just received from Mr. Billings, official palaeontolo- gist of the Geological Survey of Canada, who informs me that he has found lately, in the schists and limestones near Quebec, con- sidered as being the prolongation of those in question in Vermont, nearly one hundred species, almost all new. Twenty-six of these come from a white limestone, and seem to him to be the true rep- resentatives of the Primordial fauna, and he cites among them ConocepkaliteSj ArionelluSy Dihellocephalus^ etc., that is, very characteristic forms of this fauna. " In another limestone, which is gray, he finds thirty-nine spe- cies, all different from the first, and representing, on the contrary, the most distinct types of the second fauna. Finally, the black schists furnish him with GraptoliteSy Lingulce^ etc., etc., fossils which at first sight cannot determine a horizon, because they are found upon several Silurian horizons. " While waiting for these very obscure stratigraphical relations to be disentangled, and without committing in any manner Mr. Billings, who should preserve the independence of his opinion, I may yet express to you my view wholly personal, and of which at this moment I take the entire responsibility. I think, then, that this reofion of schists and limestones of Vermont, in other words the Taconic system^ will reproduce in America what took place in England as to the Malvern Hills, and in Spain for the Canta- brian chain, — that is to say the Primordial fauna, after having been disregarded, will regain its rights and its place, usurped for a time by the second fauna, " You see it is a great and noble question, whose final solution will complete the imposing harmonies existing already between the series of palaeozoic faunae of America and that of the contem- poraneous faunae of Europe, leaving to each the imprint peculiar to its continent. *' I can well imagine, from the position previously taken by our learned American brethren on the subject of the Taconic system, that the final solution of which I speak will not be obtained with- out debate, and perhaps some wounding of self-love, for some opinions that appear to be dominant must be abandoned. on the Taconic System* . 113 " But experience has taugbt me that in such cases the most elevated minds turn always first to the light, and put themselves at the head of the movement, of reform. Thus, when in 1850 I recognized the Primordial fauna in the Malvern Hills, where the second fauna only had been found, Sir Henry de la Beche and Sir Roderick Murchison were the first to adopt my views, to which little by little the other official geologists agreed ; Edward Forbes ranged himself publicly on my side in 1853 in The Geological Survey, while othei-s still hesitated, until now there is no longer any opponent. *' I think there will be the same experience in America, and that in a few years from this time the opinions of your savans will have undergone a great change as regards this question. " It is a fine opportunity for Dr. Emmons to reproduce his former observations and ideas with more success than in 1844. " Yours very truly, J. BARRANDE." HI. SIR WILLIAM Logan's letter to j. barrande. Vol. V. page 472, ante. IV. letter from JAMES HALL, PALEONTOLOGIST OF NEW YORK, TO THE EDITORS OP THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND ARTS. Gentlemen, — In the Twelfth Annual Report of the Regents of the University* upon the State Cabinet of Natural History, I published descriptions of three species of trilobites from the shales of the town of Georgia in Vermont, referring them to the age of the Hudson River group. These trilobites had been in my pos- session for some two years or more ; and knowing the great inte- rest that would attach to them, whenever published, I had waited, hoping that some new facts might be brought out touch- ing the stratigraphical relations of these rocks in the town of Georgia. - I * The same to which Mr. Barrande refers in his text to Prof. Bronn, p. 312. The preceding communications sufficiently explain the subject under discussion. Can. Nat. 3 Vol. VI. No. 2. 114 Barrande, Logan and Hall After the descriptions had been printed and a few copies distri- buted, I learned that Sir William Logan was at that time actually investigating the rocks of that part of Vermont. Desiring to know the results of his latest researches in regard to the strati- graphical relations of these rocks, I withheld the final publica- tion till the meeting of the American Association for the Advan- cement of Science, in Springfield, and there showed to Sir William my descriptions as they now stand in the report, and I then re- ceived his authority for the addition of the note which was ap- pended. This in a few words is a simple history of the matter relating to the publication of these species. I made no remarks or com- parisons with the primordial fauna of Barrande in Bohemia, know- ing that these features would be at once recognized by every pal- aeontologist ; while their reference to the genus Olenus showed my appreciation of the nature of the fossils. T received a copy of the communication of Mr. Barrande, from Sir William Logan in September, a few days before setting out for my field duties in Wisconsin. Since my return to Albany, constant and pressing occupation has left me no time to consider a reply to a question of so much importance. Later discoveries in the limestones associated with the shales at Quebec leave no longer a doubt, if any could have been enter- tained before, that the shales of Georgia, Vermont, are in the same relative position ; and we must regard these three trilobites as belonging to the same fauna with the species enumerated by Sir William Logan as occurring in the Quebec group. Left to palseontological evidence alone, there could never have been a question of the relations of these trilobites, which would at once have been refeiTcd to the primordial types of Barrande. Sir William Logan yields to the palgeontological evidence, and says, " there must be a break.^^ He gives up the evidence of structural sequence which he had before investigated and con- sidered conclusire ; and having heretofore relied upon the opin- ion of the distinguished geologist of Canada in regard to a region of country to which ray «wn examinations have not extended, I have nothing left me but to go back to the position sustained by palseontological evidence. Let us for a moment examine this palaeontological evidence. The identifications of the fosssils of the Quebec group certainly show a remarkable agreement between the trilobites of this group on the Taconic System, 115 and those of the Potsdam sandstone, in the occurrence of six species of Dikellocephalus and one of Menocephalus ; while the occurrence of many others is in agreement or not incompatible with the fauna of the Potsdam and Calciferous sandstones. The comparative values of the trilobitic faunae of this group and of the primordial zone of Europe, as established by Barrande, is better shown in a tabular form which T here append. The Crustacean fauna of the 'primordial zone of Europe. Paradoxides, Olenus, Peltura, Conocephalus, Ellipsocephalus,* Hydrocephalus, - Sao, - - - Arionellus, Agnostus, - Amphion, - These genera are all limited to the primordial fauna^ and none of the other European genera of trilobites are known in this fauna. Of the first and second fauna. Placed with doubt in the first fauna, and is well developed in the second fauna. The Crustacean fauna of the Quebec Group. Conocephalus, Arionellus, - Agnostus, - Dikellocephalus, - Menocephalus Bathyurus, Asaphus, lUsenus, Amphion, - Ceraurus = Cheirurus, Genera of the primordial zone. A genus passing from the first to the second fauna. Genera of the Potsdam period. Quebec group. Of the second fauna. Of the second and third fauna. Of the second fauna ; and doubtfully of the first fauna in Sweden. Of the second and third Silurian faunae, and of the Devonian fauna. We have therefore in the Quebec Group, two established gen- era of the primordial zone ; one, Agnostus, which passes from the primordial to the second fauna ; one, Amphion^ cited as doubtful in the first fauna in Sweden, and known to be in the second ; and three, — Asaphus, Hloenus and Cheirurus, which begin their existence in the second fauna. Of these, Asaphus begins and ends in the second; lllcenus begins with the second and continues to the third ; while Ceraurus = Cheirurus begins in the second, extends through the third Silurian, and appears in the Devonian fauna. Not Elliptocephalus of Emmons. 116 Barrandey Logan and Hall Bathyunis is a new genus, and as yet has no stratigrapliical value in comparisons. Those which I described as Olenus have proved to be not true Oleni, and though much resembling that genus, are nevertheless distinct ; I have proposed the name Barrandia and Bathynotus for the two forms.* These have yet no stratigraphical value, except so far as their relations to estab- lished genera may aid in that direction. The genera D'lkelloce'phalus and Menocei:>halus are of the Pots- dam group ; and so far the Quebec group is in parallelism with the Potsdam and Calciferous strata. Of the other genera, we know Asaphus, Illcenus and Ceraurus (= Cheirurus) in the Treuton limestone and Hudson River groups ; lllcenus and Ceraunism the Upper Silurian strata of Niagara age, or the third fauna of Barrande ; while Ceraurus occurs also in the Devonian of Europe. Amphion is known in the second fauna in Europe, and, doubtfully in the first. Ceraurus does not occur in this country, so far as I know, above the Niagara group, though known in the Devonian rocks of Europe. The following tabular arrangement of the genera found in the Quebec group will serve to express more distinctly the relations of the crustacean fauna of these rocks. The letters at the head of the columns have the same refer- ences as those used in the communication of Sir Williain Losan. A A^ A2 A' A^ B^ B B3 Arionellus 1 4 1 3 6 ConoceTDbalus Asrnostus 1 DikelloceDhalus MenoceDbalus — 4 1 Bathvurus 1 Barrandia, 1 Shales of Bathynotus, ) Georgia, Vt. Amnhion 2 Asanhus 1 1 1 Tllfenus • 2 Cheirurus (Ceraurus),. . . . 2 LeT)erditia ■ 1 Linsrula 2 — 2 1 1 1 "l" Discina. . . . « Orthis 1 2 1 1 1 1 11 1 1 3 LentsBna Stronhodonta * .... Camarella, 1 • • • • 1 * Thirteenth Annual Report of the Regents of the University of N. Y., on the State Cabinet of Natural History, Albany, December, 1860. on the Taconic System. 117 A A^ A2 A3 A B B-^ B3 Cvrtodonta "^ 1 AT fl flnrpp. ........... .... 1 Murchisonia 3 r 2 2 2 1 Pleurotomariai • • • • • 2 Helicotoma. ••••> 1 StraDaroUus CaDulus Oohileta 1 Nautilus 1 1 1 Orthoceras 3 or 4 Cvrtoperas 1 Crinoidal columns 3 Tetradium 1 3 25 1 2 5 3 3 [?] Dictvonema ••• 1 GraDtolithus Retiolites. • • • • ReteosTrantus • • • • PhvllooTaotus DendrosrraDtus Thamnoffrantus In this table we find, of previously recognized trilobites of the primordial fauna, two genera and five species ; of previously- known genera of the second and third faunae, four genera and eight species ; two genera before known in the Potsdam sand- stone and seven species ; and of Agnostus^ which is of the first and second faunas, two species ; and one new genus with nine species. These are certainly very curious results ; and a modification of our views is still required to allow four genera and eight spe- cies, (or leaving out AmpJiion) three genera and six species of the trilobites of the second fauna to be associated with two genera and five species of trilobites of the piiraordial fauna, and yet re- gard the rock as of primordial origin. The brachiopodous genera, Lingula, Discina, Orthis, Leptcena and Stropliotnena, have a great vertical range, and are known in the Lower and Upper Silurian, and most of them in the Devo- nian ; while Camerella so far as known is a Lower Silurian form of the second fauna (perhaps also in a lower position). Of the gasteropoda, Maclurea and Ophileta are restricted to Lower Silurian rocks, but occur mainly in the second fauna. The other genera occur likewise in the second fauna and in the Upper Silurian rocks as well as some of them in Devonian. The same is true of the cephalopoda enumerated. Tetradium is known in the second fauna of the Lower Silurian 118 Barrande, Logan and Hall rocks, and in the upper part of the Hudson River group at the west. Dictyonema is a genus known from Lower Silurian to Devonian strata. Graptolithus proper extends to the Clinton group of New York ; and the same is true of Reteograptus. Tamnograptus occurs in the rocks of the Hudson River group near Albany, and in the Quebec rocks. Phylhgraptus and Retiolites are known in the Quebec rocks only ; while the typical form of Dendrograptus oc- curs in the Potsdam sandstone, and, likewise, in three other spe- cies, in the Quebec rocks. We find, therefore, in the other genera, except trilobites, very little satisfactory evidence on which to rely in the present state of our knowledge, for determining the position of these strata. In the present discussion, it appears to me necessary to go fur- ther, and to inquire in what manner we have obtained our present ideas of a primordial, or of any successive faunse. I hold that in the study of the fossils themselves there were no means of such determination prior to the knowledge of the stratigraphical rela- tions of the rocks in which the remains are inclosed. There can be no scientific or systematic palaeontology without a stratigra- phical basis. Wisely then, and independently of theories, or of observations and conclusions elsewhere, geologists in this country had gone on with their investigations of structural geology. The grand system of the Professors W. B. and H. D. Rogers had been wrought out not only for Pennsylvania and Virginia but for the whole Appalachian chain ; and the results were shown in nume- ous carefully worked sections. In 1843, '44 and '45 I had myself several times crossed from the Hudson River to the Green Moun- tains, and found little of importance to conflict with the views ex- pressed by the Professors Rogers in regard to the chain farther south, except in reference to the sandstone of Burlington, and one or two other points, which I then regarded as of minor impor- tance. Sir William Logan had been working in the investigations of the geology of Canada ; and better work in physical geology has never been done in any country. This then was the condition of American geology, and inves- tigators concurred, with little exception, in the sequence based on physical investigations. As I have before said, our earliest determinations of the successive faunae depend upon the previ- ous stratigraphical determinations. This I think is acknowledged on the Taconic System, 119 by Mr. Barrande himself, when he presents to us, as a preliminary work, a section across the centre of Bohemia. With all willing- ness to accept Mr. Barrande's determination, fortified and sus- tained as it is by the exhibition of his magnificent work npon the trilobites of these strata, we had not yet the means of parallelizing our own formations with those of Bohemia by the fauna there known. The nearest approach to the type of primordial trilobites was found in those of the Potsdam sandstone of the northwest, described by Dr. D. D. Owen ; but none of these had been gene- rically identified with Bohemian forms ;* and the prevailing opinion, sanctioned as T have understood by Mr. Barrande, was that the primordial fauna had not been discovered in this country, until the re-discovery of the Paradoxides Harlani, at Braintree, Mass. The fragmentary fossils published in vol. 1, Palaeontology of New York, and similar forms of the so-called Taconic system, were justly regarded as insuflBcient to warrant any conclusions. It then became a question for palaeontologists to decide, whether determinations founded on a physical section in a disturbed and diflicult region of comparatively small extent, were to be regarded as paramount to determinations founded on examinations, like those of the Professors Rogers, extending over a distance in the line of strike of five or six hundred miles ; and those of Sir William Logan over nearly as great an extent from Vermont to Gaspe. It is not possible for me, at this moment, to give the time ne- cessary for a full discussion of this important subject. In present- ing these few facts in this form, I am far from doing it in the spirit of cavilling, or as an expression of distrust in any direc- tion. It is plain that the case is not met in Mr. Barrande's plan of successive trilobitic faunae ; and the facts yet brought out do not serve to clear up the difficulty. It is evident that there is an important and perplexing question to be determined, — one that demands all the wisdom and sagacity of the most earnest inquir- ers, and one which calls for the application of all our knowledge in stratigraphical geology and in palaeontology ; — one in which cooperation, good will and forbearance are required from every one, to harmonize the conflicting facts as they are now presented. The occurrence of so many types of the second fauna in the rocks at Point Levi, associated with a smaller number of estab- * The glabellae of small trilobites undistinguishable from Conocepha- lus occur in the Potsdam sandstone near Trempaleau, Wisconsin, on the Mississippi river. 