4 
It is difficult to account for the presence of these marine forms, none of 
which, with a single exception, has been previously found in the inland lakes of 
Canada or elsewhere. The exception is in the case of the genus Chaetoceras, a 
species of which has been found by Mr. Boyer of Philadelphia in the waters of 
the Devil’s Lake of Nevada, also a saline lake, and which has been described 
and figured by him under the name of Chaetoceras Elmoret. It closely resembles, 
but is apparently not identical with that of the Quill Lakes, and is more fully 
described below. 
It has been suggested that the occurrence of these marine types at a point 
so remote from the sea and wholly disconnected with the latter may be due to 
the agency of migratory birds, which are. known to sometimes carry organisms 
of different kinds to long distances, but in this instance we have to consider 
not a few isolated individuals but large communities, the forms of Chaetoceras 
being present by the thousand, as are the Surirellas, which constitute the most 
abundant as they are the most conspicuous of the species present, while the 
others, though less numerous, are by no means rare. It is evident that the 
Quill Lakes are their natural home, as further indicated by the fact that they 
include reproductive as well as vegetative specimens. If the agency of birds 
in transportation be accepted as the explanation of their presence it will follow 
that these brought only a few individuals as the original stock, and these, being 
active, continued to multiply under the favourable conditions afforded by the 
salinity of the lakes. The only other supposition would seem to be that they 
are survivals of a time when the sea actually covered the region in which they 
are found, possibly in some one ‘of the inter-glacial periods. In the case of the 
Devil's Lake in Utah, which contains a similar Chaetoceras, this is known to be 
of glacial origin, but that the same is the case with the Quill Lakes has not yet 
been ascertained. . 
Another feature of interest in connection with the Quill Lake gatherings 
is that of the species present at least two, and perhaps three, are believed to be 
either entirely new or new varieties of species already known. These are the 
following: 
Surirella Batleyana MACKAY oR S. striatula VAR. Batleyana McK. 
(Plate I, Figs. 3 to 5). 
Valve broadly ovate, in length from 100 to 185 microns and in breadth 
varying from 30 to 65 mu. Often twisted, the twist sometimes confined to the 
narrower end but often involving the entire frustule as in S. spiralis Kutz, or 
S. torquata Pant. Canaliculi distant, 7 to 13 on each side, large and conspicuous, 
also more or less twisted from a branching symmetry, rectangular to the axis 
in central portion of the valve, but curving outward toward either extremity. 
Marginal area strongly lobed. Striation fine, showing lines from 15 to 20 in 
ten microns, with a marginal row of small points more distant along the outer 
margin of each lobe. Zonal view showing strong transverse ribs, alternating 
with small dots. 
158 
