THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. T^I 



OUR CRITICS ANSWERED. 



Read before the Hamilton Association, Fehruaxy 26tli, 1896. 

 BY COL. C. C. GRANT. 



In Science, November i5th^ 1895? a copy of which Professor 

 Scheuchart kindly sent me, you will find an interesting account 

 of a collector's notes among the Devonian Canadian deposits. 

 In common with all writers on this subject, Mr. Scheuchart was 

 struck with the abundance, variety and exquisite preservation of our 

 fossil corals. " At Hagersville," he remarks, " a large mass of various 

 compound species are numerous ; many hundred tons two years ago 

 were broken up for road making. The original carbonate of lime 

 has been replaced by amorphous Silica. Four miles west of Port 

 Colborne is a rock pile more than fifteen feet high, every piece of 

 which contains corals or MoUusca. At Widder (now named Thed- 

 ford), where Devonian (Hamilton shales) are well exposed, corals are 

 abundant. What a splendid place for a collector, where you can 

 pick up in a day five thousand specimens of Spirifer Mucronatus. 



The local enthusiasm here has been developed by the Rev, 

 Hector Currie, who in the small village of one thousand inhabitants 

 is surrounded by no less than four enthusiastic collectors. Here 

 also, he adds, one is left alone or allowed to collect in the cabinets 

 of the minister, teacher, storekeeper, tailor or section boss, not pained 

 to know you are put down as a curio hunter or lunatic, having to 

 reply to such enquiries as, ' Mister, what do you do with them 

 things } Do you take them home and gild um 7 ' " 



The above extract I could not well curtail, and I trust that the 

 proprietors of Science will excuse the liberty I have taken in extracting 

 so extensively from its valuable scientific pages. 



Canadian geologists must all feel the complimentary notice of 

 Rev. H. Currie's work was richly merited. The provincial boorish- 

 ness and ignorance, alluded to by Prof. Scheuchart, is not confined 

 to the States. This Province of Ontario could display many amusing 