120 Catalogue of Plants collected in the lished primordial types, offers us the alternative of regarding these strata as of the second stage, with the reappearance of pri- mordial types in that era, or of bringing into the primordial zone several genera heretofore regarded as beginning their existence in the second stage: in either case, so far as now appears, con- flcting with the scheme of Mr. Barrande in reference to the suc- cessive faunae of trilobites as established in Bohemia and the rest of Europe. For myself I can say, that no previously expressed opinion, nor any " artificial combinations of stratigraphy previously adopted'''' by me, shall prevent me from meeting the question fairly and frankly. I have not sought a controversy on this point, but it is quite time that we should all agree that there is something of high interest and importance to be determined in regard to the limitation of the successive faunae of our older pal- aeozoic rocks. I am, yours, &e., James Hall. Albany, N.Y., Jan. 23, 1861. ARTICLE VIII. — Catalogue of Plants collected in the Counties of Argenteuil and Ottawa, in 1858. By W. S. M. D'Urban. The following list of Plants contains 362 species, all of which were collected strictly within the Laurentian district, many intro- duced species growing on the fossiliferous rocks in the immediate neighbourhood of the town of Grenville, being omitted. A large portion were determined by myself on the spot with the aid of Dr. Asa Gray's admirable '* Manual of the Botany of the North- ern United States," which was my almost constant compa- nion during the five months I spent in the district, but I have to acknowledge my obligations to Mr. G. Barnston, who kindly assisted me in naming some phenogamous species ; to Col. Munro, C. B., 39th Begt., who most obligingly determined the whole of the sedges and grasses ; to Mr. D.Allan Poe, who examined the cryp- togams, and named all the mosses, some of which ho submitted to the eminent bryologist, Mr. James of Philadelphia ; and lastly to Dr. Dawson for allowing me unlimited access for purposes of reference to the Holmes herbarium deposited in McGill College. Many of the specimens collected were so small and depauperated in form, from the poverty and scantiness of the soil that I found it Counties of Argenteuil and Ottawa, 121 very diflBciilt to recognise them at the first glance, and even when compared with specimens gathered in the rich limestone districts, it was with difficulty I could believe them to be the same species, until I had made a very close examination. A considerable number of European plants were found round clearings, lumber roads, and along the banks of the Rouge, and I have indicated such as were obviously introduced, by an as- terisk. (*) For the sake of brevity I have given the English names of some of the commoner species only, and in general those under which they are known to the settlers and lumbermen. With the assist- ance of the other members of our party, I was enabled to obtain the Indian names of a few species, and they will be found below, spelled, I believe correctly, in accordance with their pronunciation. They were furnished by the son of the Algonquin chief of the Indian settlement on the Rouge, in the township of Arundel, called " Cbi-chick " (pronounced Shes-sheep), who could read and write his own language, and understood both English and French. I have given the dates at which I found most of the flowering species in full flower, (F.) and their fruit ripe, (F. R.) believing they may be useful in indicating the climate of the district. When no locality in particular is mentioned the plant was dis- tributed over the whole district. London, England, May l6th, 1860. RanunculacecB (Crowfoot Family). Clematis Virginiana, Linn. Abundant in swamps ; F. 12th August. Anemone Pennsylvanica, Linn. In great abundance and luxuriance on a clearing near the Devil's rapids on the Rouge ; F. 30th June to 18th July. Thalictrum cornuti, Linn. Abundant in moist places ; F. 16th July. Ranunculus Flammula, Linn., var. reptans. Amongst stones by the water-side, River Rouge, near Silver Mountain ; F. 5th August. " Pennsylvanicus, Linn. Abundant in wet places, Hamil- ton's Farm ; F. 30th June. * " acris, Linn. Clayey banks of the Rouge and round clear- ings ; F. 13th June. Caltha palustris, Linn. Marshy ground, clearings along Chatham, North Town. Coptis trifolia, Salisb. Very abundant in rocky woods and swamps ; F. 31st May. 122 Catalogue of Plants collected in the Aquilegia Canadensis, Linn. A few stunted plants on gneiss rocks, Sixteen Island Lake ; F. 3rd June. Actsea spicata, Linn., var. rubra, Michx. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. R., end of July. " " var. alba, Michx. Woods near Hamilton's Farm. Cabombacece (Water-shield Family). Brasenia peltata, Pursh. Abundant in lakes and ponds. NymphaacecB (Water-lily Family). Nymphaea odorata Ait. Bark Lake, Arundel ; F. I7tli July. Nuphar ad vena, Ait. Abundant in most lakes ; F. 28th June. Sarraceniacece (Pitcher-plant Family). Sarracenia purpurea, Linn. (Ta-na-da-tas, Algonquin). Common in bogs or Beaver-meadows ; F. July. Papaveracece (Poppy Family). Sanguinaria Canadensis, Linn. (Blood root). Clearings on crystal- line limestone, Wentworth. Fumariacece (Fumitory Family). Dicentra Cucullaria, DC. Abundant in woods on crystalline limes- tone ; F. 15th May. Corydalis glauca, Pursh. Sparingly on gneiss rocks, Sixteen Island Lake and Huckleberry rapids on the Rouge ; F. 15th June to I'rth July. CrucifercB (Mustard Family). Dentaria diphylla, Linn. (Indian Pepper). Rocky woods ; F. 30th May. Cardamine hirsuta, Linn. A very small form ; growing submerged by the sides of the Rouge near Silver Mountain, and in wet places ©n Hamilton's Farm, ♦Capsella bursa-pastoris, Moench. Abundant about clearings. Violacece (Violet Family). Viola rotundifolia, Michx. Locality not noted. " blanda, Willd. Rich woods, generally on limestone ; F. Ittb May. " Selkirkii, Goldie. Gate Lake, Wentworth; F. I7th May. " cucullata. Ait. Very abundant and luxuriant about the French settlement in Wentworth, also moist places about clearings on Bevin's Lake, Montcalm ; F. 4th June. " Canadensis, Linn. Very abundant and luxuriant, French settle- ment, Wentworth ; F. 4th June. " pubescens, Ait. Rich low woods on crystalline limestone ; F. beginning of June. Droseracece (Sun-dew Family). Drosera longifolia, Linn. Sphagnum and swamp round a small pond near the Indian Village on the Rouge, and on pine logs in a small lake near Lake of Three Mountains. HypericacecB (St. John's-wort Family). Hypericum ellipticum, Hook. Sandy banks of the Rouge ; F. 14th July to 21st August. Counties of Argenteuil and Ottawa, 123 Caryophyllacece (Pink Family). *Silene noctiflora, Linn. Abundant on the clearings, Indian Village, Arundel ; F. 16th July. ♦Agrostemma Githago, Linn. Amongst wheat, clearing near Bevin's Lake ; F. Yth July. Stellaria borealis (?) Bigelow. Bevin's Lake, Montcalm. *Cerastium vulgatum, Linn. Common amongst grass at Hamilton's Farm. Portulacaceoe (Purslane Family). Claytonia Caroliniana, Michx. (Ground-nut). Very abundant, low, rich woods on limestone ; F. 15th May. TiliacecB (Linden Family). Tilia Americana, Linn. (Bass-wood). Abundant, reaching a large size on alluvial soil and limestone. Oxalidacece (Wood-sorrel Family). Oxalis Acetosella, Linn. Abundant in rocky woods and swamps ; F. 28th June. * " stricta, Linn. On sand, mouth of the Devil's River, Huckle- berry Rapids and Hamilton's Farm. Geraniacece (Geranium Family). Geranium Carolinianum, Linn. Extremely depauperated on gneiss rocks. Huckleberry Rapids. Balsaininacece (Balsam Family). Impatiens fulva, Nutt. Abundant in moist places ; F. 21st August. jSnacardiacece (Cashew Family). Rhus typhina, Linn. Sparingly and very small about Hamilton's Farm ; common about Grenville. " Toxicodendron, Linn. (Poison ivy). Abundant on rocks and sand ; F. R. 3rd August. Vitacece (Vine Family). Ampelopsis quinquefolia, Michx. Abundant on damp ground in open places. SapindacecE (Soap-berry Family). Acer Pennsylvanicum, Linn. (Dogwood). Abundant in rocky woods generally on gneiss ; F. 13th June. " saccharinum, Wang, (Hard Maple). Very abundant on all soils, but especially fine on limestone and drift. The young trees compose the greater part of the underwood throughout the distinct. " rubrum, Linn. (Soft or water maple). Very abundant on low ground along the Rouge, but scarce in other places ; F. 25th May. Leguminosece (Pulse Family). *Trifolium pratense, Linn. Common along the banks of the Rouge and round clearings ; F. 30th June. * " repens, Linn. (White clover). Abundant on the banks of the Rouge and round clearings. Desmodium Canadense, DC. Huckleberry rapids : F. 3rd August. 124 Catalogue of Plants collected in the Amphicarpsea monoica, Nutt. Common in swamps and along the banks of the Rouge j F. 8th August. Rosacece (Rose Family). Prunus pumila, Linn. On gneiss and limestone rocks near Mr. Thompson's clearing and at Huckleberry rapids ; F.R. 3rd August. " Pennsylvanica, Linn. Forming dense thickets where White Pine has been destroyed by fire ; F. R. 23rd July. " Yirginiana, Linn. (Choke cherry). Occurred sparingly in woods and at Hamilton's Farm. Spiraea salicifolia, Linn. In profusion everywhere along the shores of the Rouge and lakes ; F. 21st July. " tomentosa, Linn. Sparingly on the margins of small lakes near Hamilton's Farm. Agrimonia Eupatoria, Linn. Common in open places, damp woods, &c. Geum album (?) Gmelin. Huckleberry rapids and near Silver Moun- tain. Potentilla Norvegica, Linn. Abundant round clearings ; F. 18th July. " arguta (?) Pursh. Banks of the Rouge near Devil's rapids. " palustris, Scop. Abundant in shallow parts of Chain lake, also observed in Bevin's lake, Montcalm, and grow- ing on gneiss rock by the side of the lake on Silver Mountain. Fragaria Virginiana, Ehrh. Abundant in open places; F. R. 23rd July. " vesca, (?) Linn. A large strawberry was growing in great profusion and luxuriance near the French settlement in Wentworth, the specimens collected were lost ; F. 4th June. Dalibarda repens, Linn. Abundant in rock woods ; F. 2nd July to August. Rubus odoratus, Linn. (Scotch-cap). Sparingly Dolan's lake, Grenville and Sugar-bush lake, Montcalm. Abund- ant about Grenville. " triflorus, Richardson. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. end of May, F. R. 30th June. " strigosus, Michx. (Wild raspberry). Abundant round burnt clearings, sandy banks of the Rouge, «&c. ; F. 30th June, F. R. 23rd July. " villosus. Ait. (Blackberry). Abundant in lumber roads and tamarack swamps near Hamilton's Farm and Indian Village ; F. llih July, F. R. 4th September. " Canadensis, Linn. Sandy and rocky places, Sugar-bnsh lake and Hamilton's Farm ; F. 28th June. Rosa blanda, Ait. (Ki-nau-ki-te-me-ka-che, Algonquin). Abundant on the sandy and clayey banks of the Rouge, and on the rocks. Huckleberry rapids ; F. 30th June. Counties of Argenteidl and Ottawa. 125 Cratsegus coccinea, Linn. Sugar-bush lake, Montcalm. Common about Grenville. Pyrus arbutifolia, Linn. var. erythrocarpa. Gneiss Island, Trembling lake. Var. melanocarpa. Swamp near Hamilton's Farm and Bark lake, Montcalm. " Americana, DC. (Rowan or Mountain Ash). Common in rocky woods. Amelanchier Canadensis, Torr. & Gray. var. Botrjapium (Indian Pear). Abundant on gneiss rocks in open places ; F. 31st May, F. R. 11th July. Onagracece (Evening-primrose Family). Epilobium angustifolium, Linn. (Fire-weed). Very abundant on burnt clearings and along the clayey banks of the Rouge ; F. 16th July. " coloratum, Muhl. Sandy banks of the Rouge near Silver Mountain. (Enothera biennis, Linn. Very abundant; sandy shores of the Rouge and Bevin's lake ; F. 19th July to 21st August. " pumila, Linn. On sand, Bevin's lake, near Thompson's clear- ings and Devil's rapids ; F. 8th July. Circaea alpina, Linn. In profusion in low damp woods, on fallen trees, &c. ; F. 28th June. Grossulacece (Currant Family). Ribes Cynosbati, Linn. (Wild gooseberry). Abundant in rocky woods ; F. R. 7th August. " lacustre, Poir, Abundant in swampy woods ; F.R. 3rd August. " prostratum, L'Her. (Musk currant). Common in rocky woods ; F. 31st May. " rubrum, Linn. Abundant round clearings ; F. R. 18th July. SaxifragacecB (Saxifrage Family). Mitella nuda, Linn. Abundant amongst moss at the roots of trees in moist woods ; F. 19th June. Tiarella cordifolia, Linn. Very abundant in rocky and sandy woods. Chrysosplenium Americanum, Schwein. Abundant in rocky streams ; F. 25th May. UmbellifercB (Parsley Family). Sanicula Marilandica, Linn. Portage to Bark lake, Huckleberry ra- pids and amongst grass at Hamilton's Farm. Cicuta bulbifera, Linn. Borders of a small lake near Hamilton's Farm and a muddy creek near Trembling Lake. Slum lineare, Michx. Borders of a small lake near Hamilton's Farm. Osmorrhiza brevistylis, DC. Common in open woods and round clearings. Araliacece, (Ginseng Family.) Aralia racemosa, Linn. (Spigot) Common in open places on al- luvial soil ; F. 20th July to 21st August, F. R., Tth September. « hispida, Michx. Abundant in burnt clearings, Hamilton's 126 Catalogue of Plants collected in the Farm, and on Trembling Mountain ; F. R. 28th Au- gust. Aralia nudicaulis, Linn. (Sarsaparilla.) Very abundant everywhere, except on sand, F. 13th June, F. R. 29th July. ' trifolia, Gray. Rocky woods, Sixteen Island Lake. Coi'nacece, (Dog-wood Family). Cornus Canadensis, Linn. