232 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XYI. No. 397. 



or in science. The geographical position of 

 California suggests some of the main lines 

 of research — all that is in or around the Pacific 

 Ocean. As the greater part of the researches 

 could be conducted most profitably at various 

 spots within this area, so the course of in- 

 struction, or rather the direction of the re- 

 search, in any subject would be undertaken 

 wherever the professor happened to be. For 

 example, the professors of geology, botany, 

 zoology and anthropology, with their stu- 

 dents, might be for one year in some island 

 in the Pacific. The professor of comparative 

 religions and his students might make investi- 

 gations from Kamchatka to Australia. 



The ordinary European academic mind 

 would stand aghast at the upsetting of tradi- 

 tional methods and would say promptly that, 

 even supposing such a scheme were in any 

 way desirable, it would be unworkable. Per- 

 sonally I believe it would prove most stimula- 

 ting and valuable and I have no doubt that 

 American wits could devise a working scheme. 

 Alfred C. Haddon. 



Cambridge, England, July 10, 1902. 



SHORTER ARTICLES. 



STRATIGRAPHY VERSUS PALEONTOLOGY IN NOVA 



SCOTIA. 



The recent discussion of the Upper Paleo- 

 zoic formations in the region of the Bay of 

 Fundy brings the value of fossils as means of 

 age determination, even as between two major 

 time divisions, somewhat acutely in question. 

 Beds which on stratigraphical grounds have 

 been classed as Middle Devonian appear on 

 the evidence of floras and faunas to be Car- 

 boniferous. 



Certain fossiliferous terranes at Riversdale 

 and on the Harrington River, Nova Scotia, 

 are referred by Dr. E. W. Ells and Mr. Hugh 

 Fletcher, statigraphers, to the Middle De- 

 vonian, and are correlated with the 'fern 

 kdges' (Little River group) at St. John, which 

 were regarded by Sir William Dawson also as 

 Middle Devonian. The correlation of the 

 Nova Scotia beds with the St. John ' fern 

 ledges ' is agreed to by Mr. Robert Kidston, 

 the foremost British authority on Paleozoic 

 Plants, and the writer; but each of us, quite 



independently and without knowledge of the 

 other's views, unhesitatingly referred the ' 

 plant beds, both at St. John and at the Nova 

 Scotian localities, to the Caribonferous. The 

 St. John flora, which is more complete, is re- 

 garded by the writer as probably ,of Upper 

 Pottsville age and by Mr. Kidston as belong- 

 ing to the Lower Coal Measures, the latter in 

 Great Britain appearing to closely correspond 

 paleobotanically to the uppermost Pottsville 

 of the northern Appalachian district. 



The gist of our conclusions has been given 

 by the Nova Scotian geologists; but the pale- 

 ontological evidence has been published only 

 in part. Mr. Kidston submitted a report from 

 which extracts have been made by Dr. Ami, 

 who is personally not responsible for silence 

 in regard to the rest of it. The evidence in 

 the writers hands, which concerns the detailed 

 study of the species and their geographical 

 and vertical range in other portions of this 

 continent, cannot properly be presented in 

 full in advance of the publication of his mon- 

 ograph of the floras of the Pottsville forma- 

 tions, but an examination of the material from 

 St. John described by Sir William Dawson 

 and a comparison of it with the Paleozoic 

 floras as yet made known in other regions of 

 the world is in itself sufficient to prove the 

 Carboniferous age of the beds to most paleo- 

 botanists. 



The paleontological data for the age deter- 

 mination are not, however, confined to fossil 

 plants. The beds in question contain verte- 

 brates, Crustacea, insects, pelecypods, ostra- 

 cods and annelids. Collections of these fos- 

 sils have been made and forwarded to vari- 

 ous specialists, but of the results of the ex- 

 aminations by the faunal experts and of the 

 conclusions communicated very little indeed 

 has been made public, though reports seem 

 long ago to have been submitted. From a 

 short unofficial article* published by Dr. H. M. 

 Ami, we learn that the ostraeods were submit- 

 ted to Professor T. Riipert Jones, and the 

 Crustacea to Dr. H. Woodward; and that 

 Hylopiis Logani, Sauropus Bawsoni, Bellin- 

 iirus grandavus. Prestwichia sp., Leaia tricari- 



* Proc. N. 8. Inst. Sci., Vol. X.. pt. 2, pp. 1G2- 

 178, 1900. 



