THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 23 



idea was found untenable, and Billings came to the conclusion it 

 represented an extinct order of corals. Other Palaeontologists sug- 

 gested the possibility of an alliance with the gigantic " Sessonias " 

 found on the rocky coasts of the Faulkland Islands near the Strait 

 of Magellan. Their growth resembles that of a tree ; the stem is 

 about ten feet long and as thick as a man's thigh, terminating in a 

 crown of leaves from two to three feet long. 



Others, again, expressed their opinion that it was related to the 

 modern " Macrocystes," detached by storms off Tierra del Fuego, 

 and described by Professor Meyen, who remarks : " By the exer- 

 tions of five men we succeeded in hauling the enormous mass on 

 board. It was impossible to disentangle it ; we could only detach 

 some sixty feet of what we considered to be the main stem. We 

 estimated the plant at or about two hundred feet in length. A 

 Toronto professor who examined a few specimens of Beatrecea I 

 brought from Anticosti considered it an extinct Fucoid, adding ' It 

 is by no means unusual to find the Colossal Algae of the Pacific 

 hollow in the interior.' It was more recently put down as a gigantic 

 Stromatopora by an American friend of mine who examined pre- 

 pared sections under the microscope. I doubt if Mr. Walker would 

 feel disposed to recognize it as a member of that family." 



Finally, Professor Hyatt, of Harvard University, asserted 

 the Beatricea were the internal bones of Cephalopods. From his 

 (Hyatt's) observations, " it seems probable," remarks Dana, " they 

 are like straight branches of a tree, with irregularly fluted or uneven 

 exterior, and have been described as plants ; they possess ' a cone ' 

 in cone structure, with cellular interspaces about the centre, the 

 plates in contact towards the sides." About five or six miles north 

 of Fox Bay, on the east side, an unbroken perpendicular cliff pre- 

 sents itself, extending for a distance of seventeen miles. (This was 

 a portion of the coast unexplored by Richardson owing to 

 stormy weather). When the sea is perfectly calm you can land on a 

 narrow strip of sand as the base, varying from a few yards to twenty 

 paces broad. I had the good fortune to enjoy exceptionally fine 

 weather during that portion of my trip around Anticosti, and travelled 

 almost the entire distance on foot, and it was there I first saw this 

 extraordinary fossil in situ. 



The description given by Richardson respecting its appearance 

 projecting from " the cliff" in tiers at " Battery Point" is also appli- 



