THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 113 
NOTES ON SOME FEW FOSSIL ORGANISMS. NO. I. 
In his Monograph on the Quebec Graptolites, Dr. Jas. Hall, 
Albany, states: ‘‘ A large proportion of the organisms which come 
under our observation, for the purpose of study, are fragmentary. It 
becomes of importance to know the general character of the form 
and mode of development of the Cellules, formed by budding 
from the side of the common body, not unlike many Sertularians.” 
When the foregoing was written it seems to have been a generally 
accepted belief that this extinct type of the Hydrozoa was 
confined to muddy or shaly sediments.. The extraordinary number 
discovered at Quebec by the officers of the Canadian Geological 
Survey confirmed an idea previously entertained. Scattered spec- 
imens of the Polypi had been noticed in Europe some years before 
the organisms were laid bare in the Lower Province, but great 
difference of opinion prevailed among palzontologists regarding 
their classification, as a matter of course. This you may perceive 
from Dr. Hall’s allusion to the various ideas published on the 
matter. In a few instances the slaty shales, Quebec group, revealed 
the initial point, or radicle, together with the Cellules. Such, I 
may say, are almost unknown in the softer sediments of our local 
Niagaras of Hamilton, as well as in the harder limestone beds 
(known in the States as the old Clinton beds), underlying the thick 
layer which Dr. Hall and others consider the base of the formation 
proper—that is, if any separation exists between the Niagaras and 
the Clintons, or Medinas, below. No doubt the distinction is very 
conyenient. If all were merged into one common name, as 
suggested, would collectors understand what fossils, now obtain- 
able at well-defined horizons, were required by distant European 
and other correspondents? When we know the foreign equiva. 
lents of our own rocks, we see at once what-is wanted. 
It is only when we come to our local Chert-band 
that we find additional light thrown on at least some of the forms 
described and figured in the Canadian Monograph. Dr. Hall 
regretfully states: “The numerous Graptolites described by myself, 
and the writers enumerated, were for the most part in a fragmentary 
condition.” The position of the Cellules and the radicle form of 
the Niagara Inocaulis and Dictyonema were apparently un- 
known until the discovery of both in limestone at Hamilton 
plainly revealed one or more species, in the former possessing a 
