So 



NA TURE 



[November 23, 1899 



A short geological account of the various sands and 

 gravels obtained is given by Mr, R. H. Worth, together 

 with a determination of the CaCOg (which in these 

 deposits is nearly air of organic origin) in deposits of 

 varying degrees of fineness. Several partial analyses of 

 silts are also given. 



Mr. Allen clearly appreciates the great importance of 

 the character of the silt, which forms so large a part of 

 the food of many creatures living on the sea-bottom, and 

 it is to be hoped that in course of time he may be able 

 to attempt a systematic survey of the silts in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Plymouth, so as to tell us not only more 

 about their chemical composition, but more about their 

 physical character, and about the organisms they contain. 

 He has already made an important advance in our 

 knowledge by showing that "coccoliths" occur in 

 shallow water deposits very much more frequently than 

 has hitherto been believed ; but many other organisms, 

 such for example as the the various bacteria which exist 

 in these deposits, are likely to be of considerable im- 

 portance as part of the biological environment ; and of 

 these we know practically nothing. 



Having given a detailed description of the nature of 

 the sea-bottom at eighteen selected places in the small 

 area dealt with, Mr. Allen gives a complete list of the 

 species obtained at each locality as the result of a number 

 of dredgings, together with an estimate of the relative 

 abundance of the various species. This complicated 

 information has been admiraloly digested, and it is so 

 tabulated that the reader can see with very little trouble 

 the relation between the abundance of any species and 

 the character of the bottom deposits or of the fauna of 

 adjacent localities. 



The work is deliberately limited to a small area, where 

 the conditions of life are tolerably uniform throughout, 

 and statements are made which lead one to hope that 

 this is only a first instalment of a more extended survey. 



Every one who cares about the problems of marine 

 zoology will hope that Mr. Allen may be able before very 

 long to publish his promised account of the region 

 between the thirty-fathom line and the shore, so that the 

 relation between the littoral fauna and the fauna he has 

 now described may be determined. As it stands, how- 

 ever, his work is a solid and valuable contribution to a 

 kind of knowledge which must be largely increased 

 before we can hope to understand the bionomics of 

 the sea. 



THE OLD RED SANDSTONE OF SHETLAND. 

 'TP HOUGH abounding in ill-preserved plant remains, 

 -•- the Old Red Sandstone rocks of Shetland have 

 hitherto yielded none of those characteristic fossil fishes 

 which would enable us to compare them with rocks of 

 similar age elsewhere in Scotland. On the general 

 evidence of lithological features and the supposed 

 identity of their respective floras, they have been regarded 

 usually as a northward extension of the " Orcadian" beds 

 of Caithness and the Orkneys. Two years ago Mr. John 

 S. Flett, M.B., B.Sc, of Edinburgh University, was able 

 to report that he had found certain obscure fish remains 

 in Shetland, and, this summer, assisted by a grant from 

 the Royal Society of London to defray the expenses of 

 quarrying, he has succeeded in obtaining a number of 

 undoubted fish-remains from the flag-stones of Brissay, 

 near Lerwick. In this collection, which consists mostly 

 of broken and detached plates. Dr. R. H. Traquair, 

 F.R.S., has recognised fragments of an Asterolepis 

 (probably a new species) and of Holonema, a fish new 

 to Britain, but occurring in the Chemung (Upper 

 Devonian) of North America. A full description of 

 these will, no doubt, shortly be forthcoming. In the 

 meantime, it seems certain that the fauna of these beds 



NO. 1569, VOL. 6f] 



is distinct from any fauna of Old Red age at present 

 known in Britain, and, until more fully investigated, its 

 horizon remains open to question ; but Mr. Flett inclines 

 to believe that its real position will turn out to be inter- 

 mediate between the John-o'-Groat's beds (the highest 

 of the Orcndian series of the Orkneys) and the true 

 Upper Old Red of Moray and Elgin. The genus 

 Asterolepis, so characteristic of the Upper Old Red, was 

 shown by him two years ago to occur also in the Thurso 

 beds of the Orkneys, and the general forms of the 

 Shetland flora would indicate a connection with the 

 Orcadian. Nevertheless, the whole aspect of the fauna 

 is Upper Old Red ; not one of the commoner Orcadian 

 fishes has been obtained in Shetland. An interesting 

 problem is opened up by these discoveries, to which it is 

 to be hoped further investigations will furnish a definite 

 solution. 



SIR I. WILLIAM DAWSON, C.M.G., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., &-C. 



NEWS has been received of the death of Sir William 

 Dawson, Emeritus Principal and Chancellor of 

 McGill University, Montreal, and the most distinguished 

 of Canadian geologists. He was the son of James 

 Dawson, of Picton, a town on the northern shores of 

 Nova Scotia, where he was born in October 1820. 



Coming to this country in early youth he studied at 

 the University of Edinburgh, and gained a knowledge 

 of geology and allied sciences from Robert Jameson, 

 then Regius Professor of Natural History. Returning to 

 his native land, Dawson became Superintendent of 

 Education in Nova Scotia from 1850 to 1853 ; and later 

 on Professor of Geology and Principal of McGill Col- 

 lege and University 1855 to 1893. 



On his return to Nova Scotia he directed his attention 

 with the greatest enthusiasm to the study of geology, 

 for as early as 1845 we find him communicating to the 

 Geological Society of London papers on the Coal-forma- 

 tion of the country. To this formation for many years 

 he gave especial study. In company with Sir Charles 

 Lyell he made in 1852 a detailed examination of the fine 

 succession of " fossil forests " of the Coal-period in the 

 cliffs of South Joggins. Together they obtained also 

 the first remains in the Coal-measures of an " air- 

 breathing reptile," named Dendrerpeton, which was found 

 in the interior of one of the erect Sigillariae ; a single 

 species of land-shell. Pupa vetusta, was found in the 

 same situation. 



Zealously pursuing his observations, Dawson was 

 enabled to issue in 1855 his well-known work entitled 

 " Acadian Geology : an account of the Geological Struc- 

 ture and Mineral Resources of Nova Scotia." A third 

 edition of this work was published in 1878. 



In 1854 he became a Fellow of the Geological Society 

 of London, and it is noteworthy that all his leading dis- 

 coveries, before and afterwards, were brought before this 

 Society. His contributions to geological science were 

 many, and though dealing largely with fossil plants, with 

 footprints and impressions of various animals, he also 

 wrote concerning the higher forms of life, and devoted 

 much attention to the phenomena of the Glacial period. 



In 1862 Dawson was elected a Fellow of the Royal 

 Society. Two years later his name was rendered familiar 

 to every student of geology by the announcement of the 

 discovery of an organism in the oldest known rocks, the 

 Laurentian of Canada. As early as 1859 Sir William 

 Logan had expressed his opinion that traces of organic 

 structure were to be found in Laurentian limestone ; but 

 it was not until 1864 that Dr. Dawson determined by 

 the aid of the microscope that the structure was that 

 of a Foraminifer. He then gave to the "fossil" the 

 name Eozoon Canadense, and his opinion was strongly 



