574 E. ETHEEIDGE ON THE PALEONTOLOGY OE THE 



therefore almost appear that it must have been a continental land, 

 through elevation of the Carboniferous group, until the northern 

 extension of the Liassic seas to these high latitudes. The complete 

 absence (so far as we know) of Permian and Triassic strata in the 

 Parry or Northern archipelago goes far to confirm this. Not a 

 trace of any organic remains younger than the Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone, and older than the Miocene, has occurred to Feilden and Hart, 

 or to any of the other explorers during their researches in these high 

 latitudes. ' 



SILURIAN. 



Kingdom PLANTS. 

 Subkingdom CRYPTOGAMIA. 



Genus Bttthoteephis, Hall, 1847. 



BlTTHOTEEPHIS GEACILIS, Hall. 



Buthotrephis gracilis, Hall, Pal. New York, vol. i. p. 62, t. 21. f. 1. 



This may probably be the remains of a marine alga, originally 

 forming filmy impressions or remains on the mud or sand when 

 deposited. Hall's genus Buthotrephis may receive our specimen ; it 

 was established by him in 1847 to receive such peculiar and dubious 

 markings. B. gracilis is the nearest form figured, and closely re- 

 sembles our single specimen, which was collected by Capt. Feilden 

 at Gould Bay in a fine-grained fissile sandstone. I therefore refer 

 this to B. gracilis, Hall, as being almost, if not quite identical. 



Loo. Gould Bay, lat. 79° 43'. 



Kingdom ANIMALIA. 



Class SPONGIDA. 



Genus Steomatopoea, Goldfuss, 1826. 



Amorphous masses of this Sponge (?) occur in the white limestone 

 of Bessels Bay, but so highly crystalline that nearly all traces of 

 character are gone ; the thin superimposed concentric layers, and the 

 somewhat twisted, irregular, rugose base, can be made out ; polished 

 sections reveal scarcely any or no definite structure, owing to the 

 altered state of the limestone. I have difficulty in clearly detecting 

 (probably from the same cause) any vertical tubuli or oscula, so 

 apparent in the Devonian species, IS. concentrica &c, in which these 

 tubuli radiate nearly at right angles to the mass, giving it an 

 apparent fibrous structure vertical to the laminae, and appear as 

 pores upon the external surface. These characters are very well 

 defined in the Devonian form. The genus Stromatopora must have 



