Notes on Fossil Woods. 499 



"Dermal or flesh spicules very abundant, minute birotu- 

 lates of unequal size, averaging about 0.0007 inches in 

 length ; shafts slender, cylindrical, occasionally spined ; 

 outer surface of rotules dome shaped ; rays prolonged, ter- 

 minations acute ; irregularities frequent. Mixed with occa- 

 sional linear, spined spicules. 



" Spicules upon statoblast fundamentally smooth, robust 

 fusiform, pointed, averaging . 0015 inches in length, gene- 

 rally having as many as from one to twelve spines unsym- 

 metrically scattered along the shaft, which is placed tan- 

 gential to the chitinous coat of the statoblast." 



Spiculation of Spongilla Terr^: Nov^e, Potts. 



Notes on Fossil Woods from the Western 

 Territories of Canada. 



By Sir William Dawson, F.R.S., &c. 

 (Abstract of a Paper read before the Royal Society of Canada.) 



Silicified wood occurs in the country west of Manitoba, 

 in the true Cretaceous beds, in the Laramie and in the 

 Miocene of the Cypress Hills. Consequently the numerous 

 specimens in our collections, picked up loose on the plains, 

 are of little palseontological value, as their sources are un- 

 certain. The author had, however, obtained some speci- 

 mens found in situ on the Boundary Commission Survey, 

 which were described in the Eeport of Dr. G-. M. Dawson, 



