1886.] natural sciences of philadetphia. 22t 



April 6. 

 Mr. John H. Redfield in the chair. 



Twenty-five persons present. 



Permission having been given, Prof. Heilprin withdrew his 

 paper entitled " On a Giant Conorbis from the Oligocene of 

 Florida." 



The death of Charles Wilt, a member, was announced. 



Fresh-water Sponges from Newfoundland : A new Species. 

 Mr. Edward Potts stated that in the latter part of August, 1885, 

 Mr. A. H. MacKay, of Pictou, Nova Scotia, whose success as a 

 collector of fresh-water sponges in his own neighborhood has 

 been already recorded (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1884, p. 215, 

 etc.), made a scientific visit to the island of Newfoundland. His 

 explorations were mainl}' limited to the irregular peninsula of 

 Avalon,the southeasterly extremity of the island, and the record 

 of his collections beside mentioning the neighborhood of the 

 city of St. Johns, embraces such familiar names as Trinity Bay, 

 Harbor Grace, and Heart's Content, the landing place of the 

 Atlantic cable. 



He writes " I was extremely sorry that owing to ray limited 

 time and the impenetrability of the interior to any ordinary 

 effort, I could not gain access to the great lakes in the heart and 

 the western portion of the island. I have merely made a dip into 

 a few of the ponds on the N. (?) E. coast." These are more par- 

 ticularly mentioned as Virginia and Ouidi Vidi Lakes, near St. 

 Johns ; Lady Lake, Bannerman Lake, Rocky Lake and Car- 

 bonear Lake, small bodies of water near Harbor Grace ; and 

 other lakelets and brooks upon the rocky ridges and near the 

 sea level between Harbor Grace and Heart's Content. All this 

 region is described as "the Canadian Huronian, the equivalent of 

 the English Cambrian," and the collections were generall}^ 

 limited to the shallow margins of the ponds, where the sponges 

 were found upon the under sides of splinters of hard slaty 

 quartzites, in numbers very plentiful, but generally small ; " from 

 mere points to an inch or more in diameter." 



It is to be regretted that the date of Mr. MacKay's visit was 

 necessarily so early in the year, as the specimens collected were 

 either immature or contained onl}^ the degenerate statoblasts of 

 the preceding season. The information gathered as to the range 



