te 



OIANTS AVn PIOMTES; 



mons in o\ir collections. It was very nnich atlinired in PanX 



as a uninvie fossil. Its nanw is G i/racanthrts magnificus. It 



is so called us it is considered to bo a fish spine ol magnificent 



profiortions, and having a gyratory sculpture. The class of 



fishes to which our irtonster Wlongs has as a representative the 



Port Jackson Shark of New South Wales. Tlie Sptnax- 



acantliiiis or Acanthias vnhjarli*, spine dog-fish, is another 



representative. In a marirj collection that I nr;ide at Moville^ 



Ireland, when rctunting from the Fisheries Exhibition of 



London, I have what is considered to l)e a large spine which 



a fisherman gave me from a large dogfish, that he had just 



caught. Tlie position it occufMed was in front of the first. 



dorsal fin. This spine is recurved and measures 2*4 inches 



Our Gijracanfhtis is S2 inches in length. The butt end of the 



one is 3 of an inch across ; of the otlier 2 inches. Our giant 



must have been from 14 to 20 feet in length — much larger 



than the largest Gcsfraeion plullij)ii of New South Wales, of 



the Fisheries Exhibition. The finding of a mate would bo a 



grand discovery ^luch more of his Old IJed Sandstone 



ancestor. The distance between Baddeck and Restigouche 



would be easily traversed by our Cape Er^Honers. Hortoik 



Bluff on the south side of Mines Basin has produced beautiful 



" Ichthi/odorultte» — Fossil fish spears," as fossils of i\\e Acanthus 



class are sometimes called. They are, however, much inferior 



in size to our Gijracantlnts majnificus. 



Si,. It seems now to. be in the order of Nature for us to go to 

 Wentworth, Intercolonial Railway. Having reached the station^ 

 we make a Geological and Topographical reconnaif^ance. We are 

 on the north side of tlie Cobequid Mmmtains. To the south 

 rises Folly Mountain fori, d of Crystalline Archaean (gr. Arch» 

 the Beginning) rocks. the side of the mountain and in, 



the middle of these rocks < the beautiful Folly Lake, with 

 its diatomaceous deposit and fresh water sponges, discovered by 

 A. H. McKay, F. S. Sc. London. Trans. I. N.S., 1884. On the 

 south of these are the Uj-per Silurian metamorphic rocks with 

 the Iron deposits of Londonderry Mines. At Wentworth we 

 have the Lower Silurian with ita PhoUdops cinciiinatiensi* 



Ha 



Tn 

 assi 



