50 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



At the end of the article is the description of the new species 

 of insect — a Thysanuran. 



Of the two objects referred to above, the most ancient fossil is 

 that lately described by Dr. J. C. Moburg, from the Lower 

 Graptolite schists (Arenig age) of Sweden, and supposed to be the 

 wing of a bug. This fossil is very much older that those of the 

 Canadian strata, but the characters are obscure ; and although 

 several Swedish and Finnish naturalists, who have seen the fossil, 

 are inclined to concur in Dr. Moburg's statement that it is the 

 wing of a Hemipter, or Bug, the object is not very clearly of 

 this origin, and the confirmatory evidence of other organisms of 

 a similar kind, is lacking. Its occurrence in Graptolite schists, 

 wliich are open ocean deposits, is also against the view that it is 

 an organism of the land. If such, it must have floated out to 

 sea a long distance, and have escaped the sharp eyes and hungry 

 maws of the scavengers of the deep. 



Elsewhere in the world there has been one other object found 

 which is claimed to be an insect wing of great antiquity. A 

 figure of this fossil is given in the accompanying plate, and it 

 seems to be of about equal age with the insect remains at St. John. 

 This fossil is the Pahmblattina Douvillei of C. Brongniart from 

 Calvados in France. Mons. Brongniart considers it to be the 

 wing of an ancient cockroach, and in a general way it seems to 

 be similar in venation to wings of that family of insects ; but the 

 peculiar way in which the anal and interno-median veins become 

 confluent along the lower border of the supposed wing, is unusual 

 in ordinary insects. In this case, as in that in Sweden, there 

 is no confirmatory evidence from associated animals, or sur- 

 rounding conditions, to show that this object is the wing of an 

 ancient cockroach. 



The real significance of the primitive land-fauna in the beds 

 at St. John will l)e better appreciated if we sketch briefly the 

 physical conditions of the early Paheozoic time in Acadia (the 

 Maritime Provinces of Canada.) It would seem that the oscil- 

 lations of the surface of the eaith in this n^gion had a i-ule of 

 their own, different from tliat in Europe, so that the geological 

 terraiies here do not correspond to the geological systems of 



