Fossil Corah, — Lower Siluruvi RocJcs o/* Canada. TD7 



" Petrified Cornua Ammonis. These are likewise frequently found, bnt 

 Qot equal to tlic former in number : like the jjcctinitoc, they are found really 

 f)etrified, and in imj^ressiojis ; amongst them were some petrified snails. — 

 Some of tliese Cornua Ammonis were remarkably big, and I do not remember 

 jKjeiug their equals, for they measured above two feet in diameter. 



" DiSerent kinds of corals could be plainly seen in, and separated from, 

 the stone in which they lay. Some w^ere wdiite and ramose, or Lithophytcs ; 

 others were starry corals, or Madrepores ; the latter were rather scarce. 



"I must give the name of Stone-halls to a kind of stones foreign to me,, 

 which are found in gr^at plenty in some of the 7:ock-stone. They Avere glo- 

 bular, one half of them projecting generally a1x)ve the rock, and the other 

 remaining in it. Tliey consist of nearly parallel fibres, which arise from the 

 bottom as from a center, and spread over the surface of the ball and havC' 

 a grey colour. The outside of the balls is smooth, but has a number of small 

 pores, which externally appear to be covered with a pale grey crust. Thcy- 

 are from, an inch, to an inch and a half in diameter." * 



The Stone-halls which Kalm saw were most likely the puff-ball variety - 

 of Chatetes Lycoperdon, while the branched corals of which he speaks were- 

 the other kind. Kalm visited North America in 1749. He w-as sent to> 

 America by the Royal Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, " to make suchi 

 observations and collections of seeds and plants as would improve Swedish 

 husbandry, gardening, manufactures, arts, and sciences." His book is full of,' 

 remarks upon things in this country w'hich are not even yet much observed here... 



Choitetes Lycoperdon is the most abundant of all the Lower Silurianr 

 corals. It ranges from the chazy limestone upwards to the Niagara group,, 

 and is found in England, .Ireland, Sweden, Russia, and in fact in all countries, 

 where the Silurian rocks are to be seen. In Canada, sometimes thick beds; 

 of limestone are often met with, composed almost altogether of the fragments:. 

 t>f this coral. 



Chdtetes appears to be from the Greek,. Chaite, hair, and the genus was. 

 »o called, probably from the hair-like smallness of the tubes. Lycoperdon,. 

 (a puff ball.) By many Geologists this genus is called Stcnopora. Stenopo-- 

 rajs from the Greek ; Stenos, narrow or small ; and. ^oros, a passage or pore.. 



Fig. 14. Fig. 15.. 



Figs 12 and' 13. — Stromatocerium rugosum, (Hall.) 



Concerning the true nature of this fossil there appears yet to be BOrm^ 



«k)ubt. It consists of numerous broad wrinkled leaves, penetrating the rock 



mtk their edges upward. They are generally bent in a half circle, as shswih 



* Kalaa'a Ti-avelfi, vol. S, page 197/,. 



