The Royal Society of Canada. 375 



pendence of Newton's three Laws of Motion is first considered, and 

 an attempt is made to establish it; Maxwell's deduction of the first 

 fiom the " doctrine of space and time," and Newton's supposed 

 deduction of the third from the first being subjected to criticism. 



Geology and Paleeontologj^ come in for seven papers, as follows : 

 Presidential Address, by Mr. G. F. Matthew, of St. John, N.B., 

 " On the Diffusion and Sequence of the Cambrian Faunas," In 

 this address an attempt is made to distinguish the littoral and 

 warm-water faunas of the Cambrian age from those which mark 

 greater depths of the sea and cooler water. On the hypothesis that 

 species capable of propagating their kind in the open sea would 

 spread rapidly to all latitudes where the temperature of the sea was 

 favourable, such forms as the Graptolites are taken as fixed points 

 in the successive faunas. The relation to the Graptolites is noted of 

 various species of other groups of animals, as they occur in different 

 countries. It thus seems that several genera appeared first in 

 America, and afterwards spread to Europe. On the other hand, 

 a very close connection no doubt existed between the Cambrian 

 faunas of the north of Europe and those of the Atlantic coast of 

 North America. Hence it is inferred that the temperature of the 

 sea of these two coasts was similar, and the connection between 

 them direct and unimpeded. Equal temperatures in these different 

 latitudes would be maintained by a cold current flowing from the 

 North European to the North Atlantic Coast. The evidence available 

 seems to point to a migration of the American species by a route to 

 the west and north of the main part of the Atlantic Basin. 



Mr. Matthew contributed an additional paper, entitled "Illustrations 

 of the Fauna of the St. John Group, No. VII." This is the final 

 paper on this subject, and treats chiefly of the fauna of the highest 

 horizon in the group. It will be accompanied by a list of all the 

 species of the St. John group, showing the several horizons at which 

 they have been found. From the highest horizon itself, the species 

 are of the age of those of the Levis shale, or thereabout, as shown 

 by the Graptolites found here. There are several Orthids, some of 

 which are identical with, or are varieties of, species of the Levis 

 limestone described by Billings. The few Trilobites known are of 

 Cambrian types, and include a Gyclognathus allied to G. micropygus 

 and a Enloma. Several minute Pteropods occur in these shales, 

 with the Graptolites. 



Sir William Dawson, F.E.S., presented a paper " On the Corre- 

 lation of Early Cretaceous Floras in Canada and the United States 

 and on Some New Plants of this Period." The purpose of this 

 paper is to illustrate the present state of our knowledge respecting 

 the flora of Canada in the early Cretaceous, and to notice some new 

 plants from Anthracite, N. W. Territory, collected by Dr. H. M. Ami, 

 and from Canmore, collected by Di*. Hayden. It is a continuation 

 of the author's paper on the " Mesozoic Floras of the Rocky Mountain 

 Eegion of Canada," in the Transactions of the Royal Society of 

 Canada for 1885. 



Sir William then inti'oduced Dr. Ami's paper " On the Occurrence 



