108 Miscellaneous. 



ouly their geological history elucidated, but their height above the 

 sea-level and the depth at which their water-bearing zones can be 

 reached are ascertained. 



jSJuch careful labour has been given to this research, and a Radio- 

 lariau zone has been met with in the Millwood series at the Bell 

 River in Porcupine Mountain, and the North-pine Creek in Duck 

 Mountain. Dr. D. llust, of Hanover, will describe and figure these 

 microzoa for the Geological Survey of Canada. Abundant porarain- 

 ifera occur in the Niobrara division ; upwards of twenty s]>ecies are 

 enumerated, some of which have been named for Mr. Tyrrell by Mr. 

 C. D. Sherborn, P.G.S., of Loudon. There are also coccoliths and 

 rliabdoliths. Prisms of Inoceramus in some cases compose the rock, 

 and particles of oyster-shell and fragments of teeth and scales of 

 fishes are also present. The Foraminiferal Niobrara limestone is 

 underlain by the dark grey Beuton shales, containing a large amount 

 of bituminous matter, with flakes and crystalline masses of selenite. 

 The sands and clays of the Dakota formation, or basal saudstone of 

 the Cretaceous series throughout the district, lie uncouformably on 

 the eroded surface of Palaeozoic limestones and shales. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



A Test Case for the Law of Priority. By P. Jeffrey Bell. 



Pr is now recognized by, I think, every student of Echinoderms that 

 the tenth edition of Linna^us's ' Systema Natura^ ' is that which is to 

 be cited. Those who, like myself, were content to accept the 

 instructions of the British Association Code, were forced to adopt 

 tJie more reasonable and general rule that the tenth edition, and not 

 the twelfth, should be cited by the publication of Prof. Loveu's essay 

 on the Echinoidea described by Linnanis. 



1 make, then, my major premiss, " the tenth edition of Linnaeus is 

 to be quoted." 



Ikly minor cannot be subject to discussion ; it is the mere state- 

 ment of a fact : — All the species placed by Linnaeus in the genus 

 Hohtlmria in the Avork cited are pelagic llydroids or Tunicates. 



The conclusion is obvious: the generic name Uolvthuria must not be 

 ap])lird to any " Holothurian," which, as an emiueut geometer 

 remarked, is absurd. 



This is not the first occasion on which strict adhoroucc to logic 

 has landed the dialectician in, to say the least, an untenable posi- 

 tion. ]Iow shall one escape? 



It will probably be told me that if I woidJ only e>bey rules laid 

 down for me by my betters I should not have got into this scrape. 



Let us see. In the twelfth edition (^I7t>7) Linnanis includes 

 frondom, i>l>ijfuJis, and thalia, as well as others, in the genus — that 



