10 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. ix. 



BO that their general facies only could be compared, many of 

 them were in an imperfect state of preservation, and our whole 

 collections were Dot large. 



Matters remained in this state until the preparation of my 

 Acadian Geology, published in 1855, when it became very desir- 

 able to obtain some clearer light on the subject, and accordingly 

 considerable collections of the fossils were made and sent to Prof. 

 Hall, and to palasontological friends in England, in the hope that 

 these difficulties might be cleared up. But up to the time of 

 the publication of the book, and for some time thereafter, no aid 

 came from either quarter. In these circumstances, being con- 

 vinced that some of the lower fossiliferous beds must be Silurian, 

 and supposing that some of the upper beds were Devonian, but 

 having no means of separating them, I included both under one 

 chapter, and placed over the few fossils I ventured to figure, the 

 title "Devonian and Upper Silurian." 



On ray removal to Canada in 1855, I at once availed myself 

 of access to the collections of the Geological Survey, and of the 

 advice of Mr. Billings in the arrangement of my collections, and 

 sent further specimens, along with a number of species commu- 

 nicated to me by Dr. Honeyman, the late Dr. Webster of Kent- 

 ville, the late Dr. Harding of Windsor, and Mr. Hartt of Wolf- 

 ville,^ to Prof Hall ; and in 1859 I. received from him the scries 

 of descriptions of the Nova Scotia Upper Silurian fossils published 

 in 1860 in the Canadian Naturalist, and which really constituted 

 the " first step " in the palseontology of these difficult rocks. The 

 only credit that the gentlemen above named or the writer can 

 claim is the collection of materials ; and Nova Scotia owes a debt 

 of gratitude to the New York Palaeontologist for his gratuitous 

 labours in our behalf, at a time when he was pressed with many 

 and engrossing occupations. It was at this time, and while I was 

 in correspondence on the subject with all the friends in Nova 

 Scotia above named, and with Prof Hall, that, in advance of the 

 latter gentleman's full report, I sent to the Nova Scotia Literary 

 and Scientific Association a communication, in which I referred 

 to the labours of all these srentlemen. and stated the results arrived 

 at as follows : — " At Arisaig and other places in the East, where 



• Afterwards Prof. Hartt of Cornell, and the nead of the 8nrvey cf 

 Brazil ; a very able geologist, too early removed by death, and who 

 worked most successfully in the geology of New Brunswick and Nova 

 Bcotia. 



