198 BULLETIN OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



ARTICLE II. 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE OF THE ETCHEMINIAN 

 FAUNA OF CAPE BRETON. 



By G. F. Matthew, LL.D., D.Sc, F.R.S.C. 



(Communicated by permission of the Director of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 3rd of October, 1899.) 



The following brief notice of the new fauna recovered from the 

 Etcheminian rocks of Cape Breton is presented for the information of 

 those who are working in the oldest fossiliferous deposits ; and is col- 

 lateral to a similar notice of the Etcheminian fauna of Newfoundland 

 presented to the Society in the early part of this year. 



The physical conditions and history of the Etcheminian deposits in 

 Cape Breton are very closely parallel to those in New Brunswick. In 

 both regions there was volcanic action in districts adjoining the areas 

 where the sediments of this age accumulated ; or there were exposed 

 areas of volcanic deposits (ashes, etc.,) from which much of the sedi 

 ment was derived. This is a more noticeable condition in the Lower. 

 Etcheminian of Cape Breton, than in that of New Brunswick ; but the 

 Upper Etcheminian of both regions had a very similar physical history. 



Appended to this notice (See Plate IV.) are two sections of the 

 Cape Breton Cambrian and Etcheminian, from which the relations of 

 the two terranes in that region will be seen, and from which it appears 

 that the Cambrian of that island rests sometimes on the Etcheminian, 

 and at others directly upon the older felsites and syenites which form 

 prominent ridges of land on that island. 



As regards the Cambrian it is to be noted that these sections show 

 no Lower Cambrian nor have the faunas of this part of the system 

 (Paradoxides and Prololenus) been recognized in Cape Breton. The 

 fauna which is found in the lowest sandstones and shales above the 

 basal conglomerate of the Cambrian, appears to be Upper Cambrian ; 

 certainly all the faunas above the latter pertain to the upper horizons. 