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. 20th June. " circinata, L'Her. On limestone rocks. Huckleberry rapids. " stolonifera, Michx. (Red Osier). In profusion on shores of the Rouge and Lakes ; F. 30th June. " alternifolia, Linn. (Green Withy). Sparingly on alluvial soil in woods. Caprifoliacece, (Honey-suckle Family). Linnaea borealis, Gronov. Very abundant in woods ; F. 30th June. Lonicera ciliata, Muhl. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. 30th May, F. R. 30th June. Diervilla trifida, Mcench. Very abundant in open places on rocks and sand ; F. 27th June. Sambucus Canadensis, Linn. (Elder.) Round clearings and open places, on limestone and alluvial soil. " pubens, Michx. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. R. I7th July. Viburnum Lentago, Linn. Not seen below Silver Mountain, but com- mon there and everywhere above, especially on Trem- bling Mountain ; F. R. 11 June. " Opulus, Linn. (High-bush Cranberry.) Sparingly near water, Sugar-bush Lake, and banks of the Rouge near Silver Mountain ; F. 25th June. " lantanoides, Michx. (Mozo-mish, Algonquin. "Welsh Hopple.) Very abundant, forming a large part of the underwood in rocky woods ; F. 30th May. Rubiacece, (Madder Family). Galium asprellum, Michx. Abundant in low swampy ground. " trifidum, Linn. Open sandy places, about clearings, &c. " triflorum, Michx. Abundant in open sandy places, banks of the Rouge and Sugar-bush Lake. Mitchella repens, Linn. (Ke-na-pe-ko-bug, Algonquin, Partridge berry.) In profusion in rocky woods ; F. I7th July, F. R. 9th August. Composit(B, (Composite Family). Eupatorium purpureum, Linn. (Ka-bis-sak-wan-nith-que-ok, Algon- quin). Abundant, reaching a height of six feet in swampy places, but much stunted when growing on rocks ; F. 9th August. Aster corymbosus, Ait. Abundant in lumber roads near Hamilton's Farm. " macrophyllus, Linn. Common in rocky and sandy woods, and open places ; F. 4th August. Counties of Argenieuil and Ottawa, 127 Aster longifolius ? Linn. On sand at the base of Silver Mountain ; F. 10th August. " puniceus, Linn. Growing in dense clumps in swampy ground; F. 25th August. " acuminatus, Michx. Common on rocks at Huckleberry Rapids and Silver Mountain , F. 9th August. " nemoralis, Ait. In profusion on gneiss rocks on the shores of Trembling Lake ; F. 7th September. Erigeron Canadense, Linn. Open fields amongst grass, Hamilton's Farm. " Philadelphicum, Linn. Moist clay bank of the Rouge, Arun- del ; F, 30th June. *• strigosum, Muhl. On sand at the mouth of the Devil's River, and common at Hamilton's Farm ; F. 21st July. Diplopappus umbellatus, Torrey and Gray. In great profusion on the sandy banks of the Rouge, and on the shores of lakes ; P. August. Solidago latifolia, Linn. Common on sandy banks by the water side ; F. 12 th August. " (undetermined). Abundant everywhere along the Rouge on rocks and sand. " altissima, Linn. (Golden-rod.) Very common on rocks and sandy banks of the Rouge. " nemoralis, Ait. Abundant on sandy banks of the Rouge. " lanceolata, Linn. Abundant on sandy banks of the Rouge. * Achillea Millefolium, Linn. (Yarrow). Abundant on sandy banks of the Rouge ; F. 21st July. * Lucanthemum vulgare, Linn. In great abundance round clearings and on the banks of the Rouge. * Tanacetum vulgare, Linn. About settlements in Grenville and Wentworth. Gnaphalium polycephalum, Michx. Common in open places and very abundant at Hamilton's Farm, amongst grass in the fields. Antennaria plantaginifolia, Hook. On gneiss rocks. Huckleberry Ra- pids, and on a small mountain near Silver Mountain. * Cirsium lanceolatum, Scop. About clearings at Bevin's Lake, and Hamilton's Farm. " muticum, Michx. Swamp near Hamilton's Farm ; F. 2nd September. * " arvense, Scop. (Canada Thistle). About clearings at Be- vin's Lake and Hamilton's Farm. Hieracium Canadense, Michx. Common on rocks and sand ; F. 9th August. Nabalus albus. Hook. Abundant on rocks and sand banks, in open places ; F. 19th August. * Taraxacum Dens-leonis, Desf. (Dandelion). Common near clear- ings and along portage paths. 12S Catalogue of Plants collected in the Mulgedium leucophaeum, DC. Common about clearings and open places on sandy soil. LoheliaccB, (Lobelia Family). Lobelia inflata, Linn. Common, lumber roads and open fields, Ham- ilton's Farm. Ericacece, (Heath Family). Vaccinum Oxycoccus, Linn. Tamarack swamp near Hamilton's Farm. " macrocarpon. Ait. (Mas-ki-ki-min, Algonquin, Cranberry). Bog or Beaver Meadow near Indian Village, Arundel ; P. 16th July. " Canadense, Kalm. Abundant on gneiss rocks and in swamps ; F. 15th June, F. R. 23d July. Chiogenes hispidula, Torr. & Gray. (Indian Tea). Abundant in rocky and sandy woods and swamps, amongst moss ; F. R. 25th August. Epigaea repens, Linn. Common on sand and gneiss rocks amongst pines near Hamilton's Farm. Gaultheria procumbens, Linn. (Low-bush Cranberry). Very abundant in woods and bogs, especially among young trees ; F. August and September. Cassandra calyculata, Don. Shores of lakes and in swamps ; F. 18th May. Andromeda polifolia, Linn. Tamarack swamp in Wentworth and near Indian Village ; F. 13th June. Kalmia angustifolia, Linn. (Wi-sa-ke-bug, Algonquin). On gneiss rocks and in swamps ; F. iVth July. Ledum latifolium, Ait. (Labrador Tea). Abundant on gneiss rocks and swamps in open places ; F. 20th June. Pyrola rotundifolia, Linn. (Ka-kis-ke-bok). Abundant, especially at Huckleberry Rapids, amongst young poplars ; F. 23rd July. " secunda, Linn. Common in rocky woods ; F. 9th July. Chimaphila umbellata, Nutt. (Prince's Pine). Abundant in open pine woods ; F. 23rd July. Monotropa uniflora, Linn. (Anay-moos-she-moos-ki-ki, Algonquin, said to mean the little-dog's-pipe). Common in woods, especially on rocky hills ; F. 25th July to 11th September. " Hypopitys Linn. Occasionally met with in damp woods ; F. 1th. July to 20th August. Aquifoliacecs, (Holly Family). Ilex verticillata, Gray. On gneiss rocks and swamps in open places ; F. iTth July, F. R. Tth September. Nemopanthes Canadensis, DO. (Mau-ko-ke-me-che, Algonquin). Common on gneiss rocks, and in swamps ; F. R. 16th August. Plantaginacecp,, (Plantain Family). * Plantago major, Linn. Abundant about Hamilton's Farm. Counties of Ars;€nteuil and Ottawa* 129 Primulaceee, (Primrose Family). Trientalis Americana, Pursh. (Ground Cherry). Abundant al- most everywhere ; F. 25th June. Lysimachia stricta, Ait. Very abundant by water side, in low place all along the Rouge ; F. Yth August. LentibulacecB, (Bladder-wort Family). Utricularia vulgaris ? Linn. Abundant in a small lake near Hamil- ton's Farm. Scrophulariacece, (Fig-wort Family). * Verbascum Thapsus, Linn. Clearings near Indian Village and Ham- ilton's Farm ; F. 16th July. Chelone glabra, Linn. Common on sand banks by water side, and in swamps ; F. 16th August. Mimulus ringens, Linn. Shores of the Rouge near Thompson's clearing. Ilysanthes gratioloides, Benth. In great abundance on exsiccated places, Hamilton's Farm. Veronica scutellata, Linn. On sand, in a few places, by side of the Rouge. Labiatece, (Mint Family). Mentha Canadensis, Linn. Abundant in low places along the Rouge ; F. 9th August. Lycopus Virginicus, Linn. In profusion on sand by water side and on rocks ; F. 5th August. Brunella vulgaris, Linn. Common about clearings and lumber roads f. F. 18th July. Scutellaria galericulata, Linn. Abundant everywhere along the Rouge, and low places by streams ; F. 9th August. " lateriflora, Linn. Equally abundant with the last species in the same places. * Galeopsis Tetrahit, Linn. Abundant about clearings near Devil's Rapids and Hamilton's Farm. Borraginace(B, (Borage Family). * Cynoglossum officinale, Linn. A little in open places, Huckleberry^ Rapids. GentianacecB, (Gentian Family). Gentiana Andrewsii, Griseb. Common on sand by sides of the Rouge, shores of lakes and swamps ; F. 5th August to 11th September. Menyanthes trifoliata, Linn. Bog near Indian Village, Arundel. jSpocynacece, (Dog-bane Family). Apocynum androsaemifolium, Linn. Common in open sandy places and on rocks ; F. 10 July. " cannabinum, Linn. Abundant on sand banks by the side of the Rouge ; F. 18th July. ^sclepiadaceee, (Milk-weed Family) . Asclepias incarnata, Linn. (To-to-cha-na-bo-wakn, Algonquin). Ex- siccated places near Indian Village ; F. 18th July. Can. Nat. 4 Vol. VI. No. 2. 130 Catalogue of Plants collected in the OleacetB, (Olive Family). Fraxinus Americana, Linn. (White Ash). Abundant in woods, reaching a large size especially on drift ; bare of leaves Tth October. " sambucifoliaj Linn. (Black Ash). Common in low ground by water side. ^ristolochiacece, (Birthwort Family). Asarum Canadense, Linn. (Wild Ginger). In a few places on low sandy flats. Chenopodiacece, (Goose-foot Family). * Chenopodium album, Linn. (Lamb's Quarters). Abundant about the Indian Village and Hamilton's Farm. Polygonacece, (Buck-wheat Family). * Polygonum Persicaria, Linn. Abundant about the house at Hamil- ton's Farm. " aviculare, Linn. Abundant with the last species. " sagittatum, Linn. Damp places in woods near Hamil- ton's Farm. " cilinode, Michx. Common, open places, borders of woods, &c. Rumex ? I observed a tall Dock growing by the side of the Rouge near Silver Mountain but was unable to obtain a specimen. * " Acetosella, Linn. (Sheep's Sorrel.) Alsundant about clearing and old portage paths. Thymeleacece (Mezereum Family.) Dirca palustris, Linn. '(Che-ba-cub, Algonquin ;) Moose-wood. Abundant in woods on all soils ; F. 22d May. •Urticacece (Nettle Family.) Ulmus Americana, Linn. (White Elm.) Abundant and reaching a large size on gneiss, limestone and drift. Laportea Canadensis, Gaudich. Growing in dense beds on low allu- vial soil ; F. 1st July. ■Juglandacece, (Walnut Family.) Juglans cinerea, Linn. (Butternut.) Abundant on sandbanks near the Indian Village and Sugar Bush Lake. Cupuliferoe. (Oak Family.) Qercus alba, Linn. (White Oak.) Some very fine trees at Sugar- bush and Bevin's Lakes, Montcalm, on alluvial soil. Fagus ferruginea, Ait. (Beech.) Generally distributed through the woods, but most abundant on gneiss forming splendid Beech Woods in the Township of Wentworth. Oorylus rostrata. Ait. (Wild Nut.) Abundant in moist open places. Ostrya Virginica, Willdjj (Iron wood.) Sparingly on alluvial soil Sugar-bush and Bevin's Lakes. Myricacece (Sweet-gale Family.) Myrica Gale, Linn. Abundant on the shores of Lakes and in Swamps ; F. 24th May. Counties of Argenteuil and Ottawa. 131 Betulacece (Birch Family.) Betula papyracea, Ait. (Canoe Birch.) Numerous in some places along the Rouge above the Indian Village and spar- ingly distributed through the woods, being seldom of large size. " excelsa, Ait. (Yellow Birch.) Abundant and generally dis- tributed. Alnus incana, Willd. (Alder.) Forming dense thickets on the shores of all the rivers and lakes. Very tall on rocks at Huckleberry Rapids. SalicacecB (Willow Family.) Salix Candida ? Willd. A little on alluvial soil, Sugar-bush Lake. " discolor, Muhl. Sugar-bush Lake, Montcalm and Mouth of Devil's River. " sericea, Marshall. Mouth of Devil's River on sand. " longifolia. Muhl. Sugar-bush Lake, common. " lucida, Muhl. Banks of the Rouge, abundant. Populus tremuloides, Michx. (Aspen.) Grows to a large size on alluvial soil and is common. " grandidentata, Michx. (Common Poplar.) Forms with the last species and white birch dense thickets of young trees where other trees have been removed, grows to a good size in some places. " balsamifera, Linn. (Balsam Poplar.) A few fine trees at Sugar-bush Lake and small bushes up Devil's River and Huckleberry Rapids. Coniferce (Pine Family.) Pinus resinosa. Ait. (Norway Pine.) On limestone and gneiss islands. Trembling Lake, and gneiss ridge ; Lake of Three Mountains, " Strobus, Linn. (White Pine.) The greater part of the White Pine of any size has been removed in this district, but a few pine trees are scattered here and there on all kinds of soil. Numerous at Hamilton's Farm on sand, small trees are numerous on gneiss hills. Abies balsamea, Marshall. (Balsam Fir.) Not very abundant, on sand. " Canadensis, Michx. (Hemlock.) Abundant, reaching a large size, and often growing on bare rocks. " alba, Michx. (Spruce.) Very abundant on gneiss hills and sand. Larix Americana, Michx. (Tamarack.) Forms extensive " tamarack swamps," and scattered trees are found in every va- riety of situation. Thuja occidentalis, Linn. (Cedar.) Forming extensive " cedar swamps, and pinging the shores of all lakes. Taxus baccata, Linn. var. Canadensis (Ground Hemlock.) Abun- dant, especially in low sandy woods. 132 Catalogue of Plants collected i?i the Aracea (Arum Family.) Arisaema triphyllum, Torr. (Indian Turnip.) Common in moist woods; F. 2d June. Acorus Calamus, Linn. Sandy banks of the Rouge. Typhacece (Cat-tail Family.) Typha latifolia, Linn. Up the Devil's River in one place only. Sparganium simplex, Hudson. Muddy creek near Huckleberry Ra- pids ; F. 31st July. NaiadacccB (Pondweed Family.) Potamogeton (undetermined.) Abundant in the Rouge, in quiet places. Mismaceee (Water-plantain Family.) Sagittaria variabilis, Engelm (Mo-sa-ka-ta-mo, Algonquin ; ArrOTT- head.) Abundant in muddy creeks and lakes, and along the Rouge ; F. 29th July. Orchidaceee (Orchis Family.) Platanthera orbiculata, Lindl. (Heal-all.) Abundant in woods ; F. 3rd. July. " dilatata ? Lindl. Observed in several places in the woods ; F. 15th July. " fimbriata, Lindl. Abundant in low swampy grounds ; F. 19th July. Goodyera pubescens, R. Brown. Abundant in rocky and sandy woods ; F. 20th August. Pogonia ophioglossoides, Nutt. Numerous in bogs near Indian Village ; F. 16 th July. Calopogon pulchellus, R. Brown. Numerous in bogs near Indian Village ; F. 16th July. Microstylis ophioglossoides, Nutt. Dry hills. Huckleberry Rapids. Cypripedium pubescens, Willd. (Moccason Flower.) Near Lake St. Jean, Wentworth ; F. 13th June. " acaule, Ait. On gneiss rocks and sand, common ; F. 16th June. Iridacece (Iris Family.) Iris versicolor, Linn. Abundant, shores of the Rouge and lakes ; F. 26th June. Smilacece (Smilax Family.) Smilax herbacea, Linn. Mouth of the Devil's River, on sand, climb- ing over bushes. Trillium erectum, Linn. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. 