THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 3 1 



PALiEOPHYCus, a Silurian fucoid, was first named and described 

 by Dr. Jas. Hall, of Albany, as occurring in the Cambro-Silurian 

 rocks, I think, of New York, also. I first noticed it near Hamilton 

 on the surface of a large block of Medina freestone which probably 

 fell off a cart near the quarry and rolled down the hill. It com- 

 pletely covered the surface of the rock, and although a little flat- 

 tened by pressure, it presented the appearance of a soft succulent 

 mass of sea weeds that had been washed up on a sandy shore; some 

 of the stems were two inches across. From a thin sandstone seam 

 in the Grey Band I subsequently obtained a great number of speci- 

 mens near the city in the old quarries below the escarpment, — 

 perhaps young plants or varieties; they were of much smaller di- 

 mensions. Finer specimens of a Palaeophycus were obtained in a 

 freestone quarry near the Reservoir a few years ago. The most per- 

 fect one is now in the Redpath Museum, Montreal Another, too 

 heavy to carry off, is still weathering out there, and as it is a remark- 

 ably fine one I think we ought to secure it for our collection. I 

 feel assured if any one present had the opportunity of examining 

 it, he would perceive in a moment the absurdity of calling such an 

 organism a worm trail. The fucoid is ill preserved in our local 

 Clintons and in the Niagara shale. But some years ago a cart, 

 with a load of building stone from Lime Ridge, on the Hamilton 

 and Caledonia road, about two miles south of the Mountain View 

 Hotel, broke down on James street. The upper layer of Niagara 

 limestone (glaciated) there holds many interesting species of Stro- 

 matoporse. On examining the contents which had been dumped 

 near the pathway, I was much surprised to find the surface of two 

 of the largest rock masses completely covered with a Palasophycus, 

 presenting a similar appearance to the matted sea iveeds of the Medina 

 series, the upper folding over the lower ones, and retaining faint 

 traces of longitudinal stride, even to the naked eye. Altogether, 

 the plant from the Niagara bed was in a better state of preservation, 

 and had attained a greater size, although clearly identical with the 

 grey band fucoid. A middle portion of an upper stem was two and 

 a half inches in diameter. I regret that the distinguished author 

 of The Great Ice Age, Dr. Geikie, was apparently not aware of such 

 a fact when he published his Class Book of Geology in 1886, and 

 included our fucoid among trail impressions. I do not imagine 

 he ever acquired a personal knowledge of our American Silurians, 



