296 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Vol. viiL 



gence. Mr. Milne Home has recently directed attention to many- 

 facts of similar import which are being- accumulated in Great 

 Britain and in Norway. Geologists are thus beginning to realize 

 the evidence of a prevalence of the sea over the Northern hemis- 

 phere in the most recent of the geological periods ; which at one 

 time they would have regarded with the utmost scepticism. 



While noticing these papers, I would also direct attention to 

 the evidence which they afford as to the action of sea-borne ice 

 as distinguished from that of glaciers; and in connection with 

 this it is important to note the influence attributed to floating 

 pack ice and " pan ice " by the officers of the late Arctic expedi- 

 tion, as well as by Prof. Hind and by Prof. Milne in recent papers 

 in the Geological Magazine. On the other hand the observations 

 of Hellond on the glaciers of Greenland, published in the Geolo- 

 gical Magazine, state the interesting fact that one of the great 

 glaciers of that country flows seaward at the surprising rate of 

 20 metres in a day, and gives off a vast abundance of bergs, more 

 or less laden with earthy matter and boulders. A fact like this 

 helps us to understand the gigantic furrows ploughed by some 

 of the old local glaciers of the Laurentian hills, and of which the 

 sluggish glaciers of the modern Alps afford no adequate explana- 

 tion. 



All these new facts tend to strengthen the conclusion that 

 general submergence and the action of floating ice and of local 

 o-laciers afford the causes at work in the so-called glacial age. 



In the department of Zoology we have reason to congratulate 

 ourselves on the communication of Dr. Osier on the Fresh-water 

 Polyzoa of Canada. These remarkable and interesting animals, 

 though abundant in our canals and ponds and slower streams, 

 have as yet received little attention. The contribution of Dr. 

 Osier brought under our notice several species ; some of them 

 forming communities of considerable size, and all of them of very 

 great interest and beauty. 



Our attention was called by Dr. Carpenter to the subject of 

 Zoological nomenclature, in connection with a circular issued by 

 Mr. Dalle on behalf of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. With the replies prepared by Dr. Carpenter 

 most of us I think in the main agree ; and while we regard as 

 very reprehensible many of the eccentricities of genus-makers 

 and species-makers, more concerned to gaiu credit to themselves 

 than to advance the interests of science, we equally reprobate the 



