JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 6 1 



attached from the States. In our local chert beds the flatted lower 

 valve is almost unknown, indeed the writer can only recall one 

 instance where both valves put in an appearance. The ornamenta- 

 tion of the upper (Dorsal) one is usually well preserved, the general 

 features of the species showing no distortion. One looks in vain 

 for indications of attachment to foreign bodies. This holds good 

 also regarding the CornuUtes and Tentaculites of the upper part of 

 the chert or glaciated beds. I can quite understand the possibility 

 of the decay of the objects to which they had been probably 

 attached. Yet the writer is disposed to believe it was not so in 

 very many instances under observation. Although but a short time 

 occurred for collecting fossils from the part of the field adjoining 

 the drain, the Section will find, notwithstanding past researches, the 

 flint flake hunting ground continues unexhausted still, and may well 

 repay a visit in spring, even under unfavorable circumstances. I 

 collected then the greater part of the specimens now produced. A 

 few are new species, probably; others rare or unrecorded as Cana- 

 dian fossils. You will find among the lot the fragment of an Ortho- 

 ceras retaining the cross striation similar to Hall's O. Proteiforme, 

 and corresponding nearly, if not completely, with the description 

 given of Orthoceras Jamesi ixonx the Clintons of Ohio (Hall and 

 Whitefield). In the absence of the origmal Cephalopod for com- 

 parison, Palaeontologists may overlook the minor differences which 

 amateurs are unable to detect, who unfortunately possess little 

 scientific training. Professionals, too, frequently are mistaken, and 

 perhaps we find it harder also to acknowledge mistakes. " Palaeon- 

 tology and Geology are alike progressive," was the remark made to 

 the writer by the late Dr. James Hall, of Albany, "And while you 

 regret your disadvantages as regards the scientific training of a 

 geologist, such was my own case." 



Some fine specimens of Hall's Cladoporce were also found in 

 the old hunting ground, near the corporation drain. One may 

 notice considerable difference of opinion among Paleeontologists 

 regarding this family and the MonticuUpora group. Millar places 

 both among the Favositidce. Nicholson, in " The Palaeontology of 

 Ontario," seems inclined to classify the only two species of 

 Cladopor(Z he found under the same head ; but in the list of fossils 

 of the Province he implies doubt regarding the correctness of the 

 classification. 



