594 THE UPPER SILURIAN. 



above mentioned ; and that as population and enterprise increase, 

 they will become important mining and manufacturing districts. 



The soils of this district are in general good. They produce in 

 their natural state a fine growth of hardwood timber, sufficient for 

 a long time to supply the demands of the shipyards and iron furnaces, 

 and when cultivated they are remarkably favourable to the growth 

 of hay and grain crops. They are well supplied with lime and 

 phosphates ; and when deep are less easily exhausted than most other 

 kinds of upland. Hence in the more fertile parts of these hills, as 

 in Southern Horton, Earlton, New Annan, the PIctou Hills, Lochaber, 

 and Northern Cape Breton, there are fine and flourishing agricultural 

 settlements, which, in spite of a climate a little more rigorous, are 

 advancing more rapidly in wealth than most of the lower districts. 



Fossils of the Upper Silurian. 



Under this head I give the descriptions of ncAV species published 

 by Professor Hall in 1860, and notices of additional species since 

 obtained, including the Palceaster described by Mr Billings, and species 

 mentioned by INIr Salter as occurring among Dr Honeyman's 

 specimens submitted to him, also the specimens communicated to 

 me by Professor Bailey in 1867. 



1. Radiata. 



Stenopora, allied to S. fibrosa. East River, Arisaig. 



Favosites Gothlandica^ Lin. Dalhousie, Professor Bailey. 



Favosites pohjmorpha, Goldfuss. Dalhousie, Professor Bailey. 



Favosites basaltica, Goldfuss. Dalhousie, Professor Bailey. 



Helopora fragilis, Hall, var. Acadiensis. Arisaig, coll. J. W. D. 



Zaphrentis^ n. s., identical, according to Mr Billings, with a species 

 from Port Daniel. Dalhousie, Professor Bailey. 



AstroQerium pyriforme, Hall. New Canaan, coll. J. W. D. 



Astrocericum venustum, Hall. New Canaan, coll. J. W. D. 



Heliolites, allied to H. elegans. New Canaan, coll. J. W. D. 



Petraia Forresteri, Honeyman, Arisaig. I have seen no descrip- 

 tion or figure of this species. 



Dictyonema Websteri, Dawson. Beech Hill (for desci'iption and 

 figure see p. 163, supra). 



Palceaster parviuscidiis, Billings (Fig. 197). The specimen is 

 about six lines in diameter. The rays are two lines in length and 

 one line and a half in width at the base, tapering at an angle of a 

 little less than 45°. The five oral plates are sub-pentagonal, about 

 half a line m width. The first adambulacral plates of each pair of 



