TH?: HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 



SHORT NOTES ON RECENT DISCOVERIES. 



Read before the Geological Section, April 22nd, i8g£. 

 BY COL. C. C. GRANT. 



The beautiful collection of Algse (sea) and land plants presented 

 to the Hamilton Association by our late lamented friend, 

 Professor Wright, finds a fitting and honored place in the 

 Botanical Case. Such specimens, however, as come under 

 the head "Sertularia" ( Haley onoid Polyps) are of animal, not 

 vegetable, nature, and are undoubtedly out of place there. Admit- 

 ting that we cannot recognize them as fossils, yet they are considered 

 by many Palaeontologists here and in Europe to be so nearly allied 

 to the extinct Graptolites of former ages that doubts have been 

 expressed whether these modern forms may not actually prove to be 

 merely modified by surrounding circumstances, at least in some 

 instances. To restrict this section merely to fossilized organic re- 

 mains would place it at a great disadvantage, since we are compelled 

 to investigate the past life from the still existing. If the Council 

 were in a position to provide a case open to public examination, 

 it would prove an additional attraction to the visitors. 



AN ANCIENT FOSSIL CORAL FROM THE CLINTON 

 ROCKS, HAMILTON. 



In a collection of fossils brought from the Arctic regions some 

 years ago, the late Dr. Salter recognized a coral (Syringopora) sup- 

 posed to be characteristic of the Devonian formation. As it was 

 associated, however, with other fossils of undoubted Upper Silurian 

 (lower Helderberg type), he claimed it as the oldest dis- 

 covered. The specimen submitted for the inspection of the Geolog- 

 ical Section takes it back to another stage, viz., to the time when the 

 Clinton beds were deposited. It occurs a Httle above the Medina 

 grey-band in the lower shales. As far as I can learn no Syringopora 



