330 Reports and Proceedings — Natural History Sac. Montreal. 



pyrite to be accessories. Microscopically examined, the above con- 

 stituents are seen to be present, and exhibit considerable variety in 

 their mode of occurrence, together with nosean and sodalite as 

 characteristic accessories, and occasional plagioclase (recognized as 

 oligoclase), muscovite, hsematite, and apatite. The el^olite is irre- 

 gular in outline ; nosean and sodalite are often associated with and 

 imbedded in it. The latter minerals are associated and intergrown. 

 Their mode of occurrence and the tests for their presence are 

 described in detail. Hornblende and augite occur in foyaite in 

 about equal quantities, associated and intergrown. These also are 

 fully described, as well as the characteristics of the other accessories. 

 Analyses of the elseolite and the foyaite are given. The author 

 concludes by pointing out the close resemblance of the rock to 

 ditroite, miascite, and certain syenites of Brevig and Cape Verd, 

 stating that on this account there is no need of a special group of 

 foyaites. 



Natural History Society of Montreal. 



At the last regular meeting of the Society for the season, held 

 April 29th, notes by Principal Dawson were read on some recent 

 discoveries in Canadian Geology and Paleeontology. Some of these 

 related to specimens collected by Lieut.-Col. Grant, of Hamilton, in. 

 the Niagara (Wenlock) formation. Among these are a great 

 number of Graptolitic forms belonging to the genera Deitzmania and 

 Inocaulis. Many new sponges of the Hexactinellid type, belonging 

 to the genera Astylospongia and Aulocopina, and a large Pterygotus, 

 " comparable in size with the great Pterygotus Anglicus of the 

 Devonian of Scotland, though of much greater geological age. 

 Some small species of Pterygotus have been described by Hall from 

 the Waterlime formation of New York, and a fragment of an unde- 

 scribed species has been found by the same palaeontologist in the 

 Clinton ; but the present is, so far as known, the first example of a 

 large and well-developed species of this genus from so old a 

 formation. Col. Grant hopes to obtain additional remains. In the 

 mean time the well-preserved maxilliped or ectognath exhibited, 

 with rounded scaly basal part and narrow maxillary process with 

 about 12 denticles and 3|- inches in length, is sufScient to indicate 

 the existence of a new and large species, which may for the present 

 be named P. Canadensis, and which was a Canadian predecessor of 

 P. Anglicus." 



Among recent facts relating to the geology of the Maritime 

 Provinces of Canada, reference was made to a " new classification of 

 the post-Pliocene deposits, and more especially the recognition of a 

 layer between the typical Leda clay and the Saxicava sand corre- 

 sponding to the Udevalla beds of the Swedish geologists, and which 

 he proposed to name the Upper Leda clay. The Lower Leda clay 

 contains only a slender fauna of highly arctic species, and corre- 

 sponding to those found in the permanently ice-covered waters of 

 Spitzbergen and Baffin's Bay. The Upper Leda clay holds a very 

 rich fauna of Northern or Boreal type, but nearly related to that of 

 Labrador at present." 



