498 Canadian Record of Science. 



relation as exists between the copper and nickel in certain 

 nickel ores. 



As this region becomes more developed, there will, 

 doubtless, be found many rare and interesting mineral 

 combinations. It is but four years since it was a wilder- 

 ness, in which some stray prospectors found the first 

 galena lode. 



Book Notices. 



Ein Pra-Kambrisches Fossil, Palentologische Notizen, von 

 Carl Wiman.— Bull. Geol. Inst., Upsala, No. 3, Vol. II., 1894. 



The above author, in this paper, offers a contribution toward the 

 explanation of an enigmatical fossil found in the pre-Cambrian rocks 

 of the Island of Visingso, in Lake Wetter, in Sweden. 



The terrain which these rocks form is said to underlie unconformably 

 the Cambrian-Silurian 1 terrain, and is therefore clearly older than the 

 Olenellus Zone. It consists of a conglomerate, with yellow sandstone 

 at the base ; then 40-50 metres in thickness of red and green slate and 

 sandstone ; then 250 metres of slates — greyish-green below and white 

 above, where there are layers and seams of argillaceous limestone. 



In the white slates appear small, round, black disks of 1 to 2 milli- 

 metres diameter. These fossils have caused considerable speculation 

 among Swedish geologists. (In 1879) A. G. Nathorst mentioned them, 

 and thought they were of organic origin. (In 1880) G. Linnarsson also 

 spoke of them as objects of organic origin, but of very uncertain nature. 

 (In 1885) G. Holm described them as being similar to a small flattened 

 Brachiopod, such as a Discina. (In 1886) Nathorst referred to the fossil 

 again, and says it reminded him of a small Estheria, although the agree- 

 ment was far from being decided. 



Herr C. Wiman submitted these objects to various tests with Shultze's 

 masceration fluid and other preparations, and from their resistance to 

 reagents concluded that the shell was chiefly Chitine, as in the grapto- 

 lites. He found that the object was originally globular, but had been 

 flattened in the shale, and that it was perforated with minute holes, for 

 the passage of pseudopoda, and had some larger openings. However, 

 he thinks that the affinities of these fossils (which are obscured by clay 

 clinging to the surface) are still so uncertain as to make it inadvisable 

 to give them a name. 



1 This is not the Cambro-Silurian of English authors. 



