66 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS. 



ing to give an incredulous friend a little insight regarding the coal 

 measures of England, stating coal itself was nothing more or less 

 than mineralized vegetable matter, the production of Paleozoic 

 swamps, " lake basins " or " rafts," not widely differing from such as 

 we now see in a great river on the American continent. He noticed 

 near Edinburgh, that the miners had discovered a large tree in an 

 erect position, the roots plainly recognized, partly imbedded in indu- 

 rated sand or sandstone. How did it come there ? was the question. 

 The Duke of Argyle probably would have afforded a far more satis- 

 factory explanation than American geologists, for who can doubt the 

 universal deluge brought together land plants and sea shells, and 

 buried both indiscriminately in the places where discovery is claimed ? 

 For such things, however, in the course of conversation I called my 

 friend's attention to a small jointed plant growing in moist, swampy 

 places, commonly called Mare's Tail, and informed him it was closely 

 allied, if not a degraded descendant of a tree-Hke form some 50 or 60 

 feet long, which flourished in Paleozoic times, named calamites. Do 

 you really mean that ? " What, sixty feet !" he exclaimed, in astonish- 

 ment. And then, after a brief pause — " Well, Charlie, it may not be 

 a Mare's Tail, but a mare's nest that you and your stonebreaking 

 friends have found." 



The oldest air breathers — insects and land snails, were discov- 

 ered by Hartt and Matthews in New Brunswick in the formation. 

 The flora there, in Iceland, and Gaspe Bay leads us to infer that it 

 enjoyed a warm and damp atmosphere, a tropical climate. Indeed, 

 the numerous corals amount to positive proof of the latter. 



Quitting this portion of the subject, let us proceed to investigate 

 the organic remains in the limestones and shales, the sea or fresh 

 water deposits. " Many parts of the coniferous limestones," remarks 

 Nicholson, in Palaeontology of Ontario, " are almost wholly made up 

 of corals, and as these are silicified, they usually weather out from the 

 softer matrix. In the shales (Hamilton) they are obtained free from 

 adhering material. In both they are obtained in exquisite preserva- 

 tion." I conclude from the foregoing that the Professor discovered, 

 as I did many 3^ears ago, the most likely place to procure perfect 

 specimens was in fields, where the glacial drift was exposed on the 

 surface, and not in quarries. 



What first strikes the stranger in a Devonian district here is the 



