412 D)'. H. Woodward — On tlie Fossil Sirenia. 



palgeontologist. We mention here only the results which James Hall 

 has given in his great work/ 



Among the subdivisions of the Silurian established by the 

 American geologists, the so-called Quebec Group has especially 

 proved to be a system of strata richly cliarged with well-preserved 

 and rare specimens of Graptolites. Under the name above cited the 

 North American " Calciferous Sandstone " and the " Chazy Lime- 

 stone " have been grouped together. The most celebrated locality 

 for this group is the frequently mentioned Point Levis, the Grapto- 

 litic treasures of which were discovered in 1854. Besides this 

 locality, Orleans Island and St. Anne's Eiver are to be mentioned for 

 the same horizon. Older than the Quebec Group is the Potsdam 

 Sandstone (St. Croix and Eiver Valley) ; younger are the Utica 

 Slates (Utica), and the Hudson's Eiver formation (Norman's Kill, in 

 the neighbourhood of Albany, in the State of New York). Natura- 

 lists who, besides James Hall, have written upon American 

 Graptolites, are: — Brongniart (1828), Vanuxem, Mather (1843), 

 Emmons (1846), Billings, Prout (1861), Logan, and Nicholson.^ 



By the incessant labours of the Geological Surveys, Graptolites 

 have been discovered in a number of the States of the Union. 

 Hitherto our fossils have been detected in New York, Wisconsin, 

 Ohio, Tennessee, Iowa, and Virginia, and also to the north of Belmont, 

 in Nevada. 



The knowledge of the existence of Graptolites in deposits in South 

 America is of very old date. In the Eepublic of Bolivia, strata which 

 hold a position about on the boundary between the Upper and 

 Lower Silurian, have furnished several species. 



In conclusion the abundantly developed Graptolite-fauna of 

 of Australia must not remain unnoticed. The strata of the environs 

 of Victoria are the equivalents of the English Arenig and Llandeilo- 

 Bala. Their fauna has been studied by E. Etheridge, jun.,^ and by 

 M'Coy.* W. S. D. 



IV. — On the Fossiii Sirenia in the British Museum 

 (Natural History), Cromwell Eoad, S.W. 



By Henry Woodward, LL.D., F.E.S., F.G.S.; 

 Keeper of the Geological Department. 



AMONG the vast additions which, during the past five years, 

 have been made to the palgeontological collections in the 

 British Museum (Natural History), none probably possess greater 

 interest to the naturalist and comparative anatomist than the 

 remains of the very remarkable group of aquatic phytophagous 

 mammals known as the Sirenia, of which the " Manatee" and the 

 " Dugong" are the living representatives. 



Fossil remains of Sirenians have been met with in Tertiary 



' Graptolites of the Quebec Group, Montreal, 1865. 



2 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xi. (1873), pp. 133—143. 



3 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 4, vol. xiv. (1874), pp. 1—9. 



* Prodromus of the Palseontology of Victoria, Dec. i. — iii. (1874 — 78). 



