J. F. Whiteaves— Primordial Fossils from Newfoundland. 225 
The majority are from the banks of Manuel’s Brook, a small 
stream which is not indicated in most maps of the island, but 
which runs into Conception Bay, on its eastern side, not far 
from Topsail Head. In Mr. Murray’s Report of the Geological 
Survey of Newfoundland for 1868, the following paragraphs 
occur. ‘On Manuel’s Brook a very coarse conglomerate may 
be seen, in strong and moderately regular beds, resting directly 
upon the syenitic gneiss of the valley above, dipping to the 
north at an angle of 15°, and forming a picturesque fall about 
one hundred and fifty yards below the bridge on the Bay 
Road.” (p. 28.) “ About four hundred yards below the bridge 
the conglomerate is overlaid conformably by a set of dark brown 
or blackish shales, with a very fine lamination coinciding with 
the bedding, which, with some hard calcareous beds interstrat- 
ified, hold the banks of the brook until within a short distance 
of its exit into the Bay.” (p. 24.) In the same report the thick- 
ness of these conglomerates is estimated at fifty feet and that of 
the shales at two hundred and fifty. (p. 27.) Sir W. HE. Logan, 
in 1866, expressed the opinion that the slates of St. John, New- 
foundland, probably belong to the same horizon as the Acadian 
or St. John’s Group of St. John, N. B., and although little or no 
paleontological evidence of a satisfactory character had been 
obtained on the point, it has been supposed by Mr. Murray and 
others, that the shales of Manuel’s River are of similar age. 
€ correctness of the latter view is however fully borne out 
by the fossils collected by Mr. Weston, which are as follows. 
_L Agnostus Acadicus Hartt. Not unfrequent, but usually a 
little larger than the types from St. John, N. B. ot 
2. Agnostus (sp. undt.). A single head, apparently distinct 
from the preceding and perhaps new. ate 
: icrodiscus punctatus Salter. Abundant. This interest- 
ing species, which was originally described from the Lower 
Lingula Flags of South Wales, and which Mr. Salter thought 
might be “the fry of some larger trilobite,” was first detect 
in the Primordial slates of St. John, N. B., by the late Mr. E. 
Billings. It has since been observed in rocks of the same age 
on the Kennebecasis River, N. B., where it was collected by 
Mr. G. F. Matthew. Jf, punctatus is said to have an “ enormous 
nuchal spine,” but, judging by Mr. Salter's figures, there is no 
Spinous process on either of the postero-lateral angles of the 
ead; the number of rings on the axis of the tail also is stated 
to nD. 
4. Microdiscus Dawsoni Hartt. One perfect and well 
served head. Very similar in sculpture to the preceding. The 
two forms occur together in the same pieces of rock from New- 
foundland and New Brunswick and are very likely only differ- 
€nt states of preservation of the same species. According to 
