INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE GRAPTOLITIDJl. 



\ 



Bt JAMES HALL. 



The following pages are essentially a reprint of the introduction to 

 the descriptions of the Graptolites of the Quebec group, published in 

 Decade ii of Figures and Descriptions of Canadian Organic Remains. 

 The discovery of those remarkable Canadian forms in 1864 served for 

 the first time to give us a true idea of these fossil remains, and to eluci- 

 date much that had before seemed inexplicable or obscure in the 

 fragmentary portions described. The publication of the descriptions 

 and figures of the Graptolites of the Hudson River group in Vol. i 

 (1847) of the Neiv York Palceontology had added considerably to our 

 knowledge of their forms ; but the later discoveries, both in America 

 and Europe, have given a new interest to this group of fossils. 



In the description of the general and structural characters of the 

 Graptolites in the Canadian Decade, I have made use of New York and 

 Western forms for illustration ; and in the present instance I have 

 borrowed from that work such illustrations as seemed to me necessary 

 to present the characteristic features of the group without regard to 

 locality. I still hope to present, at some fiiture time, the results of a 

 re-investigation and revision of the Graptolites of the rocks of New 

 York; but as this work maybe some time delayed, this introductory 

 notice of the Family Graptolitid^, in the interim, may be of some use 

 to the student of palasontology. 



In the arrangement of the subject matter and the discussion of the 

 parts of the Graptolite, I have followed the order of arrangement and 

 essentially the use of the terms adopted by M. Barrande in his '■'■ Ch^apto- 



lites de Boheme^'' a statement which I had intended to precede the intro- 



Cab. Nat. 26 



