THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 151 



denly, by muddy sediments that materially assisted in preserving the 

 organic remains beneath in a somewhat better condition than usual. 

 In my search for fossils in Europe and this continent, from the lower 

 Silurians to the seas of Somersetshire, I have almost invariably found 

 the most likely place to find them was a thin lime or sandy layer 

 enclosed by shale or mud. And it seems quite natural also. Rivers, 

 for example, when flooded, carry off and convey to the sea, large 

 quantities of silt, depositing it over the sea bed. It not only covers 

 dead shells, etc., but entombs living animals, also plants, bryo- 

 zoons and such things as were unable to escape from its unwelcome 

 advance. 



You may excuse me for offering a remark you may deem rather 

 outside the subject of my paper, but since I failed to elicit any 

 satisfactory explanation in the matter, and cannot find it touched 

 upon by others, I may be pardoned for alluding to it. Many, if not 

 all, who have studied corals and coral reef builders, are perhaps 

 inclined to accept Dana's reasons for the exclusion of corals in tro- 

 pical seas — first, cold extra-tropical currents, secondly, muddy or 

 alluvial shores, emptying of large rivers, for coral polyps require 

 clear sea water, and generally a solid foundation to build upon. 

 Such was not the case with regard to Clinton Favosites^ popularly 

 called Honey-comb Coral. I have obtained many from the silt beds 

 in situ, viz : stile erect, ten inches in diameter at top, (the latter I 

 underscored), for the term " shale " is frequently applied to far 

 harder layers, and if I use the word "marl," it may express what I 

 intend to convey as regards my meaning to some few, but it would 

 certainly lead to one fact, that however the chemists may differ 

 among themselves, all would unite in one respect, viz., abuse 

 for anyone who borrowed, missappHed or misunderstood even the 

 least of their immediate scientific belongings. Of three specimens 

 of the chainpore coral, Halysites Catenulatus, two. were discovered 

 in a soft Clinton mud band. The Alcyonarian coral, Heliolites 

 Interstincta, a Cambro-Silurian of Anticosti, occurs more fre- 

 quently in the blue shales than in the harder limestone layers. You 

 m.ay see in the well preserved specimen from the island now pro- 

 duced for your examination, there is no point of attachment dis- 

 played. So it seems permissable to mfer that the Palaeozoic polyps 

 were fitted to withstand and overcome conditions which would prove 

 fatal to their modern successors. It is a difficult problem to solve, 



