THE OTTAWA f(ATURALIST. 



Vol. XIV. OTTAWA, JANUARY, 1901. No. 10. 



DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES OF UNIO FROM 



THE CRETACEOUS ROCKS OF THE NANAIMO 



COAL FIELD, V. I. 



By J. F. Whiteaves. 



In the second volume of the Palaeontology of California, pub- 

 lished in 1869, Mr. W. M. Gabb described and figured a Cretaceous 

 species of Unio, which he called U. Hiibbardi. This species was 

 based upon a single specimen, which is said to be "from the 

 Nanaimo Coal Mine, Vancouver Island," and to have been " kindly 

 loaned " to Mr. Gabb by Mr. Samuel Hubbard. It has long 

 seemed to the writer that the evidence for this locality is verv 

 unsatisfactory, and that there are two strong reasons for 

 supposing that some mistake has been made in regard to 

 it. The first of these reasons is that no similar specimens 

 have since been found in the Cretaceous rocks at Nanaimo, 

 or any other locality in Vancouver, or any of the immediately 

 adjacent islands, by members of the staff of the Geological Survey 

 of Canada, or by local collectors. The second is that numerous 

 very typical specimens of U. Hiibbardi were collected at the 

 Covvgitz coal mine, on Graham Island (one of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands) by Mr. James Richardson in 1872, and by Dr. G. M. 

 Dawson in 1878. 



No other land or fresh-water shells have yet been recorded as 

 occurring in the Cretaceous rocks of the Nanaimo, Comox, or 

 Cowitchan coal fields. But in March, 1894, a nearly perfect but 

 somewhat crushed and slightly distorted bivalve shell was found 



