[goij Ami — Annual Address. 



20: 



various geological formations of eastern Canada, involving numer- 

 ous and difficult problems which made it a task of no mean im- 

 portance, but fraught with results th:it the world of to-day can, not 

 only appreciate, but esteem, as amongst the best parformed work 

 it has to consult. 



His first geological paper was published in April, 1854, and 

 was entitled " On Some New Genera and "Species of Cystidea 

 from the Trenton Limestone." It was published in the "Canadian 

 Journal," Toronto, page 215. On removing to Montreal in 1856, 

 Mr. Billings removed also the headquarters of his Magazine — 

 *' The Canadian Naturalist and Geologist"; from that date on 

 the same was published in Montreal under the same designation 

 and under the name of " Canadian Naturalist and Quarterly Jour- 

 nal of Science." until 1883, when it was superceded by the " Cana- 

 dian Record of Science," and became the recognized official organ 

 of the Natural History Society of Montreal. Of this Society he was 

 regularly elected a Vice-president for 14 years, having declined the 

 office of President proffered to him on many occasions. 



In 1858 Mr. Billings paid a visit to Europe, where he came in 

 contact with leading geologists of the time and examined the 

 various collections in geology throughout Great Britain. These he 

 studied most zealously and made a comparative study of the Silur- 

 ian (including both the lower and the upper Silurian of Murchison) 

 and Devonian fossils of Western Europe with those of Canada 

 and arrived at the conclusion that there were but few species iden- 

 tical with those of Canada. In April 1858, when in London he was 

 elected a F. G. S. (Fellow of the Geological Society of London); 

 Sir Roderick Murchison, Professor A. Ramsay, and Prof. T. H. 

 Huxley, having nominated him. He visited Paris where he met a 

 • number oi distinguished men, amongst others the great Bohemian 

 palaeontologist, the Abb6 Joachim Barrande, with whom, and in 

 conjunction with Sir William Logan a most interesting discussion 

 arose regarding the age of several rock formations occurring in 

 the Province of Quebec, to which Sir William Logan gave the 

 name "Quebec Group" — a controversy which included many dif- 

 ficult problemsand in which the "Taconic Question" was a conspicu- 

 ous factor. 



The term "Quebec Group" will invariably be associated with 



