456 Scientific Intelligence. 



tributed among the gneiss boulders which everywhere encumber 

 the surface. " Sections of Grinoid stems occur abundantly in 

 these limestone fragments. Associated with them are several 

 specimens of Zaphrentis. These are not sufficiently well pre- 

 served to admit of specific identification. 



Aside, however, from the little interest which the few poorly- 

 preserved specimens from Big Island may have as fossils, they 

 are worthy of mention because of their relation to the glacial 

 history of the island. Big Island has a north and south diame- 

 ter of about fifteen miles, and is separated from the mainland by 

 White Strait, which is from three to ten miles wide. The Island, 

 which is now free from ice, presents everywhere evidence of for- 

 mer glaciation. The observations of Mr. T. L. Watson and Mr. 

 J. A. Bonesteel, who spent three days exploring the island, indi- 

 cate that no limestone beds occar on it. It would seem, there- 

 fore, that the limestone erratics picked up on the Island, as well 

 as those from the coast of the mainland, were derived from the 

 interior of Baffinland, probably from the region above Frobisher 

 Bay, where Capt. Hall found a limestone formation. From 

 the mainland they were probably transported by an ice cap, 

 which extended across White Strait and enveloped Big Island, 

 to the position where they were found. 



From the Lake Kennedy specimens, all of which appear to be 

 from the same limestone, I have recognized the following species : 

 Zaphrentis ^ sp. ? 

 Holy sites catenulatus Linn. 

 Maclurea magna HaH ? 

 Endoceras proteiforme Hall. 



Zaphrentis is a wide-ranging genus and is, therefore, of no 

 value for purposes of ' correlation. IfadiQ'ea magna and Endo- 

 ceras proteiforme are both Ordovician species occurring in 

 the Trenton. Halgsites catenulatus^ however, is generally re- 

 garded as a characteristic Niagara form, although it has been 

 reported from the Ordovician.'^ This association of Silurian and 

 Ordovician species may have resulted from the mixing of speci- 

 mens originally from distinct horizons, but, on the other hand it 

 may express an association in a common fauna of species, which 

 in other regions were restricted to different geological horizons. 



2. United States Geological Survey, 16th Annual Report, Part 

 I, Director'' s report and papers of a theoretic nature: C. D. 

 Walcott, Director, pp. i-xxii, 1-910, plates i-cxvii, figs. 1-168. 

 Washington, 1896. — This latest published of the four large vol- 

 umes of the sixteenth annual report contains several papers of 

 special importance : 



" The Dinosaurs of North America," by O. C. Marsh, will 

 receive special notice elsewhere. " Principles of North American 

 pre-Cambrian geology," by Chas. R. Van Hise, with an appendix 

 by Leander M. Hoskins, has been presented in an abstract by the 



* Jour. Cin. Soc. Nat. Hist., vol. xviii, Nos. 3 and 4, p. 165. 



