JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 37 
writer concluded it was the tooth of a very low class of fishes. If 
this view was correct it must carry back representatives of the class 
to a lower stage than Upper Silurians. 
Pander published a description and figures of Conodonts he 
found in the Cambrians of Russia. 
CITY QUARRIES, 
During the past season avery large number of men were em- 
ployed by the city in getting out road metal from the Webber Quarry. 
Many years ago, when the place in question was first opened, the 
face of the escarpment there presented an unusual number of grapto- 
lites, as was the case in the adjacent quarry which had previously 
been worked out. It was natural to think, under the circumstances, 
that one was likely to find colonies of graptolites and other fossils 
also. It was not so, however. Weeks and months passed and not 
a single colony was discovered, but at the base of the chert a few 
single graptolites put in an appearance—fine specimens, well pre- 
served and likely to prove to be new species. We must not forget 
Barrande, the celebrated European paleontologist, declared that this 
class (graptolites), instead of disappearing as was stated, actually 
culminated as far as he saw in the Upper Silurians. Nothing fore- 
shadows their decline, and this is the singular part of their history. 
They flourished in the muddy water when the, Niagara shales were 
deposited. They survived when a different condition arose in this 
locality, when in clearer water. Our limestones were laid down with- 
out any change as far as can be noticed. The specimens exhibit 
more robust forms, a greater increase in size, as if under more con- 
genial surrounding conditions. I call, gentlemen, particular attention 
to this, because not a few well-known palzontologists, erroneously, 
perhaps, imagine that Artic currents may have deposited the muddy 
shales where they are so frequently discovered. Doubtlessly this 
conclusion originated in certain local surroundings. One has rarely 
an opportunity of carefully examining the interior of limestone layers 
usually used for building purposes, or sandstones for the same reason. 
Yet both contain organic remains, whose existence could never be 
suspected from any external appearance. How often has an acci- 
dental shot of powder revealed here in Hamilton, by fracturing or 
splitting our local beds, limestone or chert, inside specimens, whose 