18th May. " var. album, Purch. On limestone, between Gate and Gut Lakes, Wentworth, " grandiflorum, Salisb. Townships of Grenville and Went- worth, not seen beyond Gate Lake ; F. 25th May. " erythrocarpum, Michx. Abundant in rocky woods ; F. 31st May. Medeola Virginica, Linn. Very abundant in rocky and sandy woods ; F. 21st June, F. R. 2d September. Counties of Argenteuil and Ottawa, 133 Liliacecs (Lily Family.) Polygonatum biflorum, Ell. Common in moist woods ; F. 29th May, Smilacina racemosa, Desf. (Au-que-co-ce-wa, Algonquin, meaning Chip-nambo berries,) Abundant in rocky woods ; F. 19th June. " stellata, Desf. On sand by water-side, not common ; F. 20th June. Clintonia borealis, Raf. Very abundant everywhere in woods ; F. 16th June. Allium tricoccum. Ait. (Chi-kwa-kwich, Algonquin, said to mean it makes a bad smell.) Abundant in moist places in woods ; F. iTth July. Erythronium Americanum, Smith, Abundant in rich woods ; F. 22d May. Melanthaceoe (Colchicum Family.) XJvularia grandiflora, Smith. Abundant by road-sides in cleared parts of Grenville ; F. 14th May. Streptopus amplexifolius, DC. In great abundance in moist places in woods ; F. 2d July. " roseus, Michx. (Squaw-root.) Abundant in rocky woods ; F. end of May. Juncacece (Rush Family.) Juncus articulatus, Linn. Abundant on sandy banks of the Rouge. " tenuis, Willd. Hamilton's Farm. " bufonius, Linn. Hamilton's Farm. PontederiacecB (Pickerel-weed Family.) Pontederia cordata, Linn. Very abundant in small lakes near Lake of Three Mountains and in sheltered shallow parts of Trembling Lake. Eriocaulonaceoe. (Pipewort Family.) Eriocaulon septangulare ? Withering. Trembling Lake, Lake of Three Mountains, &c. Cyperacece (Sedge Family.) Dulichium spathaceum, Pers. Swampy ground near Hamilton's Farm. Eleocharis palustris, R. Brown, (Spike-rush.) In pools of water on rocks, Huckleberry Rapids. Scirpus sylvaticus, Linn. var. atrovirens (Bulrush.) Abundant sandy banks of the Rouge. ^' Eriophorum, Michx. In pools of water on rocks. Huckle- berry Rapids. Eriophorum Virginicum, Linn. (Cotton grass.) Boggy margins of small lakes near Hamilton's Farm. Carex tenella, Schk. Abundant, growing in water, Sugar-bush Lake, Montcalm. " scoparia, Schk. Abundant, on sandy banks of the Rouge. ■** festucacea, Schk. Sandy banks of the Rouge and Bevin'a Lakes, Arundel. 134 Catalogue of Plants collected in the Carex crinita, Lam. Abundant in moist places and borders of streams in woods. " pedunculata, Muhl. In rich v?'oods on limestone between Gate and St. Jean Lakes, Wentworth. " arctata, Boott» On alluvial soil. Sugar-bush Lake, Montcalm. " lacustris, Willd. With the last species. " intumescens^ Rudge. With the two last species. " retrorsa^ Schw. Sugar-bush and Bevin's Lakes, Montcalm. Graminece. (Grass Family.) ♦Phleum pratense, Linn. (Timothy.) Abundant round clearings and sandy banks of the Rouge. Agrostis perennans, Tuckerm. Sandy banks of the Rouge. " vulgaris, With. (Red-top grass.) Everywhere in open places and about clearings. Cinna arundinacea, Linn, var, pendula. Sandy banks of the Rouge. Muhlenbergia Mexicana, Trin. Abundant on sandy banks of the Rouge. Calamagrostis Canadensis, Beauv. Abundant about the Indian Set- tlement and in open places. Poa serotina, Ehrh. Open places, Huckleberry Rapids. " pratensis, Linn. (Common Meadow-grass.) Abundant about In- dian Village and other clearings. Bromus ciliatus, Linn. Abundant, sandy banks of the Rouge, and in moist woods. Elymus Canadensis, Linn. In moist places along lumber roads. Milium eflfusum, Linn. On alluvial soil. Sugar-bush Lake, Mont- calm. Panicum microcarpon, Muhl. On sand banks, sides of the Rouge. " pauciflorum. Ell. ? Huckleberry Rapids. " depauperatum, Muhl. Huckleberry Rapids. EquisetacecB (Horse-tail Family.) Equisetum pratense, Ehrh. Abundant, wet sandy banks of the Rouge. " sylvaticum, Linn. With the last species. " limosum, Linn. Abundant in shallow water at the mouths of creeks and sides of the Rouge. " hyemale, Linn. Sparingly in numerous localities through- out the district, common at Hamilton's Farm. " scirpoides, Michx. Amongst mosses on gneiss rocks in woods. Filices (Ferns.) Polypodium vulgare, Linn. Principally on gneiss rocks, very abun- dant. " Phegopteris, Linn. Very abundant in damp woods. ** Dryopteris, Linn. Abundant in rocky woods. Struthiopteris Germanica, Willd. Abundant in low swampy ground in woods. Ccnmties of Argenteuil and Ottawa. 135 Allosorus gracilis, Presl. On crystalline limestone near the Lake of Three Mountains. Pteris aquilina, Linn. Abundant amongst White Pine and in open places. Adiantum pedatum, Linn. In small patches on limestone and gar- netiferous gneiss. Asplenium thelypteroides, Michx. Rare. In rich woods, De Salaberry West Town Line. " Filix-foemina, R. Brown. Very abundant in moist woods. Dicksonia punctilobula. Hook. Abundant in damp woods, in Harring- ton, and near Hamilton's Farm. Woodsia Ilvensis, R. Brown. On rocks on a hill, near Silver Mountain. Cystopteris bulbifera, Bernh. Abundant on damp limestone rocks in woods near Huckleberry Rapids, and Lake of Three Mountains. " fragilis, Bernh. On gneiss rocks, base of Silver Mountain, and near Lake of Three Mountains. Aspidium Thelypteris, Swartz. Damp woods. " spinulosum, Swartz. Everywhere abundant. " cristatum, Swartz. Bevin's Lake, Lake of Three Mountains^ and near Hamilton's Farm. ^* Goldianum, Hook. Abundant amongst gneiss rocks, near Hamilton's Farm. " marginale, Swartz. Abundant on gneiss rocks everywhere. " aculeatum, Swartz, var. Braunii, Koch. Abundant oa gneiss rocks and on damp logs. " acrostichoides, Swartz. Sparingly in various localities. Onoclea sensibilis, Linn. In dense patches in low swampy ground. Osmunda regalis, Linn. var. spectabilis. Abundant, borders of streams, and swampy places. " Claytoniana, Linn. Abundant in swampy places. " cinnamomea, Linn. Swampy places near Bevin's Lake. Botrychium Virginicum, Swartz. Abundant in open places. Huckle- berry Rapids and Hamilton's Farm. Lycopodiacece (Club-moss Family.) Lycopodium lucidulum, Michx. Sixteen Island Lake. " dendroideum, Michx. Abundant in rocky woods. " clavatum, Linn. Abundant in rocky and sandy woods^ " complanatum, Linn. Common in woods. Musci (Mosses.) Sphagnum cymbifolium, Dill. Forming the bogs called Beaver- meadows, " acutifolium. Ehrh. On gneiss rocks in open places. Dicranum interruptum, Br. and Sch. On boulders near Bevin's Lake. " scoparium, Linn. On gneiss rocks on a small mountain near Silver Mountain. " Drummondii, Mull. Near Sugar-bush and Balsam Lakes Montcalm. 136 Catalogue of Plants collected in the Dicranum Scottianum, Turn. (Fert.) Sixteen Island Lake, Montcalm. Leucobryum glaucum, Hampe. In large clumps on gneiss rocks amongst pines. Sixteen Island Lakes. Polytrichum commune, Linn, (Fert.) Abundant in wet places and on moist rocks. " formosum, Hedw. Near Chain Lake, Montcalm. " juniperinum, Hedw. (Fert.) Near Chain Lake, Montcalm, and on gneiss hills on the Rouge. Bryum roseum, Schreb. Abundant everywhere in woods. " Wahlenbergii, Schreb. (Fert.) Wet clayey places in woods and clayey banks of the Rouge, Arundel, 30 Tune. Mnium affine, Bland. On decayed logs near Chain and Sugar-bush Lakes, Montcalm. " hornum, Hedw. Chain Lake, Montcalm and Huckleberry Rapids, De Salaberry. ** orthorhynchum, Brid. (Fert.) Huckleberry Rapids, De Sala- berry, July. " punctatum, Hedw. Abundant in streams and wet places. ^' Drummondii, Br. and Sch. (Fert.) On limestone between Gut and Gate Lakes, Wentworth. " spinulosum, Bry. Europ. Near chain Lake, Montcalm. Bartramia pomiformis, Hedw. (Fert.) Abundant on both gneiss and crystalline limestone rocks, near Lake of Three Mountains. " fontana, Brid. On limestone rocks near water, Huckle- berry Rapids. Funaria hygrometrica, Hedw. (Fert.) On rocky places which have been burnt over; in great abundance. Fontinalis Frostii, Sulliv. Abundant in a stream running into Sixteen Island Lake. Dichelyma capillaceum, Bry. Europ. On dead sticks in water Sugar-bush Lake. Anomodon obtusifolius, Br. and Sch. Abundant everywhere on trunks of trees. Platygyrium repens, Bry. Europ. On tree trunks, decayed logs, &c. Sugar-bush Lake. Neckera pennata, Hedw. (Fert.) Abundant on trunks of growing cedars. Climacium Americanum, Brid. Abundant in wet places in woods. " dendroides, Web. and Mohr. By the sides of streams in woods, Montcalm. Hypnum triquetrum, Linn. (Fert.) Everywhere in woods on the ground and fallen trees. " splendens, Hedw. Very abundant with the last species. " Schreberi, Willd. Abundant in woods on gneiss hills. " fluitans, Linn. Bevin's Lake, Montcalm. ^' Crista-Castrensis, Linn. Very abundant in damp woods. Counties oj Ar^enteuil and Ottawa, 137 Hypnum reptile, Michx. (Fert.) Mixed with Platygyrium repens on decayed logs, &c.. Sugar-bush Lake. " curvifolium, Hedw. (Fert.) Sugar-bush Lake, &c., Montcalm, " Haldanianum, Grev. On boulders, near Bevin's Lake, Mont- calm, " rutabulum, Linn. Chain Lake, Montcalm. Hepaticce (Liverworts.) Marchantia polymorpha, Linn. (Fert.) Everywhere round burnt clearings on the ground. Fegatella conica, Corda. In damp woods on mosses. Sugar-bush Lake, and on limestone rocks in woods near Huckle- berry Rapids. Jungermannia — — ? Abundant on tree trunks. Trichocolea Tomentella, Nees. Hamilton's Farm. Lichenes (Lichens.) Usnea barbata, Fr. var. pendula. Everywhere hanging from the branches of the conifers. Petigera aphthosa, Hoffm, (Infert and Fert.) Pine woods near Thomp- son's clearing. " polydactyla, Hoflfm, (Fert.) Common in woods on mosses Sticta pulmonaria, Ach. (Tripe-de-Roche.) Pine woods, near Thompson's clearing. Parmelia caperata, Ach. Abundant on trunks of pine and stones. Cladonia pyxidata, Fr. (Fert.) (Cup- lichen.) Abundant on stumps and decaying trees. " gracilis, Fr. (Fert.) (Red cup-lichen.) Everywhere on de- caying logs and stumps. " furcata, Floerk. (Fert.) Pine woods near Thompson's clear- ing. " rangiferina, Hoflfm. (Rein-deer Moss.) " " var. sylvatica Fl. On a gneiss hill in woods. " " var. alpestris, Fl. Abundant on rocks in open places. Umbilicaria hirsuta, Ach. On a gneiss hill near Silver Mountain. Agaric. Clavaria (probably C. fragilis. Destroyed in drying.) Very abundant, covering the ground for many yards, September 18th., woods near Lake of Three Mountains. Note. — This Catalogue was completed in the summer of 1859, and a copy containing much more elaborate notes than those above, which I transmitted for publication at the beginning of February last by the Steamer " Hungarian," was lost on board that unfortunate vessel. London, May 16, 1860. 138 Notes on the Geology oj Murray Bay, ARTICLE IX. — Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay — Lower St. Lawrence. By J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.G.S. {Read before the Natural History Society.) f- ^3: :^^" ""^^'fmMIuM '~ Fig. 2. Coast near LEcorche. See p. 141. Murray or Mai Bay on the nortli side of the River St. Law- rence, and about 90 miles below Quebec, is well known as a place of resort to summer tourists and sea bathers, and has not been unvisited by geologists. In 1822, Dr. Bigsby, one of the earliest explorers of Canadian geology, and still in his green old age a prominent member of the Geological Society of London, spent a few days at this place, and published a most interesting and graphic account of its topography and geology, in Silliman's American Journal.* In 1831, Capt. Baddely published in the Transactions of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, an account of the neighbouring Bay of St. Paul, with a notice of the earthquakes which appear to visit this district more frequent- ly than any other part of Canada.f In 1849 the steps of our Provincial geologist were directed thither, in consequence of a fabulous report of the discovery of coal at Bay St. Paul ; and a short but clear and accurate account of the structure of this part of Canada appeared in the Report of the Survey for that year. Learning from these previous observers, that the locality is of much geological interest, I determined in visiting it for a few days in the past summer, to pick up such gleanings as my prede- * Vol. 5, 1822. t Quebec Transactions, vol. II. See also paper by the author on the earthquake of 1860. Can. Nat., vol. 5. Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay, 139 cessors might have left, and in this I was greatly aided by one of my students, Mr. R. Ramsay of Montreal, who happened to be spending his vacation there. The features of the place have been admirably described by Dr. Bigsby and Sir "W". E. Logan, so that a very few remarks on this subject may suffice here. In approaching the bay from the west, the voyager passes along the base of lofty cliffs crowned by forests and broken by a few wooded ravines, down which little brooks dash to the shore. Near the termination of this wall of cliffs, and at the base of a steep ascent leading to a gap separat- ing the last outlier of rock from the main mass, stands the steam- boat pier. Ascending the rising ground above the pier, and passing to its northern side, one sees in the foreground a row of cottages extending along the western side of the bay, whose waters at high tide rise close to the low bank, and when they recede leave an immense flat of sand and boulders, across which stretch the long brush weirs of the fishermen. Beyond are seen the sides of the bay rising into terraced hills and converging toward the mouth of the Murray Bay River, where concealed by trees are the church and village of Mai Bay ; and still farther the eye can trace the deep valley of the river winding among high wooded hills, that rise one over another in the blue distance. It is a beautiful spot, well worthy of taking a leading place among the summer resting places of our worn and wearied citizens. The general geology of Murray Bay may be thus sketched. The higher hills consist of rocks of the Laurentian System, the oldest strata known to geologists ; and in some places as at the high cliffs before mentioned, and at Cape Heu on the opposite side of the bay, these come boldly down to the shore. In other places the coast cliffs and reefs are Lower Silurian, and abound in marine fossils, and these beds in some places mantle the hills to a considerable height, and run a long way up the valley of the river. The terraces of sand and gravel along the sides of the bay, and the deep clay of the river valley, are of Post Plio- cene date, and contain shells^ identical in species with those now living in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. I shall notice these forma- tione in their order. 1. Laurentian System, These venerable rocks, ancient above all others, are admirably exposed in the coast cliffs above mentioned, and in several other 140 Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay, places in tlie vicinity of the bay, but they present a strange and puzzling aspect to the observer. Proved by the investigations of Logan and Hunt, to have once been sedimentary rocks, they have been so changed by heat and chemical action, that they re- tain no resemblance to the sands, clays, and limestones, of which they were originally composed. They now appear as beautifully crystalline layers, which have when in a yielding and flexible con- dition, been bent and crumpled as if for long ages they had been kneaded by the hands of Titans, so that it is diflBcult to form any conception either of their original nature or arrangement. The greater number of rocks are eloquent to the geologist of the history of hfe in past periods of the earth, but these Laurentian beds pre- serve an obstinate silence, only hinting in their flakes of graphite and their crystalline limestones, that they have a story which they cannot be persuaded to tell. Still they aff'ord very instructive examples of the changes which may be eff"ected by metamorphism in aqueous sediments, and they abound in interesting and curious crystallized minerals. In the high cliff" commencing immediately west of the pier, they are well exposed ; and at this place the or- der of succession is as follows, apparently in ascending order, though these beds are here so often inverted that little reliance can be placed on apparent superposition. 