VAY Ae parm, 
676 
the probable equivalence of the Taconian to 
the Itacolumite series of Brazil, and to similar 
rocks elsewhere in South America and the 
West-Indian Islands, as well as in Hindostan 
and southern Europe. All of these compara- 
tive studies, it is said, tend to establish the 
distinctness of the Taconian as a great and 
widely spread series of crystalline stratified 
rocks, occupying a horizon between the Cam- 
brian and the Montalban or younger gneiss 
series of Europe and North America. 
Some deposits of titaniferous iron ore in the 
counties of Haliburton and Hastings, Ontario, 
were discussed by Prof. E. J. Chapman. After 
referring to the occurrence of numerous depos- 
its of magnetic iron ore in certain zones or 
belts of country in the counties of Victoria, 
Haliburton, Peterborough, and Hastings, he 
described their conditions of occurrence as 
those of large, isolated masses or ‘ stocks,’ — 
forming, in some cases, sheathed stocks, or 
stockscheiders and skélars, of German and 
Swedish miners, — as in the great iron-ore zone 
of Arendal, in Norway. While these stock- 
masses of iron ore are, for the greater part, 
quite free from titanium, one of vast size in 
the township of Glamorgan, and another equally 
large mass in Tudor, are shown to contain a 
considerable amount of titanium. Detailed 
descriptions of these were given, with analyses 
of the ore. 
Prof. E. J. Chapman also read an essay on 
mimetism in inorganic nature. Mimetism, as 
recognized in organic nature, has been re- 
garded, on the one hand, as the direct result 
of a protecting Providence, and, on the other, 
as originating in minute approaches towards the 
imitated object ; these becoming intensified in 
successive generations until the imitation be- 
comes complete, or reaches its extreme limit. 
In this paper, the writer attempts to show that 
neither hypothesis may be absolutely correct, 
but that the peculiarity may be due to some 
occult law of ‘localism’ by which associated 
forms often become impressed with mutual re- 
semblances. In support of this view, he refers 
to several curious cases in which certain min- 
erals, normally and generally of very dissimilar 
aspect, become closely mimetic under certain 
local conditions ; as seen in examples of quartz 
and zircon, pyroxene and apatite, etc., in the 
phosphate deposits of the Ottawa region. 
A monograph of Canadian ferns was offered 
to the society by Dr. T. J. W. Burgess and 
Prof. J. Macoun. Professor Macoun stated, 
that twenty years ago the total number of ferns 
known to occur in Canada was forty-six, while 
at the present time it had increased to sixty- 
SCIENCE, 
[Vou. III., No. 70. 
three. In illustrating the range of the more 
interesting species, he particularly noticed the 
occurrence of Phegopteris calcarea in Anti- 
costi, where he had found it in 1882, and re- 
marked that the same plant had recently been 
collected by Drs. G. M. Dawson and R. Bell 
in the country around and to the east of the © 
Lake of the Woods. 
Prof. L. W. Bailey, in a paper on geological 
contacts and ancient erosion in the Province of 
New Brunswick, summarized the more impor- 
tant and well-established lines of physical con- 
tact between the geological formations of New 
Brunswick as bearing upon the relative age 
of the latter, and the disturbances to which © 
they have been subjected. Three well-marked 
breaks, separating groups of widely diverse 
character were recognized among pre-Cam- 
brian strata, —the supposed equivalents of 
Laurentian, Huronian, and possibly Montalban 
horizons ; a very marked one at the base of 
the Cambrian ; and others successively between 
later formations to the base of the trias. The 
evidence of such breaks was shown to be of 
various character, including discordance of 
dip and strike, overlap, igneous extravasations, 
and intermediate erosion; and the bearing of 
the facts determined on the physical and geo- 
logical history of north-eastern America was 
briefly discussed. The granites, which con- 
stitute so marked a feature in the geology of 
the Acadian provinces, were described as in- 
trusive, and as the cause of the extensive 
alteration exhibited by the formations which 
they have invaded. The erosion which ac- 
companied or followed upon the disturbances 
described was shown to have been enormous. 
Mr. G. F. Matthew continued his illustra- 
tions of the fauna of the St. John group by 
presenting a paper on the Conocoryphidae, with 
notes on the Paradoxidae. The species of Con- 
ocoryphe referred to and illustrated are C. 
Matthewi Hartt (with three varieties), C. ele- 
gans Hartt, C. Baileyi Hartt (with two varie- 
ties) ,and a new form which the author describes 
as C. Walcotti. Critical remarks are also 
made upon Paradoxides lamellatus Hartt and 
P. acadicus. 
In a description of a supposed new am- 
monite from the upper cretaceous rocks of Fort 
St. John, on the Peace River, Mr. J. F. Whit- 
eaves considered it to be an undescribed species 
of Prionocyclus, closely allied to the type of 
that genus (Ammonites Woolgari of Sowerby), 
but with much more closely coiled volutions. 
It occurs in flattened nodules, in shales which — 
are believed to be the equivalents of the Fort 
Benton group of the Upper Missouri section. 
