250 THE DEVONIAN FOSSILS OF CANADA WEST. 
These rocks are, in Canada West, highly fossiliferous, and in some 
places even densely crowded with the remains of extinct species of 
corals, encrinites, molluscs, trilobites, and large fishes. The fossils, 
however, are for the greater part in so imperfect a condition, that few 
of the species can be well defined from the collections made thus far, 
and, on account of the scarcity of good specimens, many years must 
elapse before anything approaching to a complete description of the 
whole fauna of the period can be produced. To accomplish this 
within a reasonable time, will require the co-operation of many local 
observers, each devoting his leisure hours to the minute examination 
of all the rocks in the neighbourhood of his residence, and each in- 
fluenced to do so by the desire of promoting the cultivation of the 
sciences in this Province. With a number of such men distributed 
throughout the fossiliferous regions of Canada, the work will advance 
rapidly. Without some voluntary assistance of this kind, the pro- 
egress must be extremely gradual, so difficult is it to procure good 
specimens of most of the species. Few are aware of the importance 
of long-continued researches in a single locality, or even in a single 
quarry. I devoted the greater part of the spare time of seven years 
to the examination of an area of which all the exposed patches of 
rock, if put together, would not make a superficies of one square 
mile, and yet its treasures were not exhausted. Since I left, others 
have entered the same field, and have been rewarded by the discovery 
of many interesting new facts. There are hundreds of such localities 
in Canada yet to be explored ; and if there were a good observer in 
or near each of them, and if all would freely communicate the fruits 
of their labours, the combined results could not be otherwise than 
important to science, and highly creditable to the country. 
In making collections, the mode of procedure is exceedingly 
simple. All that is to be done is to examine the rocks, and if they 
contain fossils, collect them. The specimens should then be sent 
where the species can be determined. Unless the observer publishes 
some account of his facts, or (in case he does not feel competent to 
do so himself) communicates them to some other person who can 
and will give them publicity, the labour is lost. In the following 
and other articles to be published in this Journal hereafter, I intend 
to give figures and descriptions of many of our Devonian Fossils, and 
hope that they may be, to some extent, useful in assisting the local 
observer to name his specimens. That he can name all that he may 
