330 REVIEWS — GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF CANADA. 



black bear, the red, the black, and the silver fox, and the marten.. Bears are said 

 to be very numerous, and hunters talk of their being met with by dozens at a time ; 

 but on my excursion I only observed one at Ellis Bay, two near Cormorant Point, 

 and one in the neighbourhood of Observation Cape, I came upon the last one on 

 a narrow strip of beach at the foot of a high and nearly vertical cliff. Seen from 

 a distance I took the animal for a burnt log, and it was only when within fifty 

 yards of him that I perceived my mistake. He appeared to be too busily engaged 

 in making his morning meal, on the remains of a seal, to pay any attention to me, 

 for although with a view of giving him notice to quit I struck my hammer upon a 

 boulder that was near, and made other noises which I conceived might alarm him, 

 he never raised his head to show that he was aware of my presence, but fed on 

 until he had finished the carcase, obliging me, having no rifle, to remain a looker-on 

 for half-an-hour. "When nothing of the seal remained but the bones, the bear 

 climbed in a leisurely way up the face of the naked cliff, which could not be 

 many degrees out of the perpendicular, throwing down as he passed considerable 

 blocks of rock, and disappeared over the summit which was not less than a hun- 

 dred feet above the sea. 



Foxes and martens are very abundant ; the marten was frequently heard during 

 the night in the neighbourhood of our camp, and foxes were seen on several occa- 

 sions. Of the silver grey fox, the skin of which frequently sells for from twenty- 

 five to thirty pounds currency, from four to twelve have been obtained by the 

 hunters every winter. Mr. Corbet, the lessee of the island, employs several men 

 during that season to hunt these animals for their fur, and I understand he makes 

 some profit by the trade. 



I heard of no animals of any other description, with the exception of wild fowl ; 

 and I saw no frogs nor reptiles of any description, and I was informed by the hun- 

 ters that there were none. 



In the first part of the Report by Mr. Billings, we have a very able 

 analytical review of the palseontological relations of the Anticosti rocks. 

 This is succeeded by detailed descriptions of a great number of newly- 

 determined forms, embracing not only new species, but many new 

 genera. Scattered through these descriptions, we find the germ of 

 much new thought, although so unostentatiously brought forward, 

 as very easily to escape detection on the part of the casual reader. 

 It is only to be regretted, for the sake of our palseontological stu- 

 dents, that it was found impossible to give illustrations of the various 

 fossil species here described. This want will be gradually met, how- 

 ever, by the re-publication of the more characteristic forms with ample 

 illustrations, in the series of Memoirs about to be issued by the Geo- 

 logical Commission, on the plan of the well-known Decades of the 

 British Survey. By the kindness of Sir William Logan, we have al- 

 ready seen a few of the lithographed plates recently printed in Eng- 

 land for this series, under the personal superintendance of Mr. Billings, 

 and we can speak most highly of their execution. 



