DISTRIBUTION OF THE CALCIFEROUS SEDIMENTS. 511 



The fossils sometimes figured as sections of the stem of Phytopsis tubulosum, 

 Hall, and so regarded as indicative of the Birdseye, had previously been 

 shown by one of us to be really a little sponge, Strephochetus, not a Birdseye 

 fossil at all, but one characterizing the middle Chazy. So this perplexity 

 disappeared. 



It must have been on lithological rather than stratigraphical grounds that 

 Calymene multicosta, Hall, and Ilkenus crassicauda, Dalman, were placed in 

 the Birdseye of Vermont. As has been previously stated, the rock carrying 

 these fossils belongs to C, the upper member of the Chazy, and is beneath 75 

 feet of Rhynclionella rock. 



So the Birdseye has been retreating from Vermont, retreating upwards ; 

 crowded out form Calciferous B, Calciferous D, Chazy B, Chazy C, it finds 

 no standing room except over a few square rods within the state. With its 

 departure we are rid of a source of perplexity and confusion. 



The correlation of the Calciferous of the Champlain valley with that of 

 the western states offers a subject for interesting investigation. This cannot 

 be entered upon here. 



Attention may, however, be called to the distribution of the eastern Cal- 

 ciferous, which spans the country like an irregular bow from near Long 

 island to the island of Newfoundland, rocks of similar character appearing 

 in the valleys of the Hudson and St. Lawrence as well as that of the Cham- 

 plain, suggesting that the same physical conditions of sedimentation and 

 like forms prevailed from New Jersey to Labrador, the deposits marking the 

 position of an ancient sea beach not far from the borders of the Archean 

 terrane. The most magnificent development, however, appears in the 

 Champlain valley. 



A suggestion may be offered in regard to names. In consideration of the 

 fact just stated — that of a wonderful deposit of a series of well characterized 

 rocks, 1,800 feet in thickness and bearing a fauna that will in all probability 

 soon reach up into the hundreds of specific forms, and this overlain by the 

 Chazy with its 700 feet of rock crowded in many parts of its three divisions 

 with distinct and characteristic fossils — may not the rocks of this group have 

 a name of their own rather than the misleading one " Canadian " ? They are 

 worthy of one. 



In the time allotted, ouly an inadequate presentation of a subject so broad 

 could be expected. We must reserve to ourselves the right of taking other 

 opportunity aud other means of discussing the topic at a length its importance 

 demands. 



Middlebury, Vt., December, 1889. 



