240) T. W. STANTON SHASTA AND CHICO FAUNAS. 



and, while admitting the presence of modern types of mollusks, consid- 

 ered that the cephalopods were stronger evidence of their Cretaceous age. 

 He also stated that he had obtained a collection of fossils from Nanaimo, 

 Vancouver island, that proved the Cretaceous age of the coal beds at that 

 place. These fossils were placed in the hands of Professor P. B. Meek,* 

 who soon afterward described them. Although at that time he thought 

 that the entire collection came from Nanaimo, he believed that two dis- 

 tinct horizons were represented. Many years afterward, when repub- 

 lishing the descriptions with figures,t he stated that only those species 

 which he believed to be the older came from Nanaimo, while the others 

 were from Comox, northwest of Nanaimo, and from Sucia island. Those 

 from the last two localities were thought to indicate about the horizon of 

 the Fort Pierre shales, or number 4 of Meek and Hayden's upper Mis- 

 souri section.'! 



In 1858 Dr B. F. Shumard § described three species of Cretaceous 

 fossils from Nanaimo, and in 1861 Dr James Hector || published an 

 account of the Nanaimo coal field, giving the evidence of its Cretace- 

 ous age. 



Views of W. M. Gabb, — Up to this time both the geologic and the pale- 

 on tologic work had been mainly preliminary, the latter based on very 

 small collections brought in by explorers; and it was not until 18(34, 

 when the first volume of the Paleontology of California was published, 

 that any serious attempt was made to classify the Cretaceous formations 

 of the Pacific coast or to present their paleontology in a systematic 

 manner. In that volume Mr W. M. Gabb described about 260 species 

 of fossils which he referred to the Cretaceous. In the introduction some 

 general statements concerning the classification and correlation of the 

 California Cretaceous were given by Professor J. D. Whitney ,^[ the state 

 geologist, on the authority of Mr Gabb. All the Cretaceous beds on the 

 Pacific coast were assigned to two divisions {A and 7>), winch were to- 

 gether supposed to represent the Upper Chalk or White Chalk of Europe 

 and the Fort Pierre and Fox Hills groups of the upper Missouri, although 

 the Cretaceous of the latter region seemed to have no species in common 

 with the California strata. 



The Tejon Controversy. — The publication of this volume precipitated a 

 discussion between Messrs Gabb, Conrad and others as to the age of 



* Trans. Albany Institute, vol. iv, 1858-'64, pp. 36-49. 

 i Bull. U. S. Geol. Snrv. Terr., vol. ii, 1876, pp. 351-374. 



[The same opinion is expressed in Professor Week's last work-, 1'. S. Geol. Surv. Terr., vol. ix, 

 Invert. Paleontology, p. xxv. 

 I Trans. St. Louis Acad. Sri., vol. i, 1858, pp. 123-125. 

 || Quart. .Jour. Geol. Soc. Liond., vol. xvii, 1861, pp. 428-436. 

 «| Paleontology of Cal., vol. i, L864, p. xix. 



