68 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



shows a connection between the geological formation of the earth 

 and that of its Satellite, 



Although in the more recent geological formations, there are 

 numerous fossils met with corresponding to similar living species, 

 few, very few, are the existing types or links connecting the present 

 with the earlier geological periods. The few that occur to me I will 

 allude to. The " Gar-pike," or Bill-fish of our Canadian waters, 

 comparatively rare here, but abundant in the West, helmeted and 

 mailed in almost impenetrable scale armor, with its jaws hinged 

 similar to the Alligator, and its vertebrae of the regular ball and 

 socket formation, points to a close affinity with the Saurians and the 

 fossil Ganoids of Agassiz, The Trilobites have long since ceased to 

 exist, but in the Antarctic Ocean science has brought to light a curious 

 crustacean,. (Glyptonotus Antarcticus), which strongly recalls the 

 extinct form of the Trilobite. The Crinoids and Encrinites of the 

 Palaeozoic world, have a link remaining extant in the pentacrinus of 

 the Caribbean Sea, with its delicate strong stem, bearing on its 

 summit a symmetrical cup or body, around the margin of which are 

 supported five strong arms, which ramify into scores of fingers. The 

 whole structure is composed of thousands of little stony pieces, 

 fitted together with mathematical precision. The fossil plants of our 

 coal measures have their existing links in the arborescent ferns of 

 Australia, the lowly club moss of our own woods and the diminutive 

 equisetum of our swamps, and the tangled thickets of tropical 

 morasses ; but the majority of the early forms of creation, having 

 fulfilled their work have passed away, leaving no existing type or link 

 to be associated with their story record in the rocks. 



There are many apparent connections between animal and 

 vegetable life, or between different orders of animals which are apt 

 to mislead a novice from their similarity to a transition state. Such, 

 for instance, is the Sea Anemone, presenting all the colors, hues and 

 appearance of the flower of that name, though belonging in reality 

 to the animal kingdom. The same remark applies to the Sponge, 

 which, though apparently growing at the bottom of the sea like a 

 plant, is now acknowledged to be of animal growth and allied to the 

 coral builder. The Ornithorhyncus of Australia, an animal possessed 

 of the bill of the duck, and with webbed feet, is not a connecting 

 link as once was thought between beasts and birds, although pos- 

 sessing certain properties ot both. That the Armadillo is a link 



