21 Q Geological Gleanings. 



the transverse partitions ; indeed they are limited within the spaces 

 of two successive floors, or to the upper surface of the last. A careful 

 comparison of the corallum of Millepora and Pollicopora with that 

 of Hydractinia has satisfied me that these radiating partitions of 

 the Favositidae far from being productions of the body-wall are foot 

 secretions, to be compared to the axis of the Gorgonia, Corallium, 

 etc., and their seeming radiating lamellae to the vertical grooves 

 or keels upon the surface of the latter, which reduced to a hori- 

 zontal projection, would also make impression of radiating 

 lamellae in the foot of the Polyp. If this be so, you see at once 

 that the apparent radiating lamellae of the Favositidae do no longer 

 indicate an affinity with the true Polyps, but simply a peculiar 

 mode of growth of the corallum ; and of these we have already 

 several types, that of Actinoids, that of Halcyonoids, that of 

 Biyozoa, that of Millepora and other Corallines, to which we now 

 add that of the Hydroids. Considering the subject in this light, 

 is there any further objection to uniting all the Favositidae with 

 the Hydroids, — Sideropora and Alveopora being of course removed 

 from the Favositidae. It is a point of great importance in a geo- 

 logical point of view, and for years I have been anticipating some 

 such result, as you may see by comparing my remarks in the 

 Amer. Journal, May, 1854, p. 315. If all the Tabulata and 

 Rugosa, are Hydroids, as I believe them to be, the class of Aca- 

 lephs is no longer an exception to the simultaneous appearance of 

 all the types of Eadiata in the lowest fossiliferous formations and 

 the peculiar characters which these old Hydroid corals present 

 appears in a new and very instructive aspect." 



* The Bowmanville Coal Case. — The newspapers inform us that 

 this bubble has at last burst, and has proved to have been a gross 

 and deliberate fraud. As we did not give credence to the pre- 

 tended discovery, we do not need to join in the outcry which 

 now pursues the authors of the imposture. Such men usually be- 

 gin by being themselves misled by appearances which they do 

 not understand, and having gone a certain length under this in- 

 fluence, and finding themselves elevated into popular lions and a 

 ready belief given to their statements, they are easily induced by 

 the desire to maintain their credit and by the prospect of profit 

 to go any length in deception. We trust that this lesson willnot 

 soon be forgotten ; and that those of our contemporaries who 



