278 



CHAPTER XVI. 

 THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD— Continued. 



THE MARINE FOSSILS OF THE CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONES. 



The short list of those published in the first edition of " Acadian 

 Geology " was derived principally from that given by Sir C. Lyell in 

 his " Travels in North America," on the authority of M. De Verneuil, 

 who examined the collections made by Sir Charles. This list was, 

 however, necessarily very imperfect ; and since it was prepared, a large 

 amount of additional material has accumulated, and some important 

 investigations have been made. In 1862, being aware that Mr T. 

 Davidson was engaged in the examination of British Carboniferous 

 Brachiopods for the Palaeontographical Society, I sent to that eminent 

 palaeontologist, the best living authority on Brachiopods, a collection 

 of these shells, representing all the species known to me, and he very 

 kindly undertook their examination along with those in Sir C. Lyell's 

 collection. The results were given to the world in an able memoir in 

 the Proceedings of the Geological Society of London for 1863. This 

 was an important step in advance ; but the other fossils, not Brachio- 

 pods, still remained untouched. In the meantime, Professor How of 

 Windsor, and his pupil, H. Poole, Esq., jun., had made some interesting 

 discoveries at Windsor and Kennetcook, and a new Trilobite from the 

 latter place, sent to me by the former gentleman, was described by Mr 

 Billings in the Canadian Naturalist, under the name Phillipsia Howi. 

 About the same time, Mr C. F. Hartt undertook the work of collecting 

 carefully and systematically at Windsor and Stewiacke ; and not only 

 found several new species, but developed characteristic differences in 

 the fossils of the successive limestones of the Windsor section. Mr 

 Hartt proposed to prepare for publication the results of these researches, 

 and has written a paper on the subject for the Canadian Naturalist ; 

 but a voyage to Brazil and subsequent engagements have prevented 

 him from completing the task of describing and fully cataloguing the 

 species. In these circumstances, I have been obliged to prepare such 

 a list as was possible under the circumstances. It is much in advance 

 of that previously given, and will, I trust, aid materially in subsequent 



