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GIANTS AND PIGMIES. 



1, Yoii seem to wish mo to give your readers some account 

 of certain giants that once lived in Cape Breton. Well, there 

 have been giants in this Island, and pigmies too. I propose to 

 tell you of both, setting the very great age of the latter over 

 against the great size of the former. I shall give the latter the 

 precedence. Those of which I shall write, lived, died, and 

 were buried at Mira, near Louisbourg. Their remains which 

 have come undor my notice and occupy their place in our 

 Provincial Museum, were collected by Mr. Hugh Fletcher, of 

 the Geological Survey of Canada, and Rev. Mr. Sutherland of 

 Gabarus. The rocks in which they are found are of the same 

 age as the rocks which are found in Wales, called the " Upper 

 Lingula I'lags " Salter. Prof. Hall, who has examined the col- 

 lection, agrees with this view of age. Trans. 1886-7. The 

 ** Lower Lingula Flags," are the sepulchres of what are generally 

 believed to be the oldest inhabitants of our world. The name 

 is well applied to our Cape Breton sepulchres. Mr. Sutherland's 

 pigmies are Lingulellae. These are shells which have received 

 names according to their form (Lat. Lingua, a tongue, Lingula, 

 a little tongue, Lingulella, a very little tongue.) Lingulidae is a 

 cosmopolitan family. It seems also to pervade time from 

 " Primordial " to the present. In the Museum we have species 

 belonging to different periods and countries. From the Indian 

 Seas and the Fisheries Exhibition we have Lingula anatina. 



Mr. Fletcher's pigmies are trilobites. These too are cos- 

 mopolitan. In geological formations from the " Primordial " to 

 the " Coal Period," they are found throughout the world. 

 Since the last period they have ceased to exist. If we had 

 not the " testimony of the rocks " we would not have known 

 that this crustacean family of " Giants and Pigmies " had ever 



