406 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [Dee. 



inches to fifteen feet in length. The largest extremity, most prob- 

 ably the base, is pointed or conical, expanding for a few inches, 

 and then, usually, becoming more slender. From this part up- 

 wards the body of the fossil either tapers very gradually or remains 

 cylindrical throughout. The upper extremity appears to be 

 abruptly truncated, and to have a central cup, similar to that of 

 the ordinary cyathophylloid corals, but without radiating septa. 

 The surface is either smooth, longitudinally grooved, irregu- 

 larly corrugated, or covered with small nodular projections. These 

 markings, in most of the specimens, run in nearly straight lines 

 from end to end, but sometimes they have a spiral arrangement, as 

 represented above, in fig. 1. There appears to be also a thin, 

 minutely perforated epidermis. 



The internal structure consists of a central tube running the 

 whole length and divided into numerous compartments by con- 

 cave transverse septa ; outside of this a thick layer of vesicular 

 tissue composed of small sub-lenticular or irregularly concavo-con- 

 vex cells — the convex side of each cell being always turned out- 

 wards. This outer vesicular area is usually arranged in a number 

 of concentric layers, of variable thickness, like those of an ex- 

 ogenous tree. Occasionally, specimens are found in which this 

 lamellar structure cannot be detected. The central tube is from 

 one-third of an inch to fifteen lines in diameter ; the outer vesi- 

 cular area from one-fourth of an inch to five or six inches in thick- 

 ness. There does not seem to be any constant proportion between 

 the two — for specimens of two inches have the central tube as large 

 as it is in those of twelve inches in diameter. 



In polished transverse sections, of those individuals which have 

 the surface smooth, the concentric layers of the outer vesicular 

 tissue are seen as so many uniformly circular or ovate rings. But 

 when the surface is corrugated or tuberculated, the rings are undu- 

 lated, so that the form of the external ridges or tubercles is re- 

 peated on each ring, sometimes nearly to the centre. 



The true character of the cup, at the smaller extremity, has not 

 yet been ascertained with the certainty that is to be desired. 

 Indeed it seems to be rarely preserved ; for although large collec- 

 tions have been made of these fossils, and Mr. Weston, who visited 

 Anticosti last summer, made a special search for this part, only 

 three specimens have been collected which give any clue to its 

 form. One of these is a fragment four inches in length and twenty 

 lines in diameter. When slit in two, longitudinally, by the lapi- 



