56 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



Macoma inflata, Stimp. Buccinum Groenlandicum, Hanc. 



Cylichna nucleola, Reeve. cyaneum, Brug. 



Buccinum glaciale, Linn. Tottenii, Stimp. 



The three last named ppecies of Buccinum are quoted ou the 

 authority of Dr. Stimpson. The Terebratella has been referred 

 to the T. Lahradorensis of Sowerby. Having seen recent speci- 

 mens of this shell from Halifax, N. S., and fossil examples from 

 Riviere-du-Lonp, it seems to me to come nearer to Davidson's 

 Terehratella Spitzhergensis. 



At depths as great as fifty fiithoms and upwards in Gaspe Bay, 

 the mud or sand brought up by the dredge, even in July and 

 August, is icy cold. It is not improbable that in this bay one of 

 the branches of the cold northerly arctic current may 

 flow. An experiment made by Dr. Fortin of trying to 

 naturalize oysters in Gaspe Bay seems to have failed. Oysters 

 are very sensitive to cold, and not only does extreme cold exist at 

 the bottom in deep water all the year round, but the surface is 

 frozen over along the shore during the winter. 



The marine mollusca of the River and Gulf of the St. Lawrence 

 are remarkable, first, for the extreme antiquity of many of the 

 species, and secondly, for their wide geogTaphical range. The 

 majority of them belong to an arctic or sub-arctic fauna, which is 

 to a large extent circumpolar. In time, some date^back to a 

 period as old as that in which the European coralline crag was 

 deposited, and during the formation of the European tertiaries and 

 post-pliocene beds, many species lived in the seas of Great 

 Britain, etc., which are now extinct there but which still live on 

 the western side of the Atlantic. There may be perhaps, in 

 addition to this, a small local assemblage consisting of species 

 apparently of a more recent date of creation and confined to a 

 comparatively limited area. Nearly all of the Greenland shells 

 will probably be yet detected in the River and Gulf of the 

 St. Lawrence. "When we possess more definite information as to 

 the geographical distribution of the living marine invertebrates 

 of the Dominion, we shall be better able to understand the con- 

 ditions under which the Canadian post-pliocene beds were 

 deposited. And further, a careful comparison is still required 

 between the recent invertebrates of the northern seas, and the 

 fossils of the tertiary and post tertiary beds of Europe and North 

 America. Not only would the results of such investigations add 

 to our knowledge of physical geology, and help to form a key 



