1886.] 317 [Annual Meeting. 



served specimens of the imperfectly-known and curious, primitive 

 form, Piloceras ; fragments of orthoceratoids allied to Endoceras, 

 which are more than two feet long and four inches in diameter at 

 the living chambers ; a number of large cyrtoceran shells, and a 

 considerable number of more or less perfect, close-coiled and litu- 

 ites-like Nautiloidea are among the principal acquisitions. The 

 latter include all the species originally described by Billings from 

 Newfoundland, and probably some new species. 



It may be provisionally stated that Piloceras is a curved or cyr- 

 toceran form of Endoceras, and that Actinoceras also had a curved 

 shell in some species, which was not less than thirty inches in 

 length. 1 Two fine specimens of the latter with very long, living 

 chambers, were dug out near Point Rich. 



The limestones of the Quebec group form a continuous and un- 

 broken series of conformable strata, which are particularly well 

 shown at Port au Port. The large numbers and prevalence of 

 gasteropod shells of the genera Maclurea, Pleurotomaria and Mur- 

 chisonia, fragments of Isotelus and Asaphus, and the abundance 

 of Encloceras-like Orthoceratoids and Actinoceras, together with 

 transversely-ridged species like Orthoceras vertebrale, give the 

 fauna of the uppermost of these limestones at Port au Port a 

 Lower Silurian aspect. These resemblances, however, are coun- 

 terbalanced by marked differences. Thus there is a comparative 

 scarcity of Brachiopoda, and there are no massive corals which 

 can be considered as having materially aided in the accumulation 

 of the rocks. The presence of ancient forms like Archeocyathus 

 and Calathium, which are probably sponges, and of Piloceras, and 

 the comparative abundance of the coiled forms and partly-coiled 

 Nautiloidea with open umbilici and cylindrical whorls, indicates a 

 primitive assemblage of organisms more ancient than the Lower 

 Silurian, and evidently introductory to that fauna. 



At Port au Port, also, the actual contact of the Levis slates with 

 limestones of Quebec was studied. These rocks contain Lingulae 

 in abundance, and also Trilobites, already described by Billings. 

 It cannot be questioned that they lie above the limestones and are 

 conformable, though having an entirely distinct fauna. 



Above this lies the so-called Sillery conglomerates and sand- 



iThis is a strong confirmation of the author's views that the same group of Nauti- 

 loidea and Ammonoidea may have straight, bent or cyrtoceran, and even close-coiled 

 shells.— Science, Nos. 52-53, 1884, and Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Science, vol. 32. 



