Geological Survey of Canada. 85 



iained being ten feet in length and eight inches to six and a half 

 inches in diameter. They consist of carbonate of lime, presenting 

 concentric rings, like the growth-rings of exogenous trees, in the 

 transverse section, and in the centre is a cylindrical tnbe crossed 

 by transverse septa. At first sight they resemble exogenous trunks 

 with chambered piths, like the West Indian Cecropia peltatd. 

 Taking their probably marine habitat into account, we are struck 

 by the general resemblance of their structure to that of the rare 

 and curious Arthrocladia villom of the deeper parts of the Atlan- 

 tic. These may however be mere analogies, and the appearance 

 of the fossils also suggests affinities to the transversely septa ted 

 corals, such as Cyathophyllum and Zaphrenitis. The real nature 

 of the fossil can only be settled by its minute structure, which has 

 not yet been examined. In the mean time Mr. Billings regards 

 •it as a plant. 



The tracks referred to in the section are also very curious 

 objects, and appear to occur only in one thin bed. They consist 

 of two parallel rows of semi-circular pits, arranged alternately, 

 about half an inch apart. The pits are each about half an inch 

 in diameter. Their alternate arrangement and their great depth 

 prevent them from being attributed to marine worms. They 

 rather resemble the marks which might be made in soft mud by 

 the longitudinally cleft feet of some gasteropodous mollusks, 

 as for instance the Phatianellai. Possibly some of the gastero- 

 pods which have left their shells in these beds, may have had the 

 cleft foot and the ambling gait of that genus. 



Since however the creatures that lived in Anticosti in the Silu- 

 rian era, may not be so interesting to many of our readers as the 

 -question, What lives or can live in it now? we give nearly in full 

 Mr. Richardson's very intelligent notes on the appearance and 

 productions of the island : — 



" The south side of the island, in its general aspect, is low ; the most 

 elevated points close on this coast are at the mouth of Jupiter River, 

 where cliffs rise on the east side to the height of from eighty to a hun- 

 dred feet ; and on the west side to a hundred and fifty feet. On no 

 other part of the south coast were they observed to rise more than from 

 thirty to sixty feet, but the general height above the sea is from ten to 

 twenty feet. 



From the south-west end, the hills inland are more elevated than they 

 are to the eastward ; in general they rise gradually and more conti- 

 nuously from the shore, attaining the height of from a hundredand fifty ^ 

 ■to two hundred and fifty feet, at about the distance of from one to thre 



