27 
natural resources of this Domimion. Again, I have seen it mentioned, a few 
days ago, that we were to have a national museum, something after the style of 
the British Museum, or the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Concern- 
ing this I do not know, but I am aware of the fact that the Government contem- 
plates making a collection of the curiosities, if we might so term them, peculiar 
to the Indian tribes in North America. There is a very large collection now in 
British Columbia, and at Fort Pelly, under the control of the Department of the 
Interior, and I think it is the intention of the present Premier to have these 
articles brought here to form a nucleus for such a collection, and the day is not 
far distant when the Government of Canada may undertake the construction 
and formation of an institution such as the United States has in the Smithsonian 
Institution, and Great Britain in the British Museum. Before entering upon the 
description of this animal, I wish to draw your attention to the section in 
which we are now living. * e a 7 
‘Of the strata which form the rock structure in the neighborhood of Ottawa 
City, the Trenton beds possess the greatest degree of interest, as far as the re- 
mains of animal and vegetable life are concerned. For convenience of descrip- 
tion, the silurian rocks of Canada are divided into three—upper, middle and 
lower silurian. ‘The latter are designated as Trenton by Ur. Hall, of the New 
York Geological Survey, and the term has been adopted by the Geological 
Survey of Canada. From this rockbed the late Mr. Billings made his world- 
wide reputation. Prior to his labors little was known of Canadian Cystidew, 
and the decades of the Canadian Geological Survey form a record alike credit- 
able to Canada and the name of one so closely identified wita field-naturalists’ 
work in this particular section of country. Oystidew are known as a family of 
Silurian echinoderms, so called from their spherical or bladder-like form, In the 
primeval seas, they constituted the representatives of the sea-urchins of the 
secondary, tertiary and current epochs, and appear to have been furnished with a 
short foot-stock, and not to have been free moving, like the Cidaris or Echinus. 
According to the late Mr, Forbes, they are supposed to have affinities with the 
Crinoids on the one hand, and the sea-urchins on the other, and covered, like 
the Liiy Enchrinites, with a coat of mail, richly ornamented, in many instances, 
with radiating ridges, or striae. In 1843, Mr. Channing drew the attention of 
British geologists to these rare forms of life. many fragments of which were col- 
lected by the British Geologic:] Survey of that date, and particularly in the ex- 
plorations in South Wales. At this date comparatively little was known either 
as to the organizaticn or zoological affinities of Cystidew. In 1845, Von Buch, 
of Berlin, investigated carefully the peculiarities of cystidee, the result of which 
has been much valuable information on these forms of life so rich in the neigh- 
borhood of Ottawa, 
Anatomy of Cystideee —Their structure is that of a more or less spherical 
body, with a column and arms. The body is covered with polygonal 
plates, closely fitting together, so as to invest the animal with a coat of mail, 
except at four points—superiorly at the mouth, inferiorly at the attachment of 
the stem to the body, centrally at the opening of the reproductive organs, 
which are generally covered by valves, and at an opening near the mouth, 
considered the termination of the alimentary canal, ‘The body of the British 
species is usually small compared with the Canadian species, which vary 
in length and breadth from an inch and a half to two inches, and vary 
considerably as to shaps, viz: globular, oval, pyriform, conical or subcy- 
lindrical. The plates are divided into three classes:—1st. Those which 
‘are definite in arrangement, and remain constant throughout the life of the 
animal, the shell enlarging, as muscular fibre enlarges, by the growth of 
the original plates, with the addition of new ones; 2nd. Those not defi- 
nite in arrangement, or constant throughout the life of the animal, growth 
being effected by the enlargement of the old plates, as well as by the introduc- 
