104. A FEW HINTS ON LOCAL FOSSIL COLLECTING 
but so many fossils of late have been discovered whose 
description is unknown to us that we are likely to be mis- 
taken like others previously. 
The new Niagara sponge, named Bolastronia by Dr. 
Head, Chicago, was found at the base of the Barton ridge, 
and, judging from its state of preservation I am inclined to 
suppose it originally came from an upper chert bed. 
For the past few years the fields from the Barton Road to 
both sides of the corporation drain have chiefly preduced 
crops, hay, etc., unfavorable for fossil collecting here. 
The city quarry at the head of ‘‘ the Stronginan Road ”’ 
presented very few specimens since it was opened, but the 
ones (few and far between discovered of late years) are of 
. great interest, since they appear to be new to science. Inde- 
pendent of this, many are in remarkably good preservation. 
The last quarry which was opened up, near the head 
of ‘‘the Jolley Cut,’’ proved hitherto exceedingly disap- 
pointing, lying as it does close to the old Hancock one, 
from which we obtained in former years so many Grapto- 
lites and various other Niagara organisms. It seems 
difficult to understand why it had not produced any organic 
remains since the overlying soil was removed. 
The glacial clay was noticed there, which protected the 
upper Chert beds, and the layers themselves are in very 
fair preservation, yet, as far as it is known to me, not a 
single specimen was obtained there. 
Feeling disappointed last summer at my ill-success 
there, and finding it impossible at that time to collect 
Niagara sponges or sections in the fields near the city, I 
proceeded to examine the rejected heaps of broken stone 
left behind in the other abandoned quarries as well as loose 
beds which may be dislodged there. 
The places in question, among other things, furnished 
me with a Cephalopod, which displays its early growth, or 
in other words the first septa or chambers of habitation. 
