THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION 69 



modern times (the so-called parrot fish of the North Pacific, for 

 instance) we may not expect to find, but the bone plated and bone 

 scaled presented, perhaps, no less brilliant appearance than the 

 Lepidostens (Garfish), which in the current at Fort Erie, looks as if it 

 had been encased in silver scale armour, " The Ganoids in the Corn- 

 iferous rocks, U. S. A.," remarks the late Dr. Newberry, " including the 

 Onychodus, Macropetalicthy ^ greatly surpass the Elasmo branches in 

 number and size, and I examined many thousand fish remains from 

 these Devonian beds," he adds. Perhaps the most wonderful mem- 

 ber of the family was the Diiiichies the lamented Palaeontologist 

 described, from the shale of Ohio, furnished with a head buckler 

 three feet long, and provided with such formidable teeth that ren- 

 dered it the equal of, if not superior to, any sharks then existing. It 

 may be asked what reason was there for substituting the term 

 Devonian for the older name — old red sandstone ? Dr. Page and 

 others could see no good grounds for the change either, but the old 

 red sandstone of Hugh Miller merely represents a portion only of a 

 vast series of beds, which attain a thickness of some 15,000 feet 

 nearly three miles, and such a name could be hardly applicable to 

 limestones, shales, etc. ; but it is retained by general consent for the 

 fresh water lake or lagoon deposits of the formation. Undoubtedly 

 true, sea fishes are occasionally found embedded therein, but New- 

 berry remarks : " The majority I examined on this continent very 

 likely inhabited inland lakes, and, like the modern salmon and white 

 trout, a few found their way there perhaps for spawning purposes." 

 A similar opinion has been expressed by Sir A. Geikie since, when 

 referring to specimens discovered in the red sandstones of Scotland, 

 and among others which he thinks were inhabitants of inland lakes. 

 These latter must have swarmed in the waters. Their bodies lie 

 piled on each other, and so well preserved as to show they were sud- 

 denly killed. He attributes their destruction to earthquake shocks 

 and escaping gasses, and alleges that some of the larger lakes in 

 central Scotland were once marked active volcanoes that erupted 

 lava and ashes 6,ooo feet thick. We have evidence also of great dis- 

 turbances on the American continent about the close of the age. Sir 

 W. Dawson considers a portion of the Nova Scotia granite belongs to 

 that period. You may recollect in a former paper I called attention 

 to a remarkable discovery made by the Rev. M. Harvey in New- 



