r — 



66 



CANADIAN FOSSILS. 



was right, and consequently, that a great quantity of fragments of a large 

 species of Eurypterm have been entombed in one of the shales associated, 

 with the coal-bed near Tar Point. 



(^Fmdogen f) 



125. Noeggeraihia Grilboensis, Dn. — Proc. Geol. Socy., 1871. 



This is a rhombic-obovate leaf with a broad base and radiating nerves 

 or plicae, with finer striae between them. It is 3i*o inches long and 2i 

 inches broad. It was collected by Rev. Mr. Lockwood, in Gilboa, New 

 York. Its affinities are very uncertain. 



(2.) Vegetable Fossils of the Upper Silurian Limestones of Gaspi. 



These limestones immediately underlie the Gaspd Sandstones, and 

 constitute the Peninsula of Cape Gasp^, in which they are admirably 

 exposed. According to the measurements of Sir W. E. Logan they are 

 2000 feet in thickness. They consist of pure and earthy limestones^ 

 alternating with shaly bands, and rest unconformably on the shales of the 

 Quebec Group (Lower Silurian). Their fossils, as examined by Mr. 

 Billings, indicate that they are of the age of the Lower Helderberg Group 

 of New York, equivalent to the Ludlow of English geologists. 



The Gasp^ Limestones are, throughout their whole thickness, essentially 

 marine ; and many of the beds, especially in the upper part, are loaded 

 with animal fossils, principally corals and shells of Brachiopoda. Here 

 and there remains of plants occur, but so rarely that they ^ould perhaps 

 have been scarcely noticed but for the excellent exposure of the rocks. 

 They are principally fucoids, and these chiefly of two kinds. (1.) The 

 remarkable spiral fronds of the geaus Spirophyton, Hall, the Fucoide» 

 Cauda-galli of the earlier New York reports. These occur principally in 

 some of the lower beds, though they extend upward into the bottom 

 beds of the Devonian Sandstones. (2.) Tortuous linear fronds or stems, 

 probably originally cylindrical, sometimes smooth, and in other cases 

 presenting a scaly appearance, which, however, seems to be due to the 

 arrangement of laminae of fine Sediment filling the interior of the moulds 

 left by the stems. These scaly markings are sometimes so regular as to 

 give the appearance of the Liassic fucoids to which Brongniart has given 

 the name Phgmatoderma, and which Schimper compares to species of 

 Caulerpa. I believe, however, that the plants now under consideration 

 were either long stems of frondose Algae allied to iSpirophgton, or cylindri- 

 cal plants allied to Chorda. 



Other fragments show the remains of a distinct internal woody axis, and. 

 maet have been portions of acrogenous plants comparable with Psilophyton. 



