66 TJie American Geologist. July, i892 
feet. Overljdng the eroded surface of these formations are gravel 
deposits, often cemented by calcareous matter and passing into lime- 
stone, named the Reynosa beds, which contain fresh-water shells, as 
BuUnius alternatuH Say, and are thought to be a phase of the Lafayette 
formation. 
A rimsion and monograph of the genus Chonophyllum. By Will H. 
Shkrzer. Bulletin, G. S. A., vol. iii, pp. 253-282, with one plate; May 
24, 1892. Twelve species of this genus of Paleozoic corals are recog- 
nized, two of them being described for the first time. Ten are North 
American, and two (including one of the new species) are European. 
The genus existed through the Upper Silurian era and the Corniferous 
and Hamilton divisions of the Devonian, its culmination being in the Up- 
per Helderberg epoch. 
PERSONAL AND SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
The Royal Society of Canada held its regular annual meet- 
ing in the Parliament Buildings at Ottawa, Ontario, from May 
31st to June 2d. 
The four sections adjourned to different apartments for the read- 
ing and discussion of papers. 
In Section III, Chemistry and Mineralogy. Professor E. J. 
Chapman, of the University of Toronto, read the following two 
papers: On a New Form of AppJ I cation- Goniometer. On the 
Mexican Type in the Crystallization of the Topaz^ xtyitli some Remarh-s 
on OrystaUograpMc Notation. 
In Section IV, GtEology and Biology, Mr. Gr. F. Matthew, of 
St. John, N. B., delivered his Presidential Address ^'■On the Dif- 
fusion and Sequence of the Camhrian Faunas.'' 
In this address an attempt is made to distinguish the littoral 
and warm-water faunas of the Cambrian age from those w^hich 
mark greater depths of the sea and cooler water. 
On the hypothesis that species capable of propagating their 
kind in the open sea would spread rapidly to all latitudes where 
the temperature of the sea was favorable, such forms as the grap- 
tolites are taken as fixed points in the successive faunas. The 
relation to the graptolites is noted of various species of other 
groups of animals, as they occur in different countries. It thus 
appears that several genera appeared first in America and after- 
wards spread to Europe. 
On the other hand a very close connection appears to have ex- 
isted between the Cam])rian faunas of the north of Europe and 
those of the Atlantic coast of North America. Hence it is in- 
ferred that the temperature of the sea of these two coasts was 
similar, and the connection between them direct and unimpeded. 
Equal temperatures in these different latitudes would be main- 