1. Gneiss of various colours and qualities, with both lime and potash felspars, and containing beds of mica slate, with large no- dules of garnet, around which the beds bend as if the garnets had originally been foreign masses or pebbles. In some places these beds hold bands or dykes of a coarse-grained red felspar. These gneissose beds are of great thickness and occupy the greater part of this long range of cliff's. They reappear on the opposite side, at and beyond Cape Heu. 2. White quartz rock, perfectly compact, with thin bands of hornblendic and micaceous schist, and in the upper part with some crystals of flesh-coloured felspar. This bed or a similar one appears on the opposite side of the bay on both sides of Cape Heu, where in one place it immediately underlies the Silurian beds, as has been observed by Sir W. E. Logan, but it is clearly a member of the Laurentian series. 3. Impure crystalline dolomite, and light-coloured laminated serpentine. These are only a few feet in thickness, and in some places seem reduced to a few inches. Being the softest part of these rocks, they form a depression in the cliff or reef, and are often hidden by gravel or rubbish. Notes on the Geology oj Murray Bay. 141 4. Gneiss as before. 5. Black hornblendic slate with films of mica on the planes of cleavage or bedding. On the opposite side of the bay the gneiss rises into the high and rugged promontory of Cape Heu, in which a great thickness of this rock is exposed, presenting a succession of hard angular ridges, and having its strike nearly in the direction of the shore or S. 25° W. (see Fig. 1). Cape Heu rises through Silurian limestones which appear on both sides of it and inland. On the west side after an interval occupied by the Silurian beds, the gneiss reappears with a high dip to the N. W., and containing thick veins of led fel- spar. In tracing it along the shore it becomes nearly horizontal. I'leonem t:Hiu W Fig. 1. B (a) Silurian, (b) Laurentian. and then dips to the north, and finally becomes vertical and much contorted. Here it contains a vein or bed of coarse grained granite. Next appear mica and hornblende slates, the former with garnets and having a strike S. 20° W. to S. 30^ W : then after a space of 150 yards without section, white quartz rock 45 feet thick, and in a vertical position, and succeeding this gneiss with bands apparently of crystalline limestone 4 feet, coarse crystalline dolomite and serpentine 10 feet, and gneiss 4 feet ; after which these rocks are concealed by the Silurian beds, resting on them unconformably. Westward of Cape Heu the quartz rock again appears, and seems here to overlie the gneiss, and no other beds appear be- tween it and the Silurian rocks, which here appear in great mass, forming the conspicuous clifi* of L'Ecorch^. West of this, and toward Cape Baleine, the shore runs nearly in the junction of the Laurentian and Silurian, the alternate appearance of which at the several points and capes, gives a confused appearance to the coast section, increased by the fact that the Silurian beds are bent into an anticlinal fold near the junction, and that dislocation and denudation have moulded the Laurentian into such irregular forms. Fig. 2 represents a portion of the shore looking east. The Silurian rocks are shaded and appear in the foreground, in a reef dry at low water, and in the cliff of L'Ecorche. The Lauren- 14*2 Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay. tian forms irregular masses in the middle ground, and Cape Heu presents its bold front in the distance. 2. Silurian System, These rocks rest unconformably on the old gnarled Laurentian beds, and are here sandy in the lower part, simulating the ap- pearance of the Potsdam sandstone, seen in a similar position fur- ther west. A little higher they assume the aspect of Calcareous sandstones, and these are overlaid by limestones capped by dark calcareous shales. We thus have a series which at first sight might be supposed to be a miniature representation of the whole lower Silurian of Canada, from the Potsdam sandstone to the Utica slate. According to Mr. Uillings, however, the fossils of these beds belong to the middle part of this series, between the Chazy limestone and Trenton limestone, so that here the older members of the Lower Silurian series either do not occur or are represented only by a few feet of sandstone, nearly destitute of fos- sils. This corresponds with a conclusion arrived at by Sir William Logan, as the result of very extensive observation, that in the early part of thfe Silurian period, the old Laurentian shore running along the north of Canada was sinking beneath the sea, which was gradually carrying the newer deposits further and further up its sides, so that the older beds are often concealed from view. The sub- sidence must have been greater in some places than in others, or the upper deposits have in some places been more removed by subsequent denudation, for while in the middle of Canada near the confluence of the Ottawa, the series is complete, both to the westward and eastward the older members of the Silurian series are concealed. I was much struck with this lately at Madoc in Upper Canada, where the junction of hard slaty rocks of the Lau- rentian series with a Lower Silurian limestone is well seen. The latter under the limestone presents a shattered and weathered sur- face that must have long endured the action of the elements, while the limestone, a mass of fragments of shells and corals, con- tains irregular fragments of the older rock, and has filled up the crevices of the latter with whole and broken Orthoceratites, and other shells, which lie just as the wave threw them in. It re- quires scarcely any imagination in such a place to fancy one's self standing on the old Laurentian shore, and watching the bright billows hurling their load of shells and fragments against the shore, and year by year reaching higher and higher on the land, Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay, 143 and covering more and more of it with the spoils of the sea. In such a place the geologist longs to find some indication of the in- habitants of that early land. What trees rustled in the breezes that blew over that ancient sea? What animals roamed along the coast to feed on the dead cuttle-fishes as they were thrown on shore ? No fragment of leaf or bone has yet told any tale of them. To find such remains would be a strange and startling discovery. Not to find them, is in some sense stranger still, for with so long a range of Lower Silurian shore as exists in Canada, it almost implies that the old Lauren tian land was void and deso- late, that in penetrating backward into geological time, we have reached a land and a period in which no creative fiat had gone forth to people the dry land. But we must not yet believe this on merely negative evidence, and must still search for the remains of such primeval life. But to return to Murray Bay, the Silurian rocks are well seen at L'Ecorch^, the section at which place has been given in some detail by Sir W. E. Logan. They are repeated on the coast east of Cape Heu, and are also seen on the west side of the bay inside the pier, near Little Mai Bay, and in various places on the hill sides, and on the Murray Bay River. From all these exposures, the following series of beds may be ascertained. The names of the fossils are given as determined by Mr. Billings, who has kind- ly examined them, and the series is descending. L Black bituminous flaggy limestone and shale, not rich in fossils. This is best seen at the cove east of Pt. Heu, and in places on the west side of the bay. The following fossils were collected, principally at the former place, Orthis testudinariaj Conularia trentonensis, Discina, n. s., SerpiiUtes, n. s., GraptoU- thus, Straparollus, Orihoceras. n. Gray and black limestone in thin uneven layers, and often coarse and sandy. It abounds in fossils and is well exposed some distance east of Cape Heu, also in the cliff at L'Ecorche, and in various places on the west side of the bay. The following fossils were collected. They are mostly species characteristic of the Trenton limestone. Stenopora Jibrosa. BelleropJion hilohatus. EeceptacuUtes JSFeptuni. Murchisonia. Glyptocrinus, Orthoceras Murrayi. Cyrtoceras ? Orthis pectinella . 144 Notes on the Geology oj Murray Bay* StropTiomena alteniata, Trinucleus concentricus. Leptaena sericea, Asaphus platyc&pTialus, Ambonychia radiata. Bronteus lunatus, Modiolopsis nasuta. Calymene BlumenhacMi. Cyrtodonta, n. s. Encrinurus. Dalmanites. III. Hard arenaceous limestone and calcareous sandstone. This forms the greater part of the cliff at White Point, immedi- ately within the pier, and the lower part of the high cliff at L'Ecor- che. It is less distinctly seen east of Cape Hen. The sand in these beds is beautifully rounded as if by long attrition on the shore, and occasionally there are pebbles giving some beds the character of conglomerate. The following fossils were found, but the hardness of the beds rendered it impossible to procure perfect specimens. Stenopora fibrosa. Columnaria alveolata. Petraia. Glyptocrinus. Vanuxemia Montr ealensis. Pleurotomaria staminea. P Orthoceras Bigshyi. recticameratwrn. Illaenus glohosus. IV. Thin bedded and somewhat nodular dark gray limestone. Best seen at L'Ecorche ; also east of Cape Heu, and in the cliff inside the pier, at the base near the west side. This bed abounds in Leperditia, apparently L. amygdalina and another species. It also contains Strophomena alternata, Modiolopsis nasuta, and a Pleurotomaria. V. Hard gray quartzose sandstone with calcareous cement and bands of coarse sandy limestone. At L'Ecorche, also east of Cape Heu, in the cliff inside the pier, and at Little Mai Bay on the beach. The fossils are Tetradium fihratum. Lingula eva. iV. s, Phynconella. Pleurotomaria. Murchisonia. Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay. 145 VI. Soft gray and dark gray laminated sandstone, seen at most of the places above mentioned. The gap through which the road passes upward from the pier, has been excavated in these soft beds. In the lower part of these beds there appears in one or two places a layer of coarse calcareous sandstone, holding fragments of the Laurentian quartz rock. This lowest bed at Pt. Baleine contains large specimens of Orthoceras, probably 0. Bigsbyi, The soft sandstones abound in cylindrical marks, seemingly casts of worm tracks. They also contain fragments of carbonaceous matter, probably the remains of sea weeds. The only shells found in them were small fragments of Linyula, and a little Pleurotomaria^ which may either belong to a new species or be a young individual of one already known. The following is a detailed section of the lower part of the above series as it occurs in the east side of L'Ecorche. The order is ascending, or the reverse of that in the foregoing general sum- mary. Laurentian Series. — The upper part of this, at this place, is the quartz rock before mentioned, with a high dip to the westward. It rests on gneiss, and in the bank or cliff is seen to have the Silurian beds unconformably superimposed. Silurian Series. — These dip W. 10^ N., or nearly in the same direc- tion with the Laurentian rocks, at an angle of 10°, and consist of the following beds : — ft. in. ("1.) Gray and dark gray sandstone with worm burrows, thick- ness estimated 12 (2). Flaggy calcareous sandstone with a dark bed containing fu- coids?attop 5 (3.) Softer sandstone with dark coloured bands, very fucoidal in upper part 4 6 (4.) Hard calcareous sandstone 2 (5.) Coarse sandy limestone light gray, with many large Lingulae (L. eva, Billings) and Tetradium 4 (6.) Gray and dark sandstone with worm burrows and fucoids ; Murchisonia, Tetradium and Pleurotomaria 7 (7.) Hard gray sandstone divisible into thin flags 2 (8.) Thick bedded calcareous sandstone 4 (9.) Dark gray calcareous sandstone, Murchisonia &ti^ Tetradium, 1 (10.) Similar bed but very coarse 6 (11.) Hard gray limestone, ilfwrcAtsonta and Pleurotomaria 1 10 (12.) Hard gray brecciated or nodular calcareous sandstone 5 (13.) Thin bedded, nodular dark gray lunestone full of Leper- ditia .,,, , 5 Can. Nat. 6 Vol. VI. No. 2. 146 Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay. (14.) Similar limestone, Leperditia less numerous, also Stropho- mena and Modiolopsis 6 (15.) Hard arenaceous limestone and calcareous sandstone, with little vermicular cylinders in one bed, and fragments of Pleurotomaria, &c., entire 20 The above bed belongs to the lower part of division 3, of the pre- vious general section, and above it there appears in the cliff a considerable thickness of similar beds capped by the beds of division 2, with some of the Trenton fossils enumerated in the list attached to that division. 