136 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



I have already explained the difficulties we encounter in 

 recognizing fossil algae fucoids, decayed as many were when 

 imbedded, and the internal structure so flattened and compressed 

 that the microscope can afford little if any light, even when fairly 

 preserved specimens are obtainable. However, I may state, the 

 grey band contains about seven or eight species of plant remains. I 

 forwarded to Sir Wm. Dawson some in excellent preservation from 

 an abandoned quarry near the reservoir ; but as I intend to cal! 

 the attention of the section to this class of fossils on a future 

 occasion, I need say no more on the subject now. If any of our 

 members should ever pay a visit to Grimsby, by following tip the 

 bed of the stream you may collect well preserved examples of the 

 Arthrophycus Harlani, a branching fucoid v/hich some palaeon- 

 tologists think represents the filled up sand burrow of an extinct 

 Crustacean. 



The Niagara shales in the high cliffs to the right as you enter 

 the ravine there from the Grimsby road, hold numerous heads of 

 the well-known encrinite, Caryocrinus ornatus. A few have been 

 collected by Hinde and Nicholson along the banks of the river 

 Niagara, also below the Falls.* It has been remarked, when you 

 find a single specimen of this sea lily you are almost certain to un- 

 earth an entire colony of the crinoids by searching carefully. About 

 four feet from the base of the Niagara shale, near the rock cutting, 

 Hamilton and Erie Railway, 1 found nearly three dozen in a few 

 days, shortly after the line was opened, also two heads of the fine 

 crinoid, Eucalyptocrinus decorus, and upwards of fifty of the singular 

 little encrinite, named Stephanocrinus angulatus. All were previ- 

 ously described by Dr. Jas. Hall, or other geologists, as character* 

 istic of a like Silurian horizon in the State of New York. The 

 Silurian star-fish, Petraster bellulus, described and figured in the 

 Paljeozoic Fossils of Canada, was discovered at Stony Creek by 

 an old friend of mine, Johnson Pettit, of Grimsby. Unless this 

 locality is included in the township of his residence, the error ad- 

 mits of rectification. He pointed out to me the exact spot where 

 he extracted it from the Niagara shales. We have no reason to 

 suppose that such rare fossils are confined to particular parts of the 

 elevated sea bottom. The red and mottled shales of the Medina 

 series, running out near Oakville, only contain a few ill-preserved 



The exact locality they refrain from making known. 



