Notes, Reviews and Comments. 105 



stem, which would serve as a basis of classification for the North 

 American Ccniferae. Since then, somewhat extended opportunities for 

 verification and comparison have been offered, and the present synopsis 

 is now given in the belief that it embodies what may be regarded as 

 final deductions. 



The classification as at present outlined, indicates that the Taxa- 

 cece and Coniferse must be regarded as distinct families. It also shows 

 that among the Coniferse, the genera heretofore recognized as distinct, 

 are separable from one another on anatomical grounds with the excep- 

 tion of Cuprtssus and Chamsecyparis, between which there is no 

 adequate ground of differentiation. They are, however, combined in 

 the former genus, of which there are two sections, Cupressus proper 

 and Chamsecyparis. 



Additional Notes on Fossil Sponges and other Organic Remains 

 from the Quebec Group at Little Metis, By Sir J. William 

 Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S,, with descriptions and remarks on 

 some of the specimens, by Dr. G. J. Hinde, F.G.S., etc. 



This paper is intended as a continuation of that on the same sub- 

 ject published in the transactions of the Royal Society of Canada for 

 1889. 



It notices, in the first place, the present state of our knowledge of 

 the rocks of the Quebec group of Sir William Logan, as developed on 

 the South shore of the St. Lawrence, below Quebec, and especially at 

 Little Metis Bay ; with the sub-division of these rocks resulting from 

 the recent observations and collection and study of fossils by the officers 

 of the Geological Survey of Canada, and by Ptof. Lapworth. From 

 these it would appear that the beds at Little Metis which have afforded 

 so many interesting species of fossil sponges, may be referred with some 

 certainty to the upper part of the Sillery series, the lowest member of 

 the Quebec group ; and which should probably be regarded as equi- 

 valent to the lower Calciferous of the interior of the continent, and may 

 therefore be held to be on the confines of the Cambrian and Ordovician 

 Systems. 



That the beds of the Lower Cambrian were already hardened and 

 in process of denudation at the time when the Sillery Series was laid 

 down, is evidenced by the fact that in the conglomerate almost imme- 

 diately overlying the sponge-beds, boulders occur holding Olenellus ■&xid. 

 other characteristic Lower Cambrian fossils. This fact, observed last 

 summer, is noticed in the paper, with a list of these fossils. 



Attention was then directed to the results of recent excavations in 

 the sponge-beds, revealing some new forms and new facts with reference 

 to those previously known ; special mention is made of the giant sponge 

 referred by Dr. Hinde to a new genus FalcBosacais, and described by 

 him in the London Geological Magazine ; and to the occurrence of a 



