American Association. 279 



diicecl* ; but tlie same reasoning will apply to bodies of fresh- v/ater, 

 — and hence the object of the salt in the sea remains still unex- 

 plained. In conclusion, therefore, I feel justified in expressing my 

 sustained belief, that the theory which I have proposed to account 

 for the saltness of the sea is worthy of our acceptance ; this theory 

 being, that the sea is salt, essentially if not principally, in order to 

 regulate evaporation. 



NEWER PLIOCENE FOSSILS OF THE ST. LAWUENCE VALLEY, 



by Professor Dawson. The object of this paper was in the first 

 place to notice several fossil shells recently found by the author and 

 others in these deposits, and which did not appear to have been 

 previously observed. The species mentioned were :— 



Katica Heros^ Say, ----- Beauport. 



Nat'ica Groenlandica, Beck, - - - - clo. 



Fasus tornat'us Gould, - _ _ _ Montreal. 



Fusus harjnilarms, Couthoy, - - - - 



jRissoa minuta, ------ Montreal. 



Turritella, (like erosa,) ----- Beauport. 



Bulla 07-7/za, Tott, . - _ - - Montreal, 



Spirorbis sinistrorsu, Montagu, - - - r^do. 



Univalve, (perhaps Menestho albula) 



Most of these are shells now living on the Atlantic 

 coast of America, north of Cape Cod, and some of them 

 ranging very far north. The paper then referred to the 

 distribution of the various kinds of drift in the vicinity of Mon- 

 treal, ar^d to the conditions of the sea areas, in which the shells 

 and other marine animals of the Newer Pliocene period existed 

 in the St. Lawrence Valley. " Good evidence exists of a sea 

 beach on Montreal Mountain, at an elevation of 4*70 feet above 

 the sea. The sea area corresponding to this beach must have ex- 

 tended to the Laurentide hiils and the escarpment of ISTiagara, 

 and communicated freely with the ocean on the east. On the 

 other hand there are lower shores of the same period only TOO 

 feet above the St. Lawrence. These must have belonged to a 



* It should be stated that no intermixture could have taken place in 

 the 'closed limb of the apparatus described above by ascending currents 

 produced by unequal temperatures, as the temperature of the lower 

 portion of the closed tube was kept purposely lower (or at least prevent- 

 ed from becoming higher) than the upper portion by means of a damp 

 rag permanently attached to it. 



