*44 
ALASKA GEOLOGY 
Genus Helminthopsis Heer. 
Helminthopsis magna Heer. 
pi. XXI, figs. I, 2. 
Helminthopsis magna Heer, Flora Foss. Helvetiae, p. n6, taf. xlvii, figs, 
i, 2, 1877. 
Fucoid originally cylindrical and tubular, now flattened, several feet 
in length, 12 mm. to 25 mm. in width, the edges thickened, forming 
serpentine convolutions over the surface of slabs of arenaceous slate. 
The larger of the two specimens before us exhibits distinct transverse 
wrinkles, while on portions of the smaller specimen longitudinal lines 
as well as obscure transverse undulations may be discerned. 
Heer described the surface of his specimens as smooth, and the 
thickened margins of the compressed tubes are heavier in his figures 
than in the Alaska specimens under consideration. Despite these dif¬ 
ferences we believe the latter belong, if not strictly to the same species, 
at least to one so near the Swiss Upper Liassic form that we are not at 
present warranted in separating it. Possibly the differences are due to 
faulty observation or to the less favorable preservation of Heer’s origi¬ 
nals. However, this point may turn out, it is certain his figures look 
very much like our specimens. 
Locality .—Pogibshi Island opposite the village of Kadiak ( ? also 
Woody Island), Alaska. 
Collector .—G. K. Gilbert. 
Helminthopsis? labyrinthica Heer. 
pi. xx, figs. 2, 3. 
Helminthopsis labyrinthica Heer, Flora Foss. Helvetiae, taf. xlvii, figs. 3-5, 
1877- 
This fossil consists of simple, smooth, cylindrical, stony cords 1.8 
mm. to 2.5 mm. in thickness, meandering, in the cases before us, 
over the surface of arenaceous slates. The stems are usually thrown 
into more or less irregular and unequal loops, often horseshoe-shaped, 
and sometimes recalling the more regularly formed loops of Helmin - 
thoida. 
The Alaskan specimens under consideration agree so closely with 
Heer’s figures of the Swiss Upper Liassic specimens upon which he 
founded the species H. labyrinthica that we can not doubt they belong 
to the same species. As to the propriety of referring the species to 
Helminthopsis , we are inclined to differ from the able author of the 
Flora Fossilis Helvetiae. Considering H. magna as the type of the 
genus, Helminthopsis should be restricted to species having the con- 
