438 Canadian Record of Science. 
much larger and older cylindrical bodies of the Potsdam 
sandstone which have puzzled so many observers. The 
papers on Balanus Hameri, from River Beaudette, and on 
the varietal forms of the recent Mya, compared with those 
in the Pleistocene, were supplementary to papers formerly 
published on these subjects, and added to the mass. of 
material furnished by the St. Lawrence Valley in reference 
to the life of the so-called “Glacial” period. The contribu- 
tion of Mr. Chalmers I regard as much more important, and 
as illustrating by a large collection of facts the conclusion 
that we have to explain the Glacial phenomena of Western 
Canada not by an imaginary and physically impossible ice 
sheet, but by local glaciers, aided by floating ice. This 
view, which I have again and again endeavored to impress 
on geologists too much addicted in this matter to invoke 
the aid of portentous and improbable causes, has been amply 
vindicated by the careful observations of Mr. Chalmers in 
Eastern Quebec and New brunswick. We may also place 
among papers relating to recent geology those of Professor 
Spencer on the St. Lawrence Basin and the Great Lakes, 
and of Mr. Drummond on the Lake Basins of the St. Law- 
rence. Mr. Spencer, one of our younger Canadian geologists, 
now transferred to an important professorship in the United 
States, has for many years pursued an elaborate series of 
observations and measurements on the former levels of the 
lakes, and more especially as to the evidence of unequal 
lifting of the lake terraces depending on the warping of the 
earth’s crust in the elevation of the continent, These ob- 
servations when complete will form very important contri- 
butions to the Physical geography as well as geology of 
North America. Our botanical papers we owe to Prof. 
Penhallow, Prof. Goodwin and Mr. Ami. That on ringed 
trees was a curious contribution to vegetable physiology. 
Another directed our attention to the edible qualities of a 
fruit not hitherto regarded with much favor, that of Shep- 
herdia Canadensis, and the local flora of Montebello was 
connected with the excursions of the Society to that place, 
on the kind invitation of Mr. Papineau, and was an illustra- 
