654 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. Ko. 24. 



curring in the soutliern part of British 

 Columbia, between Burrard Inlet and the 

 United States bonndary. These beds, which 

 have been noticed in the Reports of the 

 Geological Survey by Dr. G. M. Dawson 

 and the late Mr. Richardson, are believed to 

 be newer than the Cretaceous coal-measures 

 of Ifanaimo and Comox, and probably 

 equivalent to the ' Puget group ' of the 

 United States geologists in the State of 

 "Washington. Collections of the fossil plants 

 have been made at various times bj' officers 

 of the Geological Survey, and more recently 

 by Mr. G. F. Monckton, of Vancouver, who 

 placed his material in the hands of the 

 author, along with that previously en- 

 trusted to him by the Geological Survej'. 

 The species contained in the several col- 

 lections are mentioned in the paper, and 

 are compared with those of the Puget 

 group, as described by Newberry and Les- 

 quei-eux, and with those of other localities 

 in British Columbia and the United States. 

 The conclusion as to the age of the flora is 

 similar to that arrived at by Newberry for 

 the Puget flora, making it equivalent to the 

 Upper Laramie or Fort Union group. It 

 thus intervenes in date between the Upper 

 Cretaceous of Nanaimo and the Oligocene 

 or Lower Miocene of the Similkameen dis- 

 trict, and is therefore of Eocene age, fllling 

 a gap hitherto existing in the mesozoic 

 flora of the West coast. Much, according 

 to Sir W. DaM'son, still remains to be 

 known of this interesting flora, and as the 

 formation containing it, which seems to be 

 estuarine in character, extends over a wide 

 ai-ea in British Columbia and Washington, 

 and is of considerable thickness, more es- 

 pecially in its extension south of the Cana- 

 dian boundary, it may ultimately be shown 

 to include several sub-divisions represent- 

 ing the long interval between the Cretaceous 

 and the Middle Tertiary. 



Mr. J. F. Whiteaves, paleontologist of 

 the Geological Survey, Ottawa, read an in- 



teresting ' Note on the occurrence of Prim- 

 noa Reseda on the coast of British Colum- 

 bia.' The main value of Mr. Whiteaves' paper 

 lies in the fact that Primnoa Reseda (a tree- 

 like Alcyouarian coral), though known for 

 over a century as occurring in the Atlantic, 

 has not hitherto been with certaiutj- as- 

 signed a Pacific habitat. Dr. R. W. Ells 

 and Mr. A. E. Barlow presented a joint 

 paper on ' The Geology of the proposed Ot- 

 tawa Ship Canal,' the route of which is of 

 imusual interest from a geological, as well 

 as historical and commercial, point of view. 

 A contribution to the historj' of botanical 

 research on this continent was offered bj' 

 Prof. (Mgr.) Laflamme, of Laval Univer- 

 sity, who seeks an answer to the question, 

 ' Where did J. Cornut, who published his 

 Canadensmm Flantariim Historia in 1635, ob- 

 tain the specimens fi-om which he wrote his 

 descriptions, and bj^ whom were they trans- 

 ported to Europe ? ' Mr. G. U. Hay dis- 

 cussed 'some variations in Epigcea rejyens.' 

 Dr. G. F. Matthew, of St. John, New 

 Brunswick, continued a series of studies on 

 the organic remains of the Little River 

 Group in that province. Dr. Wesley Mills 

 (McGill College) presented a series of 

 papers embracing results of investigations 

 into the psychology of the dog, the cat, the 

 rabbit, the guinea pig and certain birds, 

 with corresponding physical indications. 

 The papers also compared the mongrel with 

 the pure-bred dog ; the dog with the cat, the 

 rabbit with the guinea pig. etc. These in- 

 quiries were conducted with extreme care 

 with the aid of the best equipment for ob- 

 servation and experiment. 



One of most important of the scientific 

 papers contributed to the Societj' was pre- 

 sented, not in section, but before a public 

 audience. Prof. John Cox, M. A. (Cantab), 

 late fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, 

 and William C. McDonald Professor of 

 Experimental Physics in McGill Univer- 

 sity, Montreal, had been asked to give a 



