256 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. Vlll. 



cient to defray the expenses of its publication, and Mr. Billing's 

 self-sacrificing efforts to promote the diffusion of knowledge 

 under such discouraging circumstances should be remembered 

 with gratitude by every lover of Natural History in the Do- 

 minion. 



Between the years 1852 and 1856 a regular correspondence 

 had been kept up between Mr. Billings and Sir W. E. Logan, 

 and in the latter year Sir William succeeded in obtaining for 

 his friend the position of Palaeontologist to the Geological Sur- 

 vey of Canada. This of course necessitated an immediate 

 change of residence, and Mr. Billings accordingly removed to 

 Montreal, and entered on the discharge of his new duties on the 

 first of August, 1856. His first two months at the Survey were 

 occupied, as he states in his first official report,* in a general 

 examination of the large collection of fossils in the Museum, 

 with a view to their final arrangement for the purpose of public 

 exhibition. 



Early in October of the same year, Mr. Richardson returned 

 from Anticosti, bringing with him an extensive series of the 

 fossils of that island, and shortly afterwards Mr. Billings ex- 

 amined these specimens together with Prof. James Hall of 

 Albany, who happened to be on a visit to Montreal at the time. 

 The report previously cited contains an analytical review of the 

 palasontological relations of the Anticosti rocks, and descriptions 

 of a large number of new species of Silurian fossils, principally 

 crinoids, cystideans, and star fishes, from the Trenton limestone, 

 and mollusca from Anticosti. 



In August, 1857, the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science held its annual meeting in Montreal, and every 

 effort was made both by Sir W. Logan and Mr. Billings to make 

 as creditable display as possible of the collections in the Survey 

 Museum for the inspection of the expected visitors. Among the 

 eminent men of science who attended this meeting was Prof. A' 

 Ramsay, of the Geological Survey of Great Britain, who was 

 deputed to represent the Geological Society of London, and 

 whose acquaintance Mr. Billings then made for the first time. 

 The months of September and October, 1857, were employed in 

 two short collecting expeditions. In the first, the Black River 



* Geological Survey of Canada, Keport of Progress for the years 

 1853-54-55-56, page 247. 



