CEYPTOCEEAS IN SILTTEIAN EOCKS. 267 



limestone of Yorkshire. Quite recently, however, in a specimen 

 from the Black River limestone of Lorette in Eastern Canada, sub- 

 mitted to us by Mr. Head of the Canadian Institute, we have re- 

 marked the cryptoceras type of structure, viz : simple septa and an 

 unmistakably " dorsal" siphuncle, combined with a nautiloidal form 

 of shell. Hall, in the first volume of his " Palaeontology of the 

 State of New York" figures and describes under the name of Lituites 

 undatus a fossil that may perhaps be identical with the one now under 

 review ; but if so, the generic term " Lituites" should certainly give 

 place to that of " Cryptoceras." The siphuncle is said to be dorsal; 

 and Professor Hall describes the only examples known to him, as occur- 

 ring in the Black River limestone of Watertown, in Jefferson County. 

 This same Lituites undatus, is quoted by D'Orbigny in his " Prod- 

 rome" and also by, Pictet in the last edition of his "Traite de 

 Paleontologie ;'• but these paleontologists appear to ignore completely 

 the dorsal position of the siphuncle as described by Hall. D'Orbigny 

 indeed, places it immediately under the following generic definition 

 " Lituites, Breynius : coquille spirale, a tours contigus, siphon 

 central ;" and this central position of the siphuncle as an essential 

 characteristic of Lituites, is also recognized by McCoy in his recent 

 work on the British Palaeozoic Possils of the Cambridge Museum, as 

 well as by all modern palaeontologists. One thing therefore is certain, 

 that whether or not our specimen be identical with that of Professor 

 Hall, it has evidently no claims to be considered a Lituites. In the 

 present note, however, we are unable to do more than announce 

 the occurrence of the genus Cryptoceras in our Canadian rocks : 

 the characters of the solitary specimen before us being too imper- 

 feet to warrant the bestowal of a specific name. 



* m * Since the above was written, we have learned that several 

 examples of this fossil type, under the name of Lituites undatus, 

 have been obtained by the Geological Survey of Canada from the 

 Black River limestone of Lorette. It is very probable that many of 

 the Silurian " Lituites" will prove when more closely examined, to 

 belong to Cryptoceras, or to Barrande's new genus, Nothoceras : a 

 notice of which (Bulletin de la Societe Geol. de France, T. XII. p. 

 380,) has only just reached us. Although stated to have been read 

 before the Society on the third of March, 1856, the Bulletin con- 

 taining the notice was not issued until March in the present year. 



