66 Canadian Record of Science. 
slab of shale; their spicules have been replaced by pyrites 
precisely the same as in the Métisspecimens. The sponges 
were evidently vasiform, gradually increasing in width 
from the base upward, their summits have not been pre- 
served, but with a length of 65 mm. they are 40 and 30 
mm. in width, respectively. Owing to compression, the 
opposite walls are now nearly in contact, being only separ- 
ated by a mere film of the shaly matrix, hardly half a 
millimetre in thickness. The shale has split in such a man- 
ner as to expose in some places the outer surface of the 
wall, and in others, the inner surface of the opposite wall. 
The wail is very delicate, and consists of quadrate or ob- 
long areas formed by slender longitudinal and transverse 
strands or fibers, of which the former are the more prom- 
inent. As in Protospongia, the quadrate areas are formed 
by the four transverse rays of cruciform, or five-rayed spic- 
ules, but these are disposed so that their rays overlap each 
other, and thus form fascicles of closely opposed parallel 
rays. The spicules in the transverse strands of the wall are 
less thickly grouped together, and even in some of the 
larger squares they may be arranged singly, whilst the 
smaller squares are generally bounded by single spicules 
only. The longitudinal strands principally consist of 
cruciform (?) spicules, but it is possible that elongated 
filiform spicules may likewise be present. There are plain 
indleations of a fifth or distal ray in many of the principal 
spicules of the wall, shown by a very minute knob or blunt- 
ed process projecting from the central node of the trans- 
verse rays, which may represent a partially developed ray, 
or the broken stump of a complete one. In some places, 
also, there is a continuous film of pyrites, probably indicat- 
ing a membrane of very minute spicules or an agglomera- 
tion of flesh-spicules, now replaced by this mineral. 
The basal portion of these specimens is incomplete, but 
there are indications of an extension of the longitudinal 
strands of the wall downward into the a tuft of anchoring 
spicules. 
This genus is mainly distinguished from protospongia by 
the fascicular arrangement of the spicular rays in the prin- 