60 feet or more. When these Silurian rocks were deposited, the older Lauren- tian series must have been much in its present state. It formed a broken and indented coast lower than the present shore ; but its beds were as hard and crystalline, and perhaps as much con- torted as they now are. The sea beat against it as now, and this for a very long time ; for the deposition of the Silurian sand- stones was slow, as is evidenced by the thoroughly rounded grains of sand of which many thick beds are composed, and which indicate the toil of the waves for long ages on the Lauren- tian shore, first, in breaking up its hard masses, then in grinding these fragments and polishing them into perfectly rounded forms. In the sandstones of some later formations, as for instance in the carboniferous sy£'\em, the grains are usually angular, but in the Lower Silurian, (and in conversation with Sir Wm. Logan, I find that he has elsewhere observed this appearance,)time has been given carefully to round and polish every grain. In modern times we see such purely silicious and polished sands only on clean beaches, where few remains of plants or animals are allowed by the waves to remain, and perhaps this is connected with the absence of land remains in these old beds. I had at first suspected from the forms of these grains of quartz, that they might be concretionary like those in some green-sand deposits, but microscopic examination shows that they are not of this character, and discloses among them occasional grains of felspar and other minerals in the same rounded condition. The Silurian beds are not themselves undisturbed. They rise sometimes with steep dips up the sides of the hills, and have been thrown into anticlinal ridges. At one place near Little Mai Bay, they run in a vertical position along the shore parallel to the older series. ITere at high tide nothing is seen but the cliflf of Lauren- tian rock, but at low tide a wide shore covered with boulders is laid bare, and stretching along this are seen the edges of the ver- Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay, 147 tical Silurian beds, which have been cut down to the sea level, while their sturdier Laurentian neighbours tower above them in a precipice 200 feet high, (Fig. 3.) On the sides of the bay the Silurian beds in some places reach up the sides of the hills to a Fig> S. Section near Little Mai Bay. (a) Lower Silurian. (6) Laurentian. height of 300 feet, and they are seen here and there in the valley of the Murray Bay River, as far as the lakes whence it flows. In some places rugged and wasted patches of them are seen cling- ing to the sides of the Laurentian steeps, just as they have been left by the waves of the receding sea when it last took its depart- ure from the land, at a comparatively modern period of geologi- cal time. From the date of the Lower Silurian to the later tertiary pe- riod, embracing by far the greater part of the earth's geologi- cal history, at Murray Bay, as in many other parts of Canada, no geological records remain. We therefore next turn to the Post-Pliocene Deposits, On the west side of the bay, the Silurian rocks of White Point, immediately within the pier, and which have already been so often mentioned, form a steep cliff, in the middle of which is a terraced step marking an ancient sea level. At the end nearest the pier the sea has again cut back to the old cliff, leaving merely a narrow shelf ; but toward the inner side this shelf rapidly ex- pands into the sandy flat along which the main road runs, and which is continuous with the lower plain extending all the way to the head of the bay. In this flat the upper portion of the Pleis' tocene deposit seems to consist principally of sand and gravel, 14S I^otes on the Geologtj of Murray Bay, resting on stony clay. In the former, "whicli corresponds to tlie Saxicava sand of Montreal, I found only a few valves of Tellina Groenlandica, whicli is still the most abundant shell on the mod- ern beach. In the latter, corresponding to the Leda clay, which is best seen in some parts of the shore at low tide, I found a num- ber of deep water shells of the following species, all of which ex- cept Spirorbis spirillum and Aphrodite Groenlandica have been found in these deposits at Quebec and Montreal. Fusus tornatus, Trophon scalariforme* Margarita helicina, Pecten Jslandicus* Tellina proxima<, Saxicava rugosa. Aphrodite Groenlandica, Balanus Hameri. Spirorbis spirillum^ Serpula vermicular is. These shells imply a higher beach than that of this lower flatj which is not more than 30 feet above the present sea level. Ac- cordingly above this are several higher terraces, the heights of which on the west side of the bay I measured roughly with a pocket level. The second principal terrace, which forms a steep bank of clay some distance behind the main road, ia 100 feet in heifi-ht, and is of considerable breadth, and has on its front in some places an imperfect terrace at the height of 77 feet. It corres- ponds nearly in height with the shoulder over which the road from the pier passes. Upon it in the rear of the property of Mr. Du Berger, is a little stream which disappears under ground, prob- ably in a fissure of the underlying limestone, and returns to the surface only on the shore of the bay. Above this is a smaller and less distinct terrace 132 feet high. Beyond this the ground rises in a steep slope, which in many places consists of calcareous beds, worn and abraded by the waves, but showing no distinct terrace ; and the highest true shore mark which I observed, is a narrow beach of rounded pebbles at the height of 326 feet. This beach appears to become a wide terrace further to the north, and also on the opposite aide of the bay. It probably corresponds with the highest terrace observed by Sir W. E. Logan, at Bay St. Paul, and estimated by him at the height of 360 feet. These two JNotes on the Geology of Murray Bay, 149 principal terraces at Murray Bay, correspond nearly with two of the principal shore levels at Montreal, as noticed in my former paper on the Post Pliocene deposits,* in which it will be seen that in various parts of Canada, two principal lines of old sea beaches occur at about 100 to 150 feet, and 300 to 350 feet above the sea, though there are others at diflferent levels. To these I have now to add an observation made last summer at Upton, in the Eastern Townships, where I saw in a cleft of the limestone quarried there for copper ore, a deposit of comminuted mussel shells, and entire valves of Tellina Groenlwidica^ Saxicava ru- gQsa, and Mya arenaria, lying just as the surf drove them into the fissures of this old reef, when th-e sea stood more than 300 feet above its present level. Guyot remarks in his late paper on the Appalachian mountain system,f that a depression of 140 feet would convert the whole of New England, and the eastern part of Lower Canada into an island ; so that when the sea stood at the level of this highest beach at Murray Bay, the hills of New Eng- land, of the Eastern Townships, and of Gasp^, formed a long rocky island, separated from the similar masses of hills to the west and south-west, by straits 30 fathoms deep, and all the plain of the St. Lawrence was a sea with but a fevr rocky islets pro- jecting from it here and there. These stupendous changes be- long to the later geological history of Canada, and its re-eleva- tion into dry land belongs to the beginning of the modern period of geology. In the valley of the Murray Bay River, there are evidences of less important but interesting processes attending this re-elevation of the land. In the Pleistocene period the valley of the river has been filled, almost or quite to the level of the highest terrace, with an en- ormously thick mass of mud and boulders, washed from the land and deposited in the sea bed during the long periods of newer Pliocene and Pleistocene submergence. Through this mass the deep valley of the river has been cut, and the clay, deprived of support and resting on inclined surfaces, has slipped downward, forming strangely shaped shelves, and outly- ing masses, that have in some instances been moulded by the re- ceding waves, or by the subsequent action of the weather, into conical mounds, so regular that it is difficult to convince many of the visitors to the bay that they are not artificial. Sir W. E. * Canadian Naturalist, Vol. 11. t Sillimaji's Journal. 150 Notes on the Geology of Murray Bay. Logan in "his report aboye referred to, has in my view given the true explanation of these mounds, which maybe seen in all stages of formation on the neighbouring hill sides. Their effect to a geological eye is to give to this beautiful valley an unfinished as- pect, as if the time elapsed since its elevation had not been suffi- cient to allow its slopes to attain to their fully rounded contour ; but this appearance is no doubt due to the enormous thickness of the deposit of Post-pliocene mud, to the uneven surfaces of the underlying rock, and possibly also in part to the earthquake shocks which have visited this region. My subject in this paper has been the geological history of Murray Bay, but its modern natural history is not without at- traction. Its varied surface and formations afford a copious flora. Its abundant sea weeds have been already noticed in this Journal by Mr. Kemp. The beautiful white porpoises that sport in its waters, and a variety of interesting fishes may be well studied here. The marine invertebrates are not very abundant, and the rocky nature of the bottom and rapid tidal current, render dredg- ing difficult and dangerous, but many interesting forms charac- teristic of the upper ranges of the St. Lawrence estuary occur. Even the ethnologist may find something interesting in the pecu- liarity, of a colony of Scotsmen, isolated by the neglect of their countrymen, and changed in the course of two generations, in language, manners, and religion, into French Canadians. Description of the new species of Lingvla referred to in th£ fore- going paper. By E. Billings. LiNGULA Eva. — (Billings.) Description. — Shell from 1 to 1 ^ inch in length, greatest width near the front margin, thence gradually tapering with nearly straight sides until within one fourth of the length from the beak, Reviews, 151 from which point the sides rapidly converge to the beak ; apical angle about 90° ; both valves rather convex along the middle, thence descending with a flat or gently convex slope to the sides and front margin. Surface with distinct sub-imbricating con- centric ridges and fine striae, and when partially exfoliated obscure longitudinal striae are visible. The width at one fourth the length from the beak is usually one fourth less than it is at one sixth the length from the front margin. The following are the measurements of a specimen of the ordinary form. Length, 12^ lines. Width at 3 lines from beak, 6^ lines. Width at 2 lines from front, 9 lines. The largest specimen found measures nearly one inch and a half in length. The proportions vary somewhat in different individuals. The species is about the size of L. quadrata but differs therefrom in being narrowed from the front upwards. Formation and Locality/. — Murray Bay ; in rocks which appear to represent the Black River formation. Collector. — This fine species was discovered by Dr. J. W. Daw- son. REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. The limits of exact science as applied to History. — An inaugural lecture delivered before the University of Cambridge, by the Rev. C. Kingsley, M.A., Professor of Modern History. Mr. Kingsley, the well known and truly distinguished author of Alton Locke, Hypatia, Westward, Ho ! and other works of fictitious literature, has lately been appointed to succeed, in the chair of Modern History in the University of Cambridge, the late justly esteemed and eminent thinker and critic Sir James Ste- phens. That he will fill this chair with honor to himself and to the University is not doubted by those who are acquainted with the historical character and philosophical tendency of his numer- ous and delightful writings. He belongs to that school of men in the Church of England, now known as the " Broad Church," and his name has long been associated with liberal ideas of reli- gion, politics and education. He has always been forward to pro- 152 Reviews, mote as well to advocate the education of the people in the high- est and best sense of that term. Along with Maurice and Ruskin he has taken an active part in conducting the studies of the Working Men's College, and now that his zeal and abilities have obtained, we believe from the imperial government, a position which, in modern times, is regarded by its fortunate possessors with just pride, we may expect from his pen works of a more mature and, it may be, of a better order of literature than any he has yet published. This inaugural lecture is a promise of what may be expected from him in the course of his historical prelec- tions. To the phenomena of human life in all its complex rela- tions he would apply, as a method of investigation, the principles of strict induction as opposed to the methods of theory and ab- stract philosophy. He plainly opposes himself to the apparent tendency of modern scientific philosophy, which aims at reduc- ing social life and progress to the rank of phenomena which are the result of fixed and inevitable laws. Our author insists on the limitation of the idea of law, so justly applicable to the exact or physical sciences, in its application to historical questions. In the treatment of these he would introduce the higher factors of an all-pervading providence and a moral free agency in man. While he recognises in social life, as well as in physical pheno- mena, order and progress, he yet regards these as results not so much of fixed and inevitable laws as of a direct divine agency and the moral afi'ections of individual men. In history he would search for efi'ective rather than final causes, is content to see God working everywhere without impertinently demanding of him a reason for his deeds, he would have students to study in a frame of mind equally removed from superstition on the one hand and necessitarianism on the other. He fears not to confess natural agencies, but neither is he afraid to confess those supernatural causes which underlie all existence, save God's alone. This lec- ture is admirable as well for its lucid and profound thought as for its plain common sense. The Life of William Scoreshy, M.A., D.D., F.E.SS.L. and E.^ ^ si ^ John. ^h Q h de f Section of the vicinity of St. John. (a) Lower carboniferous conglomerate, (b) Crystalline limestones of St. John group, (c) Syenite, (rf) Bed of graphite, (e) Inter- stratified trappean rock, ffj Slates, shales, and sandstones of St. John group. With respect to the age of these beds ; in the absence of deter- minable animal fossils, I may state the following facts. (1) The limestone and its associated shales underlie unconformably the Lower Carboniferous conglomerate, which here appears to be the oldest member of that system. This arrangement is general throughout the belt to which the St. John rocks belong. (2) The whole of the beds of the St. John group, appear to be confor- mable to one another and to constitute one formation. (3) In min- eral character, and especially in the occurrence of thick beds of limestone and of graphite, the St. John rocks do not resemble any of the Devonian or Silurian rocks of Nova Scotia, though these occur in a similar state of metamorphism. They more nearly resemble the Devonian of Gaspe. The Devonian rocks known in Nova Scotia, appear to belong to the lower rather than to the upper member of that system,* and they have afforded no plants except indeterminable fragments. (4) The plants found in the rocks of the St. John group, are specifically distinct from those of the Carboniferous system in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- wick. In the map attached to Prof. Johnston's Report on the Agri- culture of New Brunswick, Prof. Robb has coloured these rocks as Lower Silurian. In my Acadian Geology, on the ground chiefly of mineral character, i have with doubt placed them as Upper Silurian or Devonian. The facts at present known show them to be older than the Carboniferous system, though perhaps belonging to the newest part of the Devonian. The following are the plants which I have been able to deter- mine : — * Supplement to Acadian Geology, also Canadian Naturalist, Vol. 4. New Brunswick, Maine, and Eastern Canada. 