by a cold caught in riding out on the 19th ulto., ended his valuable and well-spent life on Sunday evening, Oct. 22, at 8.30 p.m. His scientific career, now brought to a close, represents the period of the dawn and development of Geology as a science in this country. He commenced work at the moment when William Smith issued the first Geologically-coloured map of England, and he has lived on to see half the world surveyed geologically, and has himself mapped a vast extent of territory in Europe for his Silurian kingdom. In conclusion (to quote the words of the Daily News), "the honors he won are a great testimony to the scientific enlightenment of the age. We have crowned Science Queen, and all her servants form her court, and wear the titles she bestows. And, truly, a scientific man earns his honours more nobly, and wears them more honourably than those who win them in political intrigue or on the field of battle. Sir Roderick Murchison, dying at eighty, covered with titles of literary and scientific honour, and satisfied with social position and renown, is a prophet of the coming time. He may not be looked back on as a great scientific genius; but he is one of the pioneers of that new order of renown which is won by fruitful service rather than by destructive deeds." -From the GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE for November, 1871. (Proposed new genus of Pteropoda.) Genus HYOLITHELLUS, N. G. Since the sheet containing the description of Hyolithes micans was printed off, I have arrived at the conclusion that a new genus for its reception should be instituted. I propose to call it Hyolithellus. It differs from Hyolithes, in its long slender form and in the peculiar structure of its operculum. E. BILLINGS. Published December, 1871. III. PROTOZOA AND ECHINODERM. (Post-pliocene-Canada.) Fig. 1. Fig. 2. Fig. 3. Tethea Logani, Montreal, (a) Mass of Spicules in clay; (b c d) Spicules, (natural size and magnified.) Group of Common Foraminifera from Montreal. (magnified.) Polystomella crispa; Quinqueloculina seminulum; Polymorphina lactea, two varieties; Entosolenia globosa and E. costata. Truncatulina lobulata. (magnified.) Fig. 4. Nonionina scapha.-Var. Labradorica. (magnified.) THE CANADIAN NATURALIST AND Quarterly Journal of Science. THE POST-PLIOCENE GEOLOGY OF CANADA. By J. W. DAWSON, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. PART II.-LOCAL DETAILS.-(Continued.) 5. Lower St. Lawrence-South Side. The Report of the Geological Survey of Canada (1863), includes all that is yet known of the Post-pliocene formations at Gaspé, and thence upward to Trois Pistoles. According to this Report, the Boulder-clay and overlying sands and gravels are extensively spread over the Peninsula of Gaspé. On the Magdalen River they have been traced up to a height of 1600 feet above the sea, though marine shells are not recorded at this great height. Terraces occur at various elevations, and in one of the lower at Port Daniel, only fifteen feet above the sea, marine shells occur. On the coast westward of Cape Rosier, terraces occur at many places, and of different heights, and marine shells have been found ninety feet above the sea. I have not had opportunities to examine these deposits to the eastward of the place next to be mentioned. Trois Pistoles.-At this place one of the most complete and instructive sections of the Post-pliocene in Canada, has been exposed by the deep ravine of the river, and by the cuttings for the Intercolonial Railway. The most important terrace at the VOL. VI. Η No. 3. mouth of the Trois Pistoles River, that in which the railway cutting has been made, is about one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea, and is composed of clay capped with sand and gravel. At no great distance inland, there rises a second terrace one hundred and sixty feet higher than the first, or about three hundred and ten feet above the sea. In some places the front of this terrace is cut into two or more. It consists of clay capped with sand and gravel, with some large stones and Laurentian boulders. Still farther inland is a third terrace, the height of which was estimated at four hundred to four hundred and fifty feet. In the first mentioned of the above terraces, a very deep railway cutting has been made, exposing a thick bed of homogeneous clay of a purplish gray colour and extremely tenacious. It contains few fossils; and these, as far as I could ascertain, exclusively Leda truncata. It is, in short, a typical Leda clay, and its thickness in this lower terrace can scarcely be less than one hundred and twenty feet. As the inland terraces are probably also cut out of it, this may be less than half of its maximum depth. Under the Leda clay a typical Boulder-clay had been exposed at one place in digging a mill sluice. It seemed to be about twenty feet thick, and rests on the smoothed edges of the shales of the Quebec group. Though the Leda clay at the Trois Pistoles seems perfectly homogeneous, it shows indications of stratification, and holds a few large Laurentian boulders, which become more numerous in tracing it to the westward. A short distance westward of Trois Pistoles, it is seen to be overlaid by a boulder deposit, in some places consisting of large loose boulders, in others approaching to the character of a true Boulder-clay or associated with stratified sand and gravel. We thus have Boulder-clay below, next Leda clay, and above this a second Boulder drift associated with the Saxicava sand, and apparently resting on the terraces cut out of the older clays. This is the arrangement which prevails throughout this part of Canada. It is modified by the greater or less relative thickness of the Boulder-clay and Leda clay, by the irregular distribution of the overlying sands, and by the projec tion through it of ridges of the underlying rocks. The section at Trois Pistoles may be represented as follows in descending order: |