254 T. W. STANTON — SHASTA AND CHTCO FAUNAS. 



in this connection that the upper shales and sandstones, or division A 

 •of the Queen Charlotte section, contain Inoceramus problemalicus, Schloth., 

 a species that is characteristic of the Colorado formation in the Rocky 

 mountain region and is not known to range higher than the Turonian 

 in Europe. 



Correlation of Nanaimo Beds with the Chico. — The correlation of the 

 Nanaimo.beds on Vancouver island with the Chico formation, taken in 

 connection with the facts already given, implies that these beds are more 

 closely related to the Queen Charlotte formation than has been supposed, 

 and I think that a comparison of the faunas found in the three regions, 

 California, Vancouver and Queen Charlotte, will give evidence of this 

 relationship. The principal facts that seem to he opposed to this con- 

 clusion arc that some of the species of B 'acuities and of Inoceramus found 

 on Vancouver island are apparently closely related to species in the 

 Montana formation of Nebraska. Colorado and elsewhere in the interior 

 region, and that the plants found in the Nanaimo coal held are said to 

 be of upper Cretaceous types. 



With the possible exception of the species just mentioned and a few 

 others that have little diagnostic value, it is doubtful whether any of the 

 species of the Shasta-Chico fauna occur in the upper Cretaceous beds 

 east of the Rocky mountains.* The ammonites nearly all belong to 

 genera that are not found in the upper Cretaceous of the interior region 

 and differences almost as great might be pointed out in other classes of 

 mollusks. 



These facts may readily be explained by supposing that the faunas 

 lived contemporaneously in different oceans separated by a long conti- 

 nental area, but they would also be equally ay ell explained if it could 

 be proved that they were not strictly contemporaneous. 



The Shasta-Chico Fauna compared with the Fauna of the Black- 

 down Beds. 



Mr Whiteaves has correlated the Queen Charlotte formation with the 

 Gault, and as confirmatory of this reference it may be of interest to give 

 the results of the comparison 1 have made with one of the English Cre- 

 taceous faunas. 



In Sowerby's "Mineral Conchology " 4G species of Cretaceous fossils 

 are described from the Blackdown beds of Devonshire, England. These 

 beds have usually been referred to the Gault, though some authors now 

 regard them (at least in part) as „ representing the lowest beds of the 



*See Dr C A. White's statement on this point in Bull. 15, U. S. Geol. Surv., pp. 27-29. 



