COASTS VISITED BY THE AKCTIC EXPEDITION. 575 



abounded in this area, and evidently grew in large parasitic, or 

 incrusting, concentrically laminated masses, equalling in size Holy- 

 sites, Heliolites, or Favosites. Although polished sections scarcely 

 show the tubuli, still I am not justified in placing these specimens 

 among the Corals or removing them from the Protozoa. 



Stromatopoea cojstcentrica, Goldf. 



Stromatopora concentrica, Goldf. Petref. Germ. vol. i. p. 22, t. 8. 

 f. 5 ; Lonsd. Murch. Sil. Syst. p. 680, t. 15. f. 31 ; Hall, Pal. N. Y. 

 vol. ii. p. 136, t. 37. f. 1, t. 37 a. f. 1. 



This apparently amorphous sponge (?) is composed of infinitesi- 

 mally thin concentric layers or laminae, pierced vertically by cylin- 

 drical tubes (tubuli), which when weathered have fibrous structure ; 

 considerable space occurs between the imbedded tubuli ; the inter- 

 mediate tissue appears to be solid, but the amorphous and crys- 

 talline condition forbids the original structure (and its replacement) 

 being made out. One Devonian species comes very close, and may be 

 taken for the Bessels-Bay form. 



Loc. Bessels Bay, lat. 81° 6', in white limestone. 



Genus Beceptacttlites, Defrance, 1827. 



This remarkable Protozoon occurs somewhat abundantly in the 

 Eeilden-Nares collection, and is apparently of considerable size. 

 Unfortunately most of the specimens are very fragmentary, all 

 showing the great thickness of the body-wall, but scarcely allowing 

 a correct opinion to be formed as to the dimensions and form, either 

 of the base, summit, or sides, or even if it were a discoidal species. 

 Should our specimens be the basal portions only of the body-wall of 

 a discoidal form, it must have been of gigantic size, and certainly an 

 unknown species. ~No portions of the specimens show the rounded 

 protuberance or nucleated portion or primitive cell at the base ; this 

 would determine somewhat the size to which this species grew, and 

 whether the base was concave or flat. The flat specimens of another 

 form we possess may be only the basal portions of the body-wall of 

 some discoidal species. Some show the base or underside with the 

 point of convergence of the spirally arranged lines or rows of plates 

 of the outer surface. The body-wall of some of the fragments also 

 shows both the internal integument or- endorhin, and external or 

 ectorhin, and the closely arranged tubular or spicular skeleton be- 

 tween the walls ; the thickness of the skeleton or space between the 

 endorhin and ectorhin, as shown in vertical sections, is considerable, 

 which causes the tubular system to occupy in the body-wall a 

 space of three fourths of an inch. I have no means of knowing the 

 original form our specimens tend to illustrate ; but the description of 

 the Canadian species by Messrs. Billings and Salter leads me to 

 believe that the Cape-Frazer specimens are new, neither R. Nepiuni 

 nor R. occidentalis (if they are not conspecific) occurring half the size 



Q. J. G. S. No. 135. 2 a 



