coasts visited by the arctic expedition - . 593 



Crustacean Remains. 



A number of specimens were collected by Captain Feilden at Cape 

 Louis Napoleon which have every appearance of being portions of some 

 large crustacean, probably fragments of a gigantic Illcenus or Isotelus. 

 Here and there on the specimens there are slightly wavy or undu- 

 lating lines or striae, such as occur upon the shelly carapace of the 

 Illceni and Asaphi, yet upon microscopical examination no definite 

 structure can be determined. On one or two of the rock specimens 

 we have portions of what appear to be the carapace of undoubted 

 Illceni (rostral shield and posterior spines); and the greatly compressed 

 state of the specimens, be they what they may, is clearly shown in 

 section ; but being crystalline, their structure is obliterated. Sections 

 of the axes and pleurae of Pterygoti and Eurypteri would have much 

 the same appearance as the compressed and Battened parts of what 

 appear to be segments ; indeed dismembered parts of the Merosto- 

 mata would probably suggest an explanation of their history. Re- 

 mains of Eurypteri are abundant in the Waterlime group (Upper 

 Silurian) of New-York State and Oneida county, lying beneath the 

 Lower Helderberg group. I have suggested the Merostomata as 

 being the most likely group to comprise these singular sections. 

 Platynotus and Homalonotus amongst the Trilobita, when broken 

 up, may equally suggest their nature. I have submitted these frag- 

 ments to crustaceologists ; but no true light has been thrown upon 

 them. I was disposed to regard them as portions of the plant called 

 Palceophyeus ; but the structure of the outer edges of the compressed 

 bodies, when subjected to microscopical examination, forbids that : 

 they are still left for determination. 



Loc. Cape Louis Napoleon, lat. 79° 38'. 



Class BRACHIOPODA. 



Comparatively few Brachiopoda occur in the Silurian series col- 

 lected by the naturalists of the Expedition ; only five out of fifteen 

 families and forty-seven genera are represented, which, considering 

 the number of specimens of shelly fossiliferous limestones (many 

 crowded with species), is singular, this class being abundant in the 

 Upper Silurian rocks of Britain, Scandinavia, and Spitzbergen. No 

 Lingular, Crania?, Discinw, or Terebratulce have been detected. 

 Species of the genera Anastrophia, Pentamerus, Chonetes, MJiyn- 

 chonella, Atrypa, Meristella, and Strop>homena occur, but only one 

 or two species in each genus. America yields no less than 1120 

 species ; Atrypa, Orthis, llhynchonella, and StropJiomena, as with 

 us, predominating. Looking at the collection of Corals, Polyzoa, 

 Gasteropoda, &c, we should have expected on bathymetrical grounds 

 a larger assemblage of associated Brachiopoda. 



The Carboniferous fossils brought home are mostly of this class 

 and a few Polyzoa, the two families Productidae and Spiriferidae 



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