165 1. Dadoxylon Ouangondianum,^ — Sp. nov. Fig. 2. Figs, land 2. — Dadoxylon Ouangondianum. Fig. 1. — Transverse section 50 diams. («) Wood cells, (b) Line of growth. Fig. 2. — Longitudinal section, radial, (a) Disc structure. (6) Me- dullary rays. Description. — Branching trunks, with distinct zones of growth, and a pith of Sternbergia type. "Wood cells very large, with three to five rows of contiguous alternate hexagonal areoles with oval pores. Medullary rays with one to three series of cells, and as many as 14 rows of cells superimposed on each other. Trunks of this fine coniferous tree are not infrequent in the St. John sandstones explored by Mr. Matthew. They retain their structure in great perfection, especially in silicified speci- mens. Some of the trunks have been a foot or more in diameter. They show traces of growth rings on their weathered ends, and when perfect, are traversed by the transversely wrinkled pith cylinders, formerly known as Sternberg ioe. Under the microscope the wood cells are seen to be of remarkable size, being fully one-third laro-er in their diameter than those of P'lnus strohus or Araucaria Cunning hami, and also much larger than those of the ordinary coniferous trees of the coal measures. They are beauti- fully marked with contiguous hexagonal areoles, in which are in- scribed oval slits or pores, placed diagonally. The medullary rays are large and frequent, but their cells, unlike the wood cells (prosenchyma), are more small and delicate than those of the trees just mentioned. The pith w^hen perfectly preserved, presents a * I have named this species after the ancient Indian designation of the St. John River, Ouangonda. I use the generic term Dadoxylon as probably best known to English geologists ; but I sympathise with Goeppert in his preference of the generic term Araucarites for such trees. 166 On the Pre-carhoniferous Flora of continuous cylinder of cellular tissue, wrinkled longitudinally •without, and transversely within, and giving forth internally deli- cate transverse partitions which coalesce toward the centre? Fig. 4. Fig. 3. Figs. 3 and 4. — Dadoxylon Ouangondianum. Fig. 3. — Fragment of wood cell prepared by nitric acid, (a) 200 diameters. (6) Single areole more highly magnified. Fig. 4. — Sternbergia pith, (a) Outer carbonised coating. (6) Trans- verse plates, (c) Fragment of wood attached to exterior, (d) Section showing internal structure, natural size. leaving there a series of lenticular spaces, a peculiarity which I have not heretofore observed in these Sternbergia pith cylinders. It is interesting to find in a Devonian conifer the same structure of pith characteristic of some of its allies in the coal formation, where however, as I have elsewhere shown,* such structures occur in Sigillaria as well ; and since Corda has ascertained a similar structure in Lomatofloi/os, a plant allied to Ulodendron, it would appear that the Sternbergise may have belonged to plants of very dissimilar organization. In my specimen the pith is only half an inch in diameter, and only a small portion of the wood is attached to it ; but Mr. Matthew has a specimen of a trunk ten inches in diameter, with the pith one inch in thickness, and another 11 J- inches in diam- eter, with the pith 2^ inches. Both had the appearance of de- cayed trunks, so that their original size may have been considez- ably greater. Paper on Coal Structures. Journal of Geol. Survey. l^ew Brunswickj Maine, and Eastern Canada, 167 Mr. Matthew states in reference to the mode of occurrence of this interesting species, that the wood is always in the state of anthracite or graphite, or mineralized by iron pyrites, calc spar or silica. The pith is usually calcified, but in pyritised trunks it often appears as a sandstone cast with the external wrinkles of Sternbergia. The pith is often eccentric, and specimens occur with two or three centres ; but these either consist of several trunks in juxtaposition, or are branching stems. The annual lay- ers vary from |-th to ^^^th of an inch in thickness, and adjoining layers sometimes vary from y^^th to 2'^th of an inch. The trunks of this species appear to have had a strong ten- dency to split in decay along the medullary rays, and in conse- quence the cross section often presents a radiating structure of ilJ Fig. 5.~^Calamites transitiortis. (p. 168.) alternating black lines representing the wedges of wood, and white rays of calc spar. The heart wood seems to have had its cell J6S On the Pre-carhonijerous Flora of walls much tbickened, and in consequence to have been more durable than that nearer the surface. They appear to have been drift trees, and to have been much worn and abraded before they were imbedded in sediment. 2. Calamites transitlonis. — Goeppert. (Fig. 5 — previous page.) The specimen figured appears to belong to the species above named, which occurs in the Devonian of Silesia, and also in the Lower Coal Formation. It is a cast in sandstone, showing merely the decorticated surface in an indiflferent state of preser- vation. Specimens of this species were shown to me in 1857, by the late Prof. Robb, and were the first well characterized plants from the St. John rocks, that had come under my notice. • 3. Asteropliyllites parvula. — S. n. Fig. 6. — Asterophyllites parvula. (a) Natural size, (h) Portion magnified, (c) Stem natural size. Description. — Branchlets slender. Leaves 5 or 6 in a whorl, subulate, curving upward, half a line to a line long. Internodes equal to length of leaves or less. Stems ribbed, with scars of verticillate branchlets at the nodes. This delicate little species is found abundantly in graphitic shale, on the surfaces of which its branchlets and leaves appear as shining films of graphite, as if delicately drawn with a black lead pencil. It can be extracted from the shale only in frag- ments ; but associated with these are remains of stems about a line in thickness, with about 16 ribs and prominent nodes with little tubercles indicating the attachment of branchlets. 4. Cordaites (Pycnophyllum) Robhii. — S. n. Description. — Leaves elongated, parallel-sided, an inch or more in width, with very delicate equal longitudinal striae. This is the characteristic plant of the graphitic shale above mentioned, to which its leaves, converted into graphite, aid in New Brunswick, Maine, and Eastern Canada, 169 giving a thin lamination. For tins reason I desire to dedicate it to my late lamented friend, Prof. Robb, who lias been called away in the midst of labours that would have added much to our knowledge of the geology of New Brunswick. I have seen no specimens of this leaf entire ; but it appears to have been a broad lanceolate or oblong leaf, resembling the common Cordaites of the coal measures, but more delicate in its striation. Mr. Matthews has found specimens 3 inches in width. The generic name Cordaites as used here, may require some explanation. I employ it as applied by Unger to the Flabellaria horassi/oUa of Corda, which I regard as the type of all those broad parallel-veined elongated leaves, which have by various au- thors been placed in the genera Pycnophyllum^ NoeggeratJiia^ Poacites, and Flabellaria. The first of these names, proposed by Brongniart, I regard as a synonym of Cordaites ; but I have no certain information as to its priority to that name. The second, Noeggeratliia, was originally applied to flabellate and pinnate leaves, quite distinct from that now described.* It has by some authors been restricted to a genus of ferns allied to Cyclopteris and by others still included in that genus ;f and latterly it is used by Goeppert| and by Unger,§ to include parallel veined leaves, like the present species, but placed among monocotyledonous plants, and said to be pinnate, though there is no evidence of this in several of the species, some of which may possibly belong to Cordaites, and others, as N. tenuistriata, (Goeppert,) are prob- ably stipes of ferns allied to my Cyclopteris Acadica. Poacites, if P. cocoina (L. and H.) is considered its type, cannot include these leaves, and Flabellaria is now restricted to leaves of palms, quite dissimilar from Cordaites. By the use of the generic name which I have selected for the above reasons, I hope to avoid all the confusion in which the nomenclature of leaves of this type has long been involved. I do * Lindley and Hutton, Fossil Flora. It is to these leaves, represented by N.foHosa and N. flabellata, that the name properly belongs, and it appears desirable that they should be more distinctly separated on the one hand from ferns of the genus Cyclopteris, and on the other from plants like that now under consideration. t Lesquereux in Rogers' Pennsylvania. See also Unger, Genera et Species, and Goeppert, Gattnung. t Flora des Uebergangsgebirges, and Flora der Silurischen, &c. § Unger Palgeontologie des Thuringer waldes. 170 On the Pre-carboniferous Flora of not express any opinion as to their affinities, any farther than to state my belief that they present no important point of structural difference from Cordaites horassifoUa^ and that this plant as de- scribed by Corda,* has a stem closely resembling Lomatofloyos, and therefore of the same type of structure with Ulodendron and Lepi- dodendron. 5. Cordaites angustifolia. — S. u. Description. — Leaves elongated, one-tenth to one-fourth of an inch wide, with delicate equal parallel striee. This leaf differs from the last in its proportionate narrowness and decided striation. No specimen showing its extremities has been obtained, in consequence of which, I cannot determine whether it has the retuse apex mentioned as one of the charac- ters of Unger's Noeggerathia graminifoUa, which in form and dimensions it much resembles. A very similar leaf, probably the same species, occurs in the Devonian and Upper Silurian of Gas- p^, and is represented in Fig. 11. It was noticed in my paper on the plants of that region, as probably a Noeggerathia. 6. Sphenoj)Jigllum antiquum. — S. n. Fig. (T. — Sphenophyllum antiquum. (a) Magnified, (b) Natural size. De&cription. — Leaflets cuneate, one-eighth of an inch wide at apex, and less than one-fourth of an inch long. Nerves three, bifurcating equally near the base, the divisions terminating at the apices of sis obtuse acuminate teeth. This is the first occurrence, in so far as I am aware, of the genus Sphenophyllum in beds older than the carboniferous sys- tem. Leaflets only were found, so that it is impossible to state the arrangement of these on the stem ; but the form and nerva- * Flora der Vorwelt ; under genus Flabellaria. New BrunswicJc, Maine, and Eastern Canada, 171 tion of the leaflets are well defined. Under the microscope the Dervures have a striated appearance, and there is a more delicate longitudinal striation visible in the epidermis of the leaf. I may remark here, that though in a somewhat altered rock, and to a cursory glance indistinct, the leaves and other delicate vegetable organs in the shales of St. John, are found under the microscope to present an unusual degree of perfection in their finer markings. They must in the first instance have been imbedded in a quite unchanged condition, and but for the alteration which the rocks have sustained, would have furnished remarkably perfect speci- mens. The species above described approaches most nearly to S. erosum of the coal measures, but differs in its proportions. 7. Lycopodites Mattheici. — S. n. Fig. 8. — Lycopodites Matthewi. (a) and (b) Natural size, (c) Magnified, (d) Lepidophyllum, Description. — Leaflets one veined, narrowly ovate-acuminate, one-tenth to one-fourth of an inch in length, somewhat loosely placed on a very slender stem, apparently in a pentastichous manner. This pretty little species is abundantly displayed in graphite, in the Cordaites shale I have already referred to. With it are found the little scales or Lepidophylla, (Fig. 8, d.) which may possibly have belonged to its fructification. In addition to the above plants, there is in the sandstone con- taining conifers, an impression of the bark of a plant which may have been a Sigillaria. In the Cordaites shale there are many indeterminable fragments, among which are a small fern leaf, ap- parently a Splienopteris like >S^. Devonica, linger, a terminal pin- nule of a Cydoj)tens, which appears to be the same with that described below fiom Perry, leaves having the appearance of those of Sigillaria, (Cyperites), and stems which may belong to .Psilojphjton, There are also some remarkable fragments which 172 On the Pre-carhonijerous Flora of in some aspects appear to be transversely furrowed stems with longitudinal striae, and in other specimens present the appearance of monocotyledonous leaves, with strong longitudinal nerves and more slender transverse ones. These are perhaps stipes of ferns, some species of Cyclopteris presenting a somewhat similar appear- ance in their flattened petioles. There also occur both at St. John and Gaspe, carbonaceous films of uncertain form, and mi- nutely pitted all over, the precise nature of which I cannot de- termine. II. Perry, Maine. The rocks at this place consist of sandstones and shales, very closely resembling those of Gaspe. They were first described by Dr. Jackson, in his Report on the Geology of Maine. More re- cently they have been noticed by Prof. Rogers, in the Proceed- ings of the Natural History Society of Boston. Prof. Rogers regards them as of Devonian date, in which view Dr. Jackson concurs, and the evidence of the plants is favourable to the same conclusion. Their stratigraphical relations have not, however, been accurately worked out. Mr. Richardson, of the Geological Survey of Canada, represents them as apparently resting un con- formably on metamorphic rocks of uncertain date, but which, according to some recent observations of Prof. Rogers, may be in part of Upper Silurian age. The fossils from this place which have come into my hands, are preserved somewhat imperfectly in hard coarse sandstone. They consist of the following species : — 1. Cyclopteris Jacksoni, — S. n, I think it but just to name this fine species after its original discoverer, and the explorer of the geology of Maine. It is closely allied to C. Hihernica and C. McCoyana from the Devonian of Ireland; but is sufficiently distinct to constitute a well marked species. It resembles the ferns just named in the dense arrange- ment of its pinnules, which largely overlap each other ; but it difi'ers from them in the arrangement of the pinnge, in the form of the pinnules, and in the character of the rhachis. It seems quite distinct from any of the ferns from the Devonian of Penn- sylvania, &c., described by Lesquereux. The specimen figured is one in the collection of the Natural History Society of Portland. New Brunswick, Maine, and Eastern Canada, 17S In Mr. Richardson's collection, single pinnge occur, and there are also many large stipes which may have belonged to this species. Fig. 9. — Cyclopteris Jacksoni. (a) Terminal pinnule. (6) Lateral pinnules slightly magnified. Description. — Frond bipinnate ; rhachis stout and longitudinally fur- rowed ; pinnae alternate ; pinnules obliquely oborate, imbricate, narrowed at the base, and apparently decurrent on the petiole ; nerves nearly parallel, dichotomous ; terminal leaflet large, broadly obovate or lobed. As above stated, terminal pinnules which may have be- longed to this species occur in the St. John beds; but more 174 On the Pre-carhomferoiis Flora of perfect specimens will be required to render this identification certain. 