298 A. P. COLEMAN 



Dr. S. H. Scudder, who determined the beetles, thinks that all 

 but two of the 72 are extinct. Twenty-five of the number were 

 named a few years ago from Scarboro' material sent by Dr. 

 Hinde, the rest more recently from specimens collected at 

 various outcrops of the peaty clay by the writer. A complete 

 account of the new species, with figures, will be published shortly 

 by the Canadian geological survey. The number of species of 

 beetles could no doubt be extended if the work of determining 

 them were not so very laborious. In addition to the beetles 

 cyprids occur and rarely also fragments of sphaeriums. 



The plants include several trees, Professor Penhallow having 

 found Larix americana, Picea alba and another species of Picea 

 in materials from Price's and Simpson's brickyards; while Dr. 

 Macoun found leaves apparently of willow and alder in peaty 

 material from Scarboro', as well as two shrubs, Oxycoccus 

 palustris and Vaccinium uliginosum, and some smaller plants, 

 such as equisetum, Carex aquatilis and C. utriculata. Dr. 

 Hinde reports five species of mosses belonging to the genera 

 Bryum, Hypnum and Fontinalis ; and Mrs. E. G. Britton adds 

 Limnobium. Three species of diatoms, a chara and spores of 

 lycopodium have been reported also. 



Dr. Scudder judges from the relationships of the beetles to 

 modern forms that the climate had "a boreal aspect, though by 

 no means so decidedly boreal as one would anticipate under the 

 circumstances." The same conclusion is reached by Dr. Macoun 

 and by Professor Penhallow from the plant remains. 



The change from the warm climate fauna and flora to the 

 cool climate ones appears rather sudden, but may not be so in 

 reality. The upper blue clay (No. 7) at Taylor's brickyard has 

 yielded a caribou horn, which suggests a cooler climate than that 

 of the trees and unios a few feet below, since no caribou are 

 known within 1 50 or 200 miles to the north of Toronto at present. 

 However, the range of the caribou toward the south may have 

 been greater before the white man's settlements encroached on 

 the region. On the other hand the materials of the delta deposits 

 must have been derived largely from the regions to the north 



