﻿1848. OF river's BANK. 123 



Spirifers, an Ortliis resembling resupinata^ Terehra- 

 tula reticularis^ and a Pleurotomaria, which, in the 

 opinion of Mr. Woodward of the British Museum, 

 Avho kindly examined the specimens, are charac- 

 teristic of Devonian strata. In the folio win cr 

 season, Mr. Rae picked up from the beach of Clear- 

 water River a fine Bhy7icIwneUa, which retained 

 chestnut-coloured bands on the shell. The occur- 

 rence of colours in fossil shells of so ancient an 

 epoch is very rare. The specimen has been depo- 

 sited in the British Museum. In one of the cliffs 

 not far below the Clear-water River, the indurated 

 arenaceous beds resting on the limestone contain 

 pretty thick layers of lignite, much impregnated 

 with bitumen, which has been ascertained by Mr. 

 Bowerbank to be of coniferous origin, though he 

 could not determine the genus of the wood. 



Fourteen or fifteen miles below the junction of 

 the Clear-water with the Elk River there are co- 

 pious springs on the right bank. They rise from 

 the summit of an eminence among the fragments 

 of a ruined shale bankj which they have wholly 

 incrusted with tufa. This incrustation, analysed 

 for me by Dr. Fife in 1823, was found to be com- 

 posed principally of sulphate of lime with a slight 

 admixture of sulphate of magnesia and muriate of 

 soda, and with sulphur and iron. Below this there 

 is a fine section of a bituminous cliif from one 



