REVIEWS — GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 327 



of $5 the barrel ; and that the only difficulty which they had in making the trade 

 a very profitable one, was the small amount their canoes were capable of conveying 

 at a time, together with the shortness of the season previous to the formation of 

 the ice. 



The geology and physical characteristics of the Island of Anticosti 

 constitute the subject of Mr. Richardson's Report. The skill with 

 which the structural details of this island — previously all hut an un-r 

 known land — have been traced out, and the energy shewn by Mr. 

 Richardson in the collection of an almost unparelleled series of fossils 

 in the short space of three months, cannot be too highly praised. Up 

 to the date of this exploration, Anticosti, in geological maps, has been 

 invariably referred to the Niagara group of the Upper Silurians. Its 

 northern portions, however, as shewn by Mr. Richardson's strati- 

 graphical researches, combined with the fossil evidence worked out by 

 Mr. Billings and Professor Hall, belong to the upper part of the 

 Lower Silurian division ; whilst its central and southern portions ap- 

 pear to constitute a series of beds of passage between the Lower and 

 the Upper Silurians. Six sets of conformable strata, with a shght dip 

 to the south or south-west, and a general strike, consequently, parallel 

 to the direction or greatest length of the island, have been made out 

 by Mr. Richardson. Beginning at the north shore, the two lower 

 beds, A and B., are referred to the age of the Hudson River group. 

 Even here, however, the transitional character alluded to above, begins 

 to shew itself ; as amongst a considerable number of already recog- 

 nised Hudson River types, with many new forms, we meet with three 

 species previously looked upon as peculiar (in the geology of America) 

 to the Upper Silurian division. One of these, the celebrated chain 

 coral (Haly sites catenulatus=Catenipora escharoides) has hitherto 

 been considered eminently characteristic of the Niagara and Clinton 

 group. It is also in these lower divisions that the curious tree-like 

 fossils, to which Mr. Billings has given the generic name of Beatricea, 

 first occur. Of the real nature of these perplexing forms, we are still 

 in ignorance ; but they will probably turn out to be corals. The suc- 

 ceeding divisions, passing towards the south or southwest, are denoted 

 respectively by the letters C, D, E, and F. Division F is probably 

 synchronous with the Clinton group, whilst the other divisions repre- 

 sent the Oneida conglomerate and Medina sandstone ; but it is pro- 

 posed to consider them for the present as members of a Middle Silurian 

 series, under the general name of the "Anticosti Group." Respecting 

 the soil and vegetation of Anticosti, and the native denizens of the 

 island and its surrounding waters, we extract the following remarks : 



