228 



NA TURE 



[July 3. l88 4 



selenide of mercury with hydriodic acid. He held the range of 

 coatings per se for those tablets to be greater than for any other 

 support used in blowpipe analysis, and described these coatings 

 for selenium, tiemannite, arsenic, silver, alloys of bismuth, 

 antimony, and lead with silver, galena, orpiment, realgar, 

 mercury, tellurium, carbon, cadmium, and gold. — Description 

 of an apparatus for distinguishing flame-colouring constituents 

 when occurring together in an assay, by Prof. E. Haanel, 

 Ph.D. The apparatus consists of a spectacle frame furnished 

 for the left eye with plain colourless glass, and for the right eye 

 with four glasses — red, green, violet, and blue. These glasses 

 revolve on an axis, and can be brought either separately or in any 

 combination before the eye of the operator. — " Essai sur la Con- 

 stitution atomique de la Matiere,"by the Very Rev. T. E. Hamel, 

 D.D. — The algebraical development of certain functions, by 

 Prof. N. F. Dupuis, M.A. — Contributions to our knowledge of 

 the iron ores of Ontario, by Prof. E. J. Chapman, Ph.D., LL.D. 

 The paper contained a series of analyses of magnetic and other 

 iron ores from samples obtained- personally by the author from 

 various parts of Ontario. The geological conditions of the 

 deposits are also briefly given. — "Note sur une fait meteoro- 

 logique particulier a Quebec," by Rev. Prof. J. C. K. Laflamme, 

 D.D. 



Section; IV. (Geological and Biological Sciences). — The fol- 

 lowing papers were read : — Note of observations in 18S3 on the 

 geology of a part of the north shore of Lake Superior, by A. R. 

 C. Selwyn, LL.D., F.R.S. In these observations the author 

 considered he was able to show that the great masses of columnar 

 trap which form the summit of Thunder Cape, Pic Island, and 

 McKay's Mountain were not part of a " crowning overflow," as 

 they have been described to be, and newer than the Keweenian 

 scries, but that they are contemporaneous with the black slaty 

 shales of the Animikie series, which immediately and conform- 

 ably underlie them. — Revision of the Canadian Ranunculacea;, 

 by Prof. George Lawson, Ph.D. LL.D. (Halifax, N.S.). The 

 author referred to his " Monograph of Ranunculacese," published 

 in 1870, to the extensive collections that had been subsequently 

 made, and to works published upon the North American flora, 

 all of which enabled a fuller and moie accurate description of 

 Canadian ranunculaceous plants to be given now than was 

 possible when the previous paper was prepared. The greater 

 precision given to recent observation had also enabled the geo- 

 graphical range of these plants to be stated more fully. The 

 striking diversity of modification in the form, number, and 

 arrangement of the several parts of the flower and of the fruit in 

 the several genera was pointed out. '1 he number of Canadian 

 species is 78 and of varieties iS : viz. Clematis 4, Anemone 14, 

 Thalictrum 6, Ranunculus 29, Myosurus 2, Paeonia 1, Caltha 

 3, Trollius 1, Coptis 2, Aquilegia 2, Delphinium 5, Aconitum 

 2, Hydrastis 1, Actsea 2, Cimicifuga 1, Trautvetteria I. — 

 Geology and geological work in the Old World in their relation 

 to Canada, by Principal Dawson, C.M.G., LL.D., F.R.S.— 

 The Taconic question in geology, part 2, by T. Sterry Hunt, 

 LL.D., F.R.S. The writer having given in the Transactions of 

 the Royal Society of Canada for 1SS3 the first part of this paper, 

 it remains in the second and last part to show, in the first place, 

 more fully than has yet been done, the relations of the Taco- 

 nian or Lower Taconic series of stratified rocks to the succeeding 

 Cambrian or Upper Taconic, which some geologists have con- 

 founded with the Taconian. In this connection is given a 

 critical discussion of the studies of Perry, Marcou, and others, 

 and the opinions of Dana as regards the Cambrian of the Appa- 

 lachian region of North America. In the second place is con- 

 sidered the probable equivalence of the Taconian to the Itaco- 

 lumite series of Brazil and to similar rocks elsewhere in South 

 America and the West Indian Islands, as well as in Hindostan 

 and Southern Europe. All of these comparative studies, it is 

 said, tend to establish the distinctness of the Taconian as a great 

 ami widely-spread series of crystalline stratified rocks occupying 

 a horizon between the Cambrian and Montalban or younger 

 gneiss series of Europe and North America. — Note on the 

 occurrence of certain butterflies in Canada, by W. Saunders, 

 London, Ontario. Papilio cresphontes, once a rare butterfly in 

 Ontario, is now widely disseminated throughout that province. 

