452 NOTES OX DR. AMI'S PAPER ON DICTYONEMA SLATES POOLE. 



It certainly is new to place these Dictyonema beds as 

 Cambrian, and it is not easy to understand how Dr. Ami came 

 to change the views he expressed before the Royal Society in 

 1900, without visiting the locality, unless he has been influenced 

 by the examination lately made by Mr. H. Fletcher. I .should 

 like to know what Mr. Fletcher has to say of the stratigraphy 

 and the age of these fossils. I know he has suspected some 

 rocks in this locality to be Cambrian, and that he got Mr. 

 Faribault to go over the ground with him. Mr. Faribault, as 

 we all know, has for years made a study of the Cambrian in 

 Nova Scotia, and has written a bulletin of the greatest practical 

 value to miners, on the structure of these rocks and the manner 

 of occurrence in them of auriferous leads and paystreaks. So 

 much has this pamphlet been appreciated that our Mining 

 Society has issued nearly 1000 copies to miners, engineers and 

 students. I may also say I hestitate to accept Dr. Ami's interpre- 

 tation of the paragraph he quotes from " Acadian Geology," in 

 which Sir W. Dawson says : " These slates . . . are continued in 

 the hills of New Canaan, where they contain crinoidal joints, 

 fossil shells, corals, and in some beds of fawn-colored slate, beau- 

 tiful fanlike expansions of the pretty Dictyonema." Therefore 

 before accepting a supposition that he meant otherwise than he 

 wrote, I would like to know the views of Mr. Fletcher. Prof. 

 Haycock, of Wolfville, has been with Mr. Fietcher in this field, 

 and has besides made explorations on his own account. What 

 are his views ? If the crinoid, shell and coral beds mentioned 

 are associated with the Dictyonema beds, the series of fossils 

 they probably yield should determine beyond doubt the age 

 of Dictyonema Websteri. These associate fossils are not 

 enumerated. 



Sir W. Dawson, it is true, spoke of them as Upper Silurian, 

 but then he clasaed the overlying beds of Bear River as 

 Devonian. Dr. Honeyman put them down as Lower Silurian, 

 and the overlying beds as Upper Silurian, and thus maintained 

 the same relative positions. 



Dr. Ami quotes from his " Synopsis of the Geology of 

 Canada," in which many references are made to Nova Scotian 



