October 30, 1885.] 



SCIENCE. 



385 



August 10, it was very fine, and greatly facilitated 

 the work of the shore parties. The prevalence of 

 high winds made opportunities for dredging- excep- 

 tionally rare, and very little was accomplished in this 

 direction. The shores proved, also, excessively bar- 

 ren ; the pools were infrequent and not rich in spe- 

 cies. From Cape Eay to St. John's Island, for the 

 space of two hundred and fifty miles on the western 

 coast of Newfoundland, the principal mountain 

 ranges, whose general course is north-east-south-west, 

 approach the sea more or less closely. They are so 

 arranged that they present their ends to the sea on the 

 south coast, and are seen more from the side on the 

 west coast. From St. George's Baj' to St. John's 

 Island, on the western coast, they form a series of 

 steep cliffs, cones, and domes, which also greatly en- 

 hance the beauty of the deep and branching fiords of 

 Bay of Islands and Bonne Bay. The climate, vegeta- 

 tion, and lovely harbors, made the trip along this part 

 of the route a series of delightful surprises. 



The only population on the west coast consists of 

 small settlements of fishermen, with very few per- 

 sons of a higher grade Besides these permanent 

 inhabitants, there are several fishing settlements of 

 French, who come only for the summer. They still 

 have fishing privileges on and off this coast, but are 

 not allowed to erect permanent habitations. These 

 rights and the islands of the St. Pierre group on the 

 south coast, where their flag flies, are the remnants 

 of the once extensive territories of the French nation 

 on this continent. 



Hotels, boarding-houses, and travelling accommo- 

 dations, do not as yet exist. The steamer which runs 

 from St. John's to Bonne Bay is so uncomfortable 

 that only the hardiest males would be repaid for at- 

 tempting to force a passage even in summer as far as 

 Bonne Bay. The officers of this vessel were exceed- 

 ingly polite and obliging, but the owners have sadly 

 neglected their duty in all that relates to the steward's 

 department. 



Fossils were collected at various localities along 

 the west coast from near Cape St. George to Cape 

 Norman, the northernmost point of Newfoundland, 

 and at the Atlantic entrance of the straits of Belle 

 Isle. These fossils fairly represent the faunas of the 

 formations called Quebec and Point Levis groups by 

 the Canadian survey, and the Trenton and lower 

 carboniferous of the Newfoundland survey. 



The facilities for acquiring fine specimens of fossil 

 cephalopods far exceeded the most sanguine anticipa- 

 tions. Several well preserved specimens of the 

 imperfectly-known and curious, primitive form, 

 Piloceras ; fragments of orthoceratoids allied to En- 

 doceras, which are more than two feet long and four 

 inches in diameter at the Hving chambers ; a num- 

 ber of large cyrtoceran shells, and a considerable 

 number of more or less perfect, close-coiled and 

 lituites-like Nautiloidea are among the principal ac- 

 quisitions. The latter include all the species origin- 

 ally described by Billings from Newfoundland, and 

 probably some new species. 



It may be provisionally stated that Piloceras is a 

 curved or cyrtoceran form of Endoceras, and that 

 Actinoceras also had a curved shell in some species, 

 which was not less than thirty inches in length.^ 



1 This is a strong confirmation of the author's views that 

 the same group of Nautiloidea and Ammonoidea may have 

 straight, bent, or cyrtoceran, and even close-coiled shells. — 

 Science, Nos. 52-83, 1884, and Proc. Am. assoc. adv. science, 

 vol. 32. 



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 con- 

 tinuous and unbroken 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 

 Murchisonia, fragments of Isotelus and Asaphus, and 

 the abundance of Endoceras-like orthoceratoids and 

 Actinoceras, together with transversely-ridged spe- 

 cies like Orthoceras vertebrale, give the fauna of the 

 uppermost of these limestones at Port au Port a Lower 

 Silurian aspect. These resemblances, however, are 

 counterbalanced 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 Archeo- 

 cyathus 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 sandstones, a series of unfossiliferous strata. As 

 described by Richardson of the Canadian survey, 

 and Murray and Howley of the Newfoundland sur- 

 vey, they are also comformable, but overlie the Levis 

 slates. 



A fault, already traced by Murray and Howley, 

 separates the northern horizontal outcrop of the Sil- 

 lery at Long Point, Port au Port, from Murray and 

 Howley's Trenton limestones. 



The fauna of these last is certainly like that of the 

 Trenton of New York, but it has a decidedly New- 

 foundland facies, and its only visible contact is along 

 the perpendicular fault above mentioned. It con- 

 tains a great abundance of Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, and 

 reef-building corals, which remind one constantly of 

 the aspect of the Trenton fauna, and has altogether 

 a more modern aspect than the Quebec faunas. It 

 is not yet ascertained whether the Endoceratites 

 found are true Endoceras, but fragments of an un- 

 doubted Gonioceras were collected in considerable 

 numbers in the lower series of these rocks. It 

 seems, therefore, very probable that Murray and 

 Howley are correct in considering the strata at the 

 end of Long Point as the equivalents not only of the 

 Trenton proper, but also of the Black River and 

 Bird's Eye faunas. 



All of the rocks in this part of the island dip away 

 from the mountains in a south-westerly direction, 

 passing out of sight under the waters of the Gulf of 

 St. Lawrence. Thus the outermost strata are, in a 

 general way, more recent than those lying inland or 

 nearer the mountains. The geological position of the 

 Trenton at the end of Long Point, Port au Port, is 

 not far out to sea, but the well-marked fault which 

 occurs between it and the Sillery to the south, or the 

 same narrow point, shows that it is a fragment of an 

 overlying formation, which, having fallen to its 