2. Lepidostrohus Richardsoni. — S. n. (Fig. 10.) Fig. 10 — Lepidostrohus Richardsoni. (a) Pinnule magnified. Description. — Axis not distinctly preserved, form cylindrical ? — scales oblong with an obscure midrib. I refer to tlie above genus with some hesitation, a well char- acterised but very puzzling organism, discovered by Mr. Richard- son at Perry. It consists of an indistinct but apparently thick stem or axis, with equally pinnate leaves, which seem to have been thick and oblono- and show traces of a midrib. It resembles a perfectly flattened Lepidostrohus, more than anything else ; but it may have been a branch of a conifer with pinnate leaves. 3. Lepidostrohus^ S. n. In Mr. Richardson's collection from Perry, is a rounded and flattened object, Ij inch in diameter, apparently covered with thick pointed scales. It seems to be a Lepidostrohus quite distinct from the last 4. Lepidodendron Gaspianum.—'mih.], In a specimen in the collection of the Natural History Society of Portland, there is a branch of Lepidodendron, 1^ inches in length, J inch in diameter at the larger end, and J inch in dia- New Brunswick^ Maine^ and Eastern Canada. 175 meter at the smaller. It is flattened and imperfectly preserved, but on comparison with my specimens from Gasp^, I cannot observe any specific difference. This species is evidently closely allied to L, nothum, linger, and possibly could perfect specimens of both be obtained, they might prove to be identical. In the mean time ho wever as the scars and leaves of L, nothum are unknown, it is difficult to institute a comparison. 5. Psilopliyton princeps. — mihi. Great numbers of slender bifurcating stems appear on the shales brought from Perry by Mr. Richardson. They are not well preserved ; but it seems scarcely to admit of a doubt that they belong to this species, so characteristic of the Gaspe sand- stones. 6. Megaphyton ? A flattened stem two inches in diameter, irregularly ribbed and striated, appears to show a row of scars on the exposed side, as in the above named genus. The scars are not however well defined. The plant has a slender pyritised axis giving off a few bunches or bundles of vessels to the sides. The structure is ' very imperfect but was possibly scalariform. Y. Sternhergia. In the collection with which I have been favored by the Natural History Society of Portland, is an impression of a Sternbergia not distinguishable from that of Dad/xcylon Ouangondianumj of St. John, to which species it perhaps belonged. It retains no traces of the wood ; but casts of sternbergia in the same naked condition often occur in the coal measures. 8. Aporoxyhn, Many fragments of carbonised wood showing aporous cells occur in the Perry sandstones : I refer them in the mean time to the above genus of Unger. III. Gasp^ Sandstones. From these rocks I have but one species to notice at present. It is that referred to in my former paper as probably a Knorria,* * Paper on Devoniaa Plants of Gaspe, Journal of Geological Society, Vol. XY. 176 On the Pre-carboniferous Flora oj but of which I have recently obtained better specimens which induce me to propose for it the name of — Selaginites formosus, — S, n. Fig. 11. — Fragment of shale from Gasp^. (a) Selaginites formosus. (b) Smaller specimen of the same. Cordaites angustifolia. (d) Psilophyton princeps. (0 Fig. 12. — Selaginites formosus. (a) Small specimen magnified, (b) Scale of larger specimen mag- nified. Description. — Stems covered with flat broad angular imbricating scales of unequal size, and ornamented with minute scaly points. The original specimen of this curious plant was a fragment of the bark on sandstone in the collection of Sir W. E. Logan. I have since discovered in the bituminous shale overlying the Devonian coal of Gaspe, and which abounds in vegetable frag- ments, several portions of flattened stems showing the characters more perfectly. The different sizes of the fragments and of the scales that clothe them would indicate that it was a branching or dichotomous plant. Their condition of preservation shows that New BrunswicJci Maine, and Eastern Canada, 177 the bark was firm and durable. The scales are flat, quite angu- lar and closely appressed, but seem to have been thick, and are evidently free at their extremities and without any indication that they supported leaves. They show no ribs or nervures ; but are covered with little subordinate projecting points or scales as shown in the figures. I formerly referred this plant to Knorria, on account of its scaly stem ; but this genus has recently been placed in a somewhat equivocal position by Goeppert, * who finding, as I had previously done,! that the plants called Knorria in the Lower coal measures, are really decorticated or imperfectly preserved Lepidodendra or Sagenariae, seems disposed to abandon the genus. The present species might however still remain as a typical Knorria having a scaly stem and quite distinct from Lepidodendron, but to avoid any confusion between it and the plants heretofore known as Knorria but now ascertained to be of a diff'erent character, I prefer to place it in the mean time in Selaginites ; in the hope that more perfect specimens may soon illustrate more fully its aflinities. Concluding Remarks In comparing with each other the plants of the three localities above referred to, it will be observed that they have few species in common. Probably two species are common to Perry and St. John, and two to the former and Gaspe ; while it is doubtful if one is found in all three. It must be observed however that according to Mr. Billings, the fossil shells of the Gaspe sandstones indicate a Lower Devonian age, while it is quite probable that the rocks of Perry and St. John may be Upper Devonian ; and this is the more likely as the plants of the St. John beds are de- cidedly nearer in their facies to those of the coal formation than are those of Gasp^. None of the species found in these old beds have as yet been recognised in the carboniferous system in British America ; and only one, C. transitionis, elsewhere. The generic types are how- ever the same, with the exception of Prototaxites and Psilophyton, * Flora der Silurischen, &c., 1860. t Paper on Lower Coal measures, Journal of Geological Society, Vol. XV. P. 69, Can. Nat. 2 Vol VL Xo. 3. 178 On the Pre-carhoniferous Flora of and possibly also the form of Cyclopteris represented by C. Jackson^ which diflfers from any fern of the coal formation, and is perhaps entitled as Lesquereux maintains to a distinct generic name. The generic assemblage in the beds now under consideration, resembles that in the lower coal formation, and differs from that in the true coal measures, in the prevalence of Lycopodiaceus plants and the comparative absence of Sigillarise ; but the genera Lepidodendron and Sagenaria so characteristic of the lower coal measures are slenderly represented here. It is also to be observed that the genera Asterophyllites and Sphenophyllum, though com- mon to the St. John group and the coal measures, are, in so far as known, absent from the lower coal formation in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The former genus is however found in the Lower coal in Silesia. It is interesting to observe in the St. John beds which have been disturbed and metamorphosed before the carboniferous period, a generic assemblage so similar to that of the coal. On the other hand it is still more curious to find that the absence of the great Sigillaroid and Ulodendroid trees, so characteristic of the wide swampy flats of the coal period, gives to the St. John flora a more modern aspect than that of the coal ; though in its exclusively cryptogamous and gym- nospermous character, and in its generic forms, it is quite as de- cidedly palaeozoic. In comparing the plants in the Devonian of Eastern America with those of Europe, a smaller proportion of identical species appears than in the case of the coal measures. There may have been in the Devonian period a greater geographical separation or climatic difference between the European and American land than in the time of the coal formation. On the other hand, however, a part of the plants ascertained here belono^ to the Lower Devonian, which has hitherto afforded only one land species in Europe,while here it contains several well preserved species and even a small bed of coal ; and with respect to the Upper Devonian the number of known species is too small as yet to admit of a satisfactory com- parison. I trust that the species described in thisand ray previous paper are but a small instalment of those to be brought to light by further search. In the meantime I present the following summary of these species, as representing the present state of our knowledge. I have introduced those that are doubtful as well as those fully New Brunswick, Maine, and Eastern Canada. 179 ascertained ; and have arranged tliera in families according to my present views of their affinities — views which may however admit of important modifications when the plants shall become better known. Summary of Fossil Plants, from beds older than the Carbonife- rous system, in British America and Maine. — [Described in this paper; and in that on the Devonian plants of Gaspe, in the Journal of the Geological Society of London, Vol. 15, and Cana- dian Naturalist, Vol, 5.] (a). — Exogenous Qymnosperms, 1. Conifer 06, (1.) Prototaxites Logani, raihi, Lower Devonian, Gaspe. (2.) Dadoxylon Ouangondianum, m., St. John group. (3.) Stenibergia, (probably pith of last species), Devonian, Perry. (4.) Aiooroxylon, Do. 2. Sigillarioe. (5.) Sigillaria ? — Cyperites ? , , St. John* (b.) — Doubtful if Gymnosperms or Cryptogams, 3. Calamitece, (6.) Calamites transitionis, Goeppert, St. John. 4. Asterophylliteoe. (7.) Asterophyllites 2^arvula, m., St. John. (8.) Sj)henoj^hyllum antiquum, m., St. John. (c.) — Acrogenous Cryptogams, 5. Lycopodiaceoe. (9.) Lepidodendron Gaspianum, m., Gasp^ and Perry. (10.) Lepidostrobus BicJiardsoni, ra., Perry. (11.) L. Perry. (12.) Lycopodites Matthewi, m., . .St. John. (13.) Psilophyton p)rinceps, m., Gaspe, Perry, St. John ? (14.) P. robustius, m., Gasp4. (15.) Selaginites formosits, m., Gaspe. (16.) Megaphyton ? Perry. (IV.) Cordaites Robbii, m., St. John. (18.) C. angnsiifolia, m., St. John and Gaspe. (19.) Sagenaria ? (Knorria) Devonian, Kettle Point. 6. Filices. (20.) Cyclopteris Jacksoni, m., Perry and St. John. (21,) Sphenopteris, St. John, ISO On the origin of some Adding to the above the species from the Devonian of New York and Pennsylvania, described in the Reports of the Geology of those states, and in the Memoir of Goeppert above referred to, we may estimate the known land flora older than the carboniferous period in Eastern America, at about thirty species, belonging to at least fifteen genera, all cryptoganqous or gymnospermous. ARTICLE XL — On the origin of some Magnesian and Alumi- nous Rocks, By T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S., of the Geological Survey of Canada. (Presented to the Natural History Society.) In common with other observers, I have long since called attention to the fact that silicates of lime, magnesia and oxyd of iron are deposited during the evaporation of many natural waters, such as the mineral springs of Varennes and Fitzroy, and the waters of the Ottawa river. I have also suggested that the sili- cates thus produced may have contributed in a considerable de- gree to the formation of rocks. (^Ainer. Jour. Science, March, 1860, p. 284). A hydrous silicate of magnesia which approaches in composition to MgO. SiO^, combined with from ten to twenty per cent of water, and mechanically mixed with small portions of oxyd of iron, alumina, and carbonates of lime and mag- nesia, forms extensive beds with limestones and clays in tertiary strata, in France, Spain, Morocco, Greece and Turkey. It is the sepiolite of Glocker, the meerschaum of some authors, the mag- nesite of others. The quincite of Berthier, which occurs in red particles disseminated in limestone, is a similar compound, con- taining some oxyd of iron. The sepiolite from the basin of Paris occurs beneath the gypsiferous group, and in the lacustrine series known as the St. Ouen limestone, where it forms very fissile shaly layers, enclosing nodules of opal (menilite). The struc- ture of this sepiolite, which I have examined and described as above, and that from Morocco, which is used by the Moors in their baths as a substitute for soap, and has been described by Damour, is peculiar. The mineral is made up of thin soft scales, and when moistened with water, swells up into a pasty mass resem- bliug a finely divided talc. Although agreeing closely with this mineral in the proportions of silica and magnesia, sepiolite con- tains more water, and both before and after ignition is soluble in Mamesian and Aluminous Rocks, 181 ^ Without enquiring into the origin of the forces which have produced the corrugations of the earth's crust, we may suppose that if a sufficient lateral pressure were applied to strata thus accumulated and arranged, there would result a set of parallel folds and overlaps, running in a direction at right angles to that of the pressure, with prevailing overturn dips in the direction of movement ; the greater strength, however, of the solid crystal- line gneiss in this particular case, offering more resistance than Life on the Earth, its Origin and Succession, 207 the newer strata, would cause a break coinciding witli the in- clined plane at the junction of the gneiss and Quebec group ; the strata of this group pushed up the slope would raise and fracture the strata of the formations above, aud be ultimately forced into an overlap of that portion resting on the higher terrace, after probably thrusting over to an inverted dip that part of the upper beds with which they came in contact. The strata of the upper terrace, relieved from pressure by the break, would remain com- paratively quiescent, and thus the limit of the more corrugated area would coincide with the slope between the deep and shallow water of the Potsdam period. But the resistance offered by the gneiss would not merely limit the main disturbances, it would probably also guide or modify in some degree the whole series of parallel corrugations, and thus act as one of the causes giving a direction to the Appalachian chain of mountains. REVIEWS AND NOTICES OF BOOKS. Life on the Earthy its Origin and Succession, hy John Phillips A.M., LL.D., F.R.S., Late President of the Geological Survey and Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. This volume contains the substance of the Bede Lecture, delivered at Cambridge, in May 1860. Like everything that Prof. Phillips does, it is clear, accurate and scholarly. It gives in small com- pass and in a manner intelligible to all, a summary of the facts known to Geology respecting the introduction and order of suc- cession of life on the earth, without any of the exaggeration and looseness of statement too common in popular books. It can be safely recommended to every one desirous of knowing the pre- sent state of this subject, and its bearing on the Darwinian doc- trine of the origin of species by natural selection. The work might afford many interesting