THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 75 



sufficiently explain why we now find tropical plants embedded with 

 ones' which flourish in more temperate climates ? 



I believe ice to have been the sole agent capable of transporting 

 some of the large rocks noticeable in the Conglomerate at the base 

 of the Citadel, Quebec, and icebergs were probably the means of 

 transport at a later period than a Silurian or Cambro-Sil. age. The 

 Devonian Conglomerate of this Continent, Jamaica, and Ireland, is 

 composed of pebbles, varying from i to 4 inches in diameter, of 

 Trap, Quartz, Greenstone, Porphyry, all rounded or waterworn, 

 cemented by Silex. The description will do for all, and each 

 appeared to me to represent portions of older sea beaches. 



One thing I remarked at " The Devil's Bit," in the south of 

 Ireland. Although limestone pebbles in the Devonian Conglomerate 

 which caps the Silurian hill there were not altogether absent, I 

 never succeeded in obtaining a complete fossil, or even a fragment 

 of one, which could be recognized. Their hardness was very great, 

 and the cementing material of these rounded pebbles resisted 

 fracture even better than Igneous Porphyries. The Bit looks as if a 

 big wedge had been cut out and removed altogether bodily. The 

 story is that the old gentleman was in such a rage with a Cowherd 

 there who deceived him, and slipped through his claws, that he took 

 a bite out of the mountain, flew off with it and dropped it on the 

 spot now called " The Rock of Cashel." We may hear many 

 remarkable stories of what are called Metamorphic rocks. I think 

 we may reasonably claim this gentleman in black as one of our oldest 

 field geologists. Wonderful to relate, during his flight he converted 

 that mass of Devonian conglomerate into fossiliferous mountain lime- 

 stone. I know this, and can vouch for the fact, for I passed some 

 days in its examination. Surely this circumstance ought to convince 

 the most sceptical individual. 



NOTES. 



' Carbonized wood has been found, it is said, on this continent 

 in the early tertiaries. It has been remarked half a century ago also 

 in Europe in the same beds. What folly to adduce this as a proof of 

 man's existence at such a period ! Would not lightening fire the 

 forests then as in our own days, leaving the charcoal in evidence, 

 which is almost indestructable, like baked clay ? 



The following extract, recently received from the States, is of 



