no ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



John grou]). has u small passage only ; Inil these fossils are preserved 

 in calcium phosphate and the diameter of the ])a8sage through the tube 

 has been reduced l)y an incrustation of colloid ])hosj)hate. We are there- 

 fore comjjelled still to regard these tubes as dwellings or the appendages 

 of some gasteropod, or of that still more ancient ty]K\ the Worm. 



These rods are very common in and around the shells of the Ilyo- 

 lithidiv, they not infrequently occur close outside of these shells and 

 ]»arnllel to them ; in the interior of llyolithoid shells they are irregularly 

 and confusedly imbedded. They have l)een seen to diverge in groups of 

 two or three from the lateral angles of the mouth of Orthotheca bayonet, 

 and singly from the oral end of the low ridges on the doi-sal side of that 

 species ; still these occurrences may be accidental. All that can be said 

 in reference to the origin of these rods is that they appear to be sub- 

 sidiary parts of another, but as yet undetermined organism. 



While 1 have no doubt that Mr. Walcott has referred objects of this 

 kind to Hyolithellus, especially when sjjeaking of the fossils of Manuel's 

 Brook, it is not likel}' that Billings had these alone in view when he 

 desciibed Hyolithellus micans. It seems preferable, however, to retain 

 his name for these slender rods with shining surfaces that occur so plen- 

 tifully in the earliest Cambrian and the Etchcminian strata. 



Hyolithellus (?) flexuosis (PI. V., tig. 9). 

 Hyolithdltts {i) ftexuosiis, Nat. Hist. Soc. N.B., Bull, xviii., p. 1SJ2, p. i., fig. 9. 



A small slender tube. The proximal part is very slender, straight 

 and hyaline, this enlarges somewhat abruptly into a terete opaque tube, 

 which is curved in one or more planes. 



Sculpture. — The surface is smooth ; no growth lines were observed- 



Size. — Full length unknown, 7 mm. or more. Diameter near the 

 proximal end about ^ mm., at 6 mm. fi'om that end J mm. Raie of 

 taper of the known part 1 to W. Infrequent. 



This species is not far from the size of Hyolithes lœvigatus, Linrs. 

 (Torellella, Holm) and has a similarly flexed tube ; but it differs from that 

 species in having a calcareous tube, and in being circular in cross section. 



Hyolithes caudatus of Id of the St. John Group has a flexible proximal 

 tube, but it has not been traced down to the long slender larval tube of 

 this species, and the upper part of its tube diffei-s. 



It soems to me not impossible that some of the objects which Mr. 

 Walcott has referred to //. micans, may belong to this sjiecies, as for 

 instance that figured la of Plate Ixxix. of the '" Olenellus Zone" Fauna. 



The slender cylindrical hyaline tube at the proximal end of this 

 species indicates a membranaceous tube for the larval stage, or one of 

 extremely attenuated chitin. Several of these tubes were observed in 

 the limestone, whose connection with an enlarged tube was nol ap])arent ; 

 they were all of about the same size. 



