374 Montreal Natural History Society. 



lost, never to be restored. He believed that Mr. Darwin and Br. 

 Hooker were right in their mode of investigation, and that the 

 records of Insular and Arctic floras, combined with the aid given by 

 fossils, may yet solve the problem which so interests every scientific 

 man, since the publication of Mr. Darwin's work, and the results 

 arrived at by Dr. Hooker. 



Montreal Natural History Society. — The last meeting of this 

 body for the session of 1866-67, was held at its rooms on April 29th. 

 Principal Dawson read a paper " On Insects from the Carboniferous 

 and Devonian Formations" Up to last year no remains of insects 

 had been found in the Coal-fields of Nova Scotia, except a single head 

 and small portions of a large insect found in the excrement of a reptile, 

 which, along with other animal remains, were found in the trunk of a 

 tree at the Joggins. This specimen seemed to indicate that the coal 

 reptiles were insectivorous creatures. Last year Mr. James Barnes was 

 fortunate enough to find the wing of an insect, in a bed of shale at 

 G-lace Bay, Cape Breton. Mr. Scudder, an eminent entomologist at 

 Boston, considers that it belongs to the Ephemera group, and that is 

 is a Neuropterous insect closely allied to the day and shad flies. The 

 insect appears to have been of large size and it seems not improbable 

 that this species may have haunted the swamps of the period, and 

 have been preyed upon by Carboniferous fishes. Wings of four 

 species of insects have been found by Mr. C. F. Hartt, in the plant- 

 bearing Devonian shales, of St. John, New Brunswick. These are 

 of considerable interest to the geologist, as being the oldest fossil in- 

 sects known ; the antiquity and exact date of the beds from which 

 they are procured being unquestionable. These insects also belong 

 to the Neuroptera, and seemed allied to the Ephemera. Like many 

 other insects, they appear to have had a mechanical apparatus on 

 their wing for producing sound, the structure of which was explained 

 in detail. They appear to be a connecting link between the Neurop- 

 tera and Orthoptera. — Montreal Gazette, May 1, 1867. 



ooE-iiESiPOisrnDEisroE. 



DRIFT OF THE EASTERN COUNTIES. 

 To the Editor of the Geological Magazine. 



Sir, — There are one or two facts which I think are serious objec- 

 tions to the view Mr. Maw has taken as to the age of the Cromer 

 beds. The first is, that there does not exist along the Norfolk coast 

 any such continuous margin of comparatively low ground as his paper 

 would seem to imply. On the contrary, some portions of the cliffs 

 are, I believe, as high as any part of the watershed of East Norfolk, 

 and, as a rule, higher. 



For example, at Trimmingham, one of the highest points of the 

 coast and of the county, the spire of the Cathedral at Norwich, 

 standing in the valley there but a few feet above the level of the eea, 



