Fossil Corals, — Lower Silurian Rocks o/* Canada. 115 



onder the class yackah, and were said to resemble each otlier in being 

 smaller, and having shorter nails than the white bear, in climbing trees, 

 and being so little vicious that they could be pursued with safety. This 

 distinction of the Indians seems to be well founded, and we are inclined to 

 believe, first, that the white or grizzly bear of this neighbourhood form jv 

 distinct species, which, moreover is the same with those of the same colour 

 on the upper part of the Mi.?souri, where the other species are not found ; 

 second, that the black and reddish brown, &c., is a second species, equally 

 distinct from the white bear of this country, as from the black bear of the 

 Atlantic and Pacific oceans, which two latter seem to form only one 

 species. The common black bears are indeed unknown in this country ; for 

 tlie bear of which we are speaking, though in most respects similar, differs 

 from it in having much finer, thicker, and longer hair, with a greater 

 proportion of fur mixed with it, and also in having a variety of colours, 

 while the common black bear has no intermixture or change of colour, but 

 is of a uniform black."' ^ 



The four species of bears described in the preceding articles are the 

 only ones known in North America, and they all range into the British 

 territories. Messrs. Audubon and Bachman state : — " The Cinnamon Bear, 

 so far as we have been able to ascertain, is never found near the sea coast, 

 Bor ever west of the Ohio valley, until you approach the Rocky Momitain 

 ^ chain, and it is apparently quite a northern animal." 



ARTICLE XVII.— On the Fossil Corah of the Lower Silurian Rocks of 



Canada. 



The corals of the Silurian rocks are among the most abundant of fossils, 

 and on account of the important part the animals of which they are the 

 remains have performed, in effecting extensive changes on the surface of tlie 

 t^arth in various geological epochs, are particularly worthy of attention. 

 Most persons have some idea of the existence of coral reefs, or great ridges 

 of rock, some of them several hundreds of miles in length, formed of coral, 

 in the oceans of the present day ; but not all are aware that these reefs are 

 found upon the dry land also, and extend even into Canada, Speaking of 

 the Onondaga and corniferous limestones. Sir Charles Lyell says :^ 

 •' Although in New York they have seldom a united thickness of more tlmn 

 &0 feet, they are observed to constitute an almost continuous coral reef over 

 m area of not less than 500,000 square miles, from the State of New 

 York to the Mississippi, and between Lakes Huron and Michigan, in the 

 north, and the Ohio River. and Tennessee in the south. In the western 

 States they are represented by the upper part of what is called the " cliif 

 limestone," Theye ia a grand display of this calc^ireoua formatioQ fti. %% 



* Lewie and Clark*« Travelfl, vol, 2, pa^ 33, 



