PLEISTOCENE FOSSILS. 233 



Recent — Everywhere on the coasts of the gulf and river St. 

 Lawrence, as a common littoral shell. I have found it as far up the 

 river as Kamouraska. 



A thin and delicate variety with smooth epidermis is found in the 

 Leda clay ; coarser and more wrinkled varieties in the Saxicava sand. 

 Larger specimens are found at Quebec and Riviere-du-Loup than more 

 inland. 



In the modern Gulf, the small and depauperated varieties are 

 littoral and near the brackish water, the finer varieties passing into 

 Macoma fiisca of Say, which is a southern variety, are found on the 

 coast of Nova Scotia and in the bay of Fundy. This shell is repre- 

 sented in the European seas and Post-pliocene deposits by the closely 

 allied species M. so'idida or Balthica, which seems to pass through a 

 corresponding series of varieties, but to be distinct. On the western 

 American coast it is similarly represented by M. inconspicua. Mr. 

 Tryon and Mr. Whiteaves believe the three forms to be conspecific. 



It is said to be the Tellina Fabvicii of Hanley, and I have specimens 

 from Greenland from Morch labelled T. tenera. The T. tenera of 

 L3ach, however, is proxima, Brown, teste Hanley. It is apparently 

 the Venus fragills of Fabricius. 



It is one of the most common and abundant shells of the Pleis- 

 tocene, as it is of the American coast from Greenland to New 

 England. 



Macoma calcarea. Chemnitz. 



Fossil— Leda and boulder-clays ; Montreal ; Quebec ; Murray Bay ; 

 Riviere-du-Loup ; Anticosti ; New Richmond ; Goose River ; Chau- 

 diere Station; Duck Cove, St. John, N.B. (Matthew); Maine ; Labra- 

 dor ; Greenland (Moller) ; also European Pleistocene. 



Recent— Little Metis ; Gaspa ; Riviere-du-Loup ; Arctic seas gener- 

 ally, and on the American coast south to Massachusetts. 



This shell is extremely abundant in the Leda and boulder-clays, and 

 often occurs in the clay with the valves attached. It is also of large 

 size and in fine condition, especially at Riviere-du-Loup. It is Tellina 

 proxima, Brown, T. sabidosa, Spengler, and T. sordida of Couthuoy, 

 According to Hanley, the T. lata of Gmelin was founded on a figure 

 of this shell. British Columbia. 



Macoma injlata. Stimpson. 



Fossil— Montreal ; Riviere-du-Loup. Rare. 



Recent— Murray Bay ; and dredged in deeper parts of the gulf of 

 St. Lawrence by Mr. Whiteaves. 