 In the Southern United States its larvae feed on the leaves of the 

 orange and lemon, but in Canada they appear to thrive upon 

 the foliage of such members of the Rulacca as Xanthoxy- 

 lon, Ptelea, Ruta, and Diclamnus. Papilio philenrr is also 

 extremely rare in Canada, but a large flock of this species was 

 observed by the Rev. C. J. S. Bethune near Woodstock, Ontario, 



in 1858. The writer also recorded the capture of Terias mexi- 

 cana and Thecla s mi! a (is at Point Pelee, Ontario, in 18S2, and 

 concluded by remarking that twenty-three years ago he had 

 taken two specimens of a new species of Theda at London, 

 Ontario, which has since been described by Mr. W. H. Edwards 

 as T. lata. — On some deposits of titaniferous iron ore in the coun- 

 ties of Haliburton and Hastings, Ontario, by Prof. E. J. Chapman, 

 Ph.D. This paper, after referring to the occurrence of numerous 

 deposits of magnetic iron ore in certain zones or belts of country 

 in the counties of Victoria, Haliburton, Peterborough, and 

 Hastings, describes their conditions of occurrence as those of 

 large isolated masses or "stocks," forming in some cases 

 " sheathed stocks," or Stockschcid.rs and Skolars of German and 

 Swedish miners, as in the great iron ore zone of Arendal in Nor- 

 way. Whilst these stock-masses of iron ore are for the greater 

 part quite free from titanium, one of vast size in the township of 

 Glamorgan, and another equally large mass in Tudor, are shown 

 to contain a considerable amount of titanium. Detailed descrip- 

 tions of these are given, with analysis of the ore by the writer. — 

 On mimetism in inorganic nature, by Prof. E. J. Chapman, 

 Ph.D. Mimetism — as recognised in organic nature — has been 

 regarded on the one hand as the direct result of a protecting 

 Providence, and, on the other, as originating in minute ap- 

 proaches towards the imitated object, these becoming intensified 

 in successive generations until the imitation becomes complete 

 or reaches its extreme limit. In this paper the writer attempts 

 to show that neither hypothesis may be absolutely correct, but 

 that the peculiarity may be due to some occult law of "localism" 

 by which associated forms often become impressed with mutual 

 resemblances. In support of this view he refers to several 

 curious cases in which certain minerals, normally and generally 

 of very dissimilar aspect, become closely mimetic under certain 

 local conditions, as seen in examples of quartz and zircon, 

 pyroxene and apatite, &c. , in the phosphate deposits of the 

 Ottawa region. — A monograph of Canadian ferns, by Dr. T. 

 J. W. Burgess and Prof. J. Maconn, M.A., F.L.S. Prof. 

 Maconn stated that twenty years ago the total number of ferns 

 known to occur in Canada was forty-six, while at the present 

 time it had increased to sixty-three. In illustrating the range of 

 the more interesting species, he particularly noticed the occur- 

 rence of Pkegopiei is calcarea in Anticosti, where he had found it 

 in 1882, and remarked that the same plant has recently been 

 collected by Dr. G. M. Dawson and R. Bell in the country 

 around and to the east of the Lake of the Woods. — On geological 

 contacts and ancient erosion in the province of New Brunswick, 

 by Prof. L. W. Bailey, M.A., Ph.D. This paper summarises 

 the more important and well-established lines of physical con- 

 tact between the geological formations of New Brunswick, as 

 bearing upon the relative age of the latter and the disturbances 

 to which they have been subjected. Three well-marked breaks 

 separating groups of widely diverse character were recognised 

 among pre-Cambrian strata, — the supposed equivalents of 

 Laurentian, Uuronian, and possibly Montalban horizons, — a very 

 marked one at the base of the Cambrian, and others successively 

 between later formations to the base of the Trias. The evidence 

 of such breaks was shown to be of various character, including 

 discordance of dip and strike, overlap, igneous extravasations, 

 and intermediate erosion, and the bearing of the facts deter- 

 mined on the physical and geological history of North-Eastern 

 America, was briefly discussed. The granites, which constitute 

 so marked a feature in the geology of the Acadian Provinces, 

 were described as intrusive, and as the cause of the extensive 

 alteration exhibited by the formation, which they have invaded. 

 The erosion which accompanied or followed upon the disturb- 

 ances described was shown to have been enormous.— Illustra- 

 tions of the fauna of the St. John group. Part III. Cono- 

 coryphida', with notes on the Paradoxidse, by G. F. Matthew. 

 The species oiConoronphe referred to and illustrated are ( '. 

 mait/iewi, Hartt, with three varieties; C. dedans, Hartt; C. 

 bai'eyi, Hartt, with two varieties, and a new form which the 

 author describes as C. wahotti. Critical remarks are also made 

 upon Paradoxides lamellatus, Hartt, and P. acadicus. — The 

 Glacial deposits in the neighbourhood of the Bow and Belly 

 Rivers, by Dr. G. M. Dawson, A.R.S.M.— On the geology and 

 economic minerals of Hudson's Bay and Northern Canada, 

 by Robert Bell, M.D., LL.D., Assistant Director of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Canada. By Northern Canada the author 

 meant the whole of the Dominion northward of the organised 

 Provinces and Districts, as far as known. His information was 

 derived from his own observations around Hudson's Bay and in 



