58 THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 
arrived at the same conclusion, also. You may recollect on several 
occasions I called your attention to the difference of opinion which 
existed among the most experienced regarding what were looked 
upon as widely separated families, apparently. 
The famous paleontologist sent me a copy of the work he was 
employed on, entitled ‘‘Canadian Organic Remains” (Decade). It 
contains description and figures of the lower silurian Cystidee and 
Star-fishes. One Trenton specimen from the City of Ottawa, you 
may see, bears such a close resemblance to a Cys¢¢d that he finds it 
necessary to state: “‘I have placed Ldrioaster Bigsbyt in the order 
Asteriade, because its structure appears to me to be more like that 
of the Star-fishes than that of the Cyst:diee.” He had previously 
named a different member of the group Agéacrinizes, clearly mistak- 
ing it, as he well may, for a Crimozd. Owing to this two-fold nature 
in some of the lower forms of life, the most experienced have much 
difficulty in assigning them to their true natural position. The 
earliest forms are the most perfect. One may well infer from sucha 
statement, that the learned gentleman had never seen one of the 
early Reptile-fishes of Agassiz figured or described. Compare Cef- 
halaspis Dawsont or Pterichthys Cornutus, at page 122-123 in Sir 
W. Dawson’s “Chain of Life,” with one of the fishes of modern 
times, or of the chalk formation. I ask to which would you assign 
inferiority. Again, take the birds furnished with teeth, and frequently 
described as flying reptiles. Unceasing change and development 
are noticeable in all classes ; the very term varieties prove that. 
From this time forward, the corniferous, remarks the Author of 
“American Palzeozoic Fossils,” Professor S. A. Miller, the five sub- 
kingdoms in animal life are represented in every group of rock 
capable of their preservation, viz.: Protista, Radtates, Malluscs, 
Articulates, Vertebrates. They all continue to change and develop, 
but the great field of evolution is well nigh surrendered to the Vev- 
tebrates. Each of these sub-kingdoms is now in the highest state of 
its development, though many families and some orders in each have 
had their days and become extinct, or have been on the decline for 
ages. 
In the introduction to the now famous Lowell Lectures on ‘‘ The 
Ascent of Man,” by Dr. H. Drummond (the work has already 
reached a fourth edition), you will find the following statement, viz. : 
