374 Canadian Record of Science. 
are either non-septate, or very obscurely septate; their 
skeleton consists of anastomosing lamin and fibres; in the 
latter genus the lamine are remarkably thickened by suc- 
cessive secondary deposits of calcareous material. 
The Archeocyathine are regarded as a special family of 
the Zoantharia sclerodermata, in some features allied to the 
group of perforate corals. The family is restricted, so far 
as is known at present, to the lowest fossiliferous zone of 
the Cambrian strata, that characterized by the genus Ole- 
nellus, Hall, and it occurs at Anse-au-loup, Labrador ; Troy, 
New York State; Nevada; in the Sierra Morena, Spain, 
and in the south-west of the Island of Sardinia. 
The genus Archeoscyphia, based on Archceeocyathus minga- 
nensis, Bill., is shown to be a lithistid sponge, and Mipterella, 
g.n., based on Calathium (?) paradoxicum, Bill., belongs like- 
wise to the same group of sponges. The genera Calathium, 
Bill., and Trichospongia, Bill., are also undoubted siliceous 
sponges. These various sponges, which were either included 
in Archeocyathus by Mr. Billings, or regarded as allied 
thereto, have no relation whatever to the genus, or to any 
member of the family in which it is included. They come 
from a higher geological horizon, the Calciferous formation 
of the Canadian geologists, which is probably the summit 
of the Cambrian. They occur in the Mingan Islands and 
in Newfoundland. Archeoscyphia and Calathium are present 
in the Durness limestones.—(Proc. Geol. Soc., Lond., Dec. 
9th, 1888.) 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, 
MONTREAL. 
The first monthly meeting of the Session was held on the 
evening of October 29th, 1888, at 20 o’clock 
Attendance: 21 members. 
On motion of Prof. Penhallow, seconded by J. S. 
Brown, Prof. Mills took the Chair in the absence of the 
President. 
The Minutes of the April monthly meeting were read 
