74 JOURNAL OF PROCEEDINGS, 
REMARKS ON OUR ANNUAL EXCURSION. 
Read before the Geological Section, October 27th, 1893. 
BY COL. C. C, GRANT. 
As this is the first meeting of the Section since we adjourned 
during the heated term, a few remarks may not be considered out 
of place in explanation of what has been done in the meantime. 
Our annual outing at the Albion Mill Ravine was unfortunately 
marred by a sudden and unlooked for thunder shower that com- — 
pletely drenched ladies and gentlemen, rendering it possible to 
add but little to our collection. I ascertained, however, that on the 
day previous the new proprietor of the Waterlime-Barton beds 
was busily engaged in working the Marshall Quarry, which he had 
recently purchased. ‘These are the shale beds. 
I concluded it might be as well to have a look at the exposure 
before the members and their friends arrived at the mill. The pros- 
pect of inducing the gentlemen to leave the ladies behind seemed 
improbable, and the latter, however enthusiastic, could scarcely be 
expected to travel a considerable distance over stake fences and 
other obstacles above the mill pond before reaching the quarry. I 
thought, taking all things into account, it was better to examine it 
personally than risk the chance of a later visit, and so I started 
before the others. On my way down to join our party, I raised and 
split some of the large, thin shale slabs, containing many specimens 
of that singular organism named by Dr. Spencer, F. G. S., ‘ Phyllo- 
graptus dubius,” Now, no one, I think, has ever questioned the 
organic nature of the specimen. On one point, however, the majority 
of paleontologists are agreed, that the classification is exceedingly 
doubtful. This was Spencer’s own opinion, hence the name—imply- 
ing doubt. 
It is colored black like graptolites, presents no apparent point 
of attachmer.t, very flexible, of about a dozen separate individuals 
on the face of a split flag. No two were precisely shaped alike. If 
free graptolites, it is difficult to account for their crowding together 
