THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 1 53 



collection he showed me a few years ago from this locality of the 

 States. I was impressed also by the close resemblance the Barton 

 fossils bear to the Guelph ones ; several are identical. It was 

 claimed by the late Sir Wm. Logan that his Guelph formation was 

 distinct and constituted a well defined and separate zone from the 

 rocks underneath. It is quite true the actual point of contact has 

 not yet been discovered. I believe the groups merged into each 

 other through the slow depression or sinking of the sea bed before 

 the Guelph limestones were gradually deposited ; I doubt if any 

 break can be discovered. Trochoceras displanense, Barton, 

 Niagara, (Waldron also) has been lately, found by Mr. Townsend, 

 in the Guelph, at Durham, Ont. I believe someof the Murchisonise 

 also have their affinities in our shales On paleeontological 

 grounds they cannot well be separated. I cannot say what reason 

 United States had for asserting the Guelph formation of Canada 

 was merely the capping of the Niagara. I am disposed to acquiesce 

 in this view. Many of the Silurian sea-floors in Anticosti present 

 the organic remains in excellent preservation. The limestone 

 layers are very thin, generally about one-half to three inches, with 

 slight shaly partings. I retained a small number for personal 

 study, because they displayed, perhaps, internal structure, teeth, 

 hinge line or muscular impressions, with which I was not sufficiently 

 acquainted. Some little time ago I alluded to the discovery on a 

 «mountain in Wales, 1200 feet above the sea, of shells still living in 

 Arctic waters. I find the Duke of Argyll, regardless of ridicule, 

 stoutly maintains they were left there by the Noachian deluge — I 

 suppose he imagines they floated about like corks — and as the 

 ■waters were drawn off and the tops of the hills arose to the surface, 

 what was more natural than settling there just as they are found. 

 That a baker's dozen or so of the clergy should adopt this idea, was 

 not unexpected, but in exultingly pointing to this extraordinary fact 

 which admits of no refutation, they unconsciously endeavor to 

 show mankind existed on earth long before the time recorded in 

 Jewish manuscripts. TaTcing everything into account, it must be 

 admitted, the churches now display a better knowledge of 

 geological matters than the Venerable Dean Cockburn, of York, 

 who informed us some forty or fifty years ago in his New System of 

 Geology, as quoted by Hugh Miller : " These creatures, Trilobites, 

 (Molluscs) appear to have possessed the power of secreting from 



