228 PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY 



St. Albans Group, is in reality Ante-Primordinl, or more exactly 

 Infra-Primordial, and in future I will designate it by this name. I 

 place in it, temporarily at least, the two fossils Slraparollina re- 

 moia and llyolithes cxcellens Bill., found at Smith's Sound, in Trinity 

 Bay, as well as Agraulos strenuus Bill., of Brigus and Topsail Head, 

 Conception Bay. 



I do not now refer to the regions of Newfoundland near the Straits 

 of Belle Isle, where the Georgia Group with Olenellus Thompsoni, 

 and the Group of Phillipsburgh and Point Levis, have l>een found ; 

 nor to the determination of certain beds as beinjr of the a^e of the 

 Potsdam and of the Calciferous. The existence of the true Potsdam 

 and the Calciferous is very doubtful, as no fossils identical with those 

 of the typical localities of the State of New York have been found. 



Infra- Primordial, Primordial, and Supra-Primordial Faience. — I 

 have called the most ancient fossils of Newfoundland Infra- Primordial, 

 in order to distinguish them from the true Primordial, as Barrande 

 has characterized it in Bohemia, and which is representefl in America 

 by the zones with Paradoxides and Olenellus. But we have also in 

 America a fauna which has no representative in Bohemia, where the 

 overflow of porphyry put an insurmountable obstacle to marine exist- 

 ence. This fauna is found at Ilof in Bavaria, at Vestfosen near Chris- 

 tiania in Norway, and elsewhere in Europe ; declared by Barrande 

 primordial at Ilof, while Linnarson looks upon it as the second fauna ; 

 and Brop'ger calls it by the name of Asaphus Ktage in Norway. It is 

 formed of Primordial types united with types wliose great develop- 

 ment takes place in the second fauna, properly so called, and for these 

 reasons I give it the name of Supra-Primordial. 



So we have in America and in Scandinavia, and very probably 

 elsewhere, three Taconic faunae. 1st. The Sapra-Primordiul, which 

 at Lake Champlain includes colonies of the second fauna, and is ter- 

 minated by the " Potsdam sandstone," including the " Saratoga lime- 

 stone," with primordial fossils discovered by Walcott. 2d. The true 

 Primordial fauna, including the zones with Olenellus of the Georgia 

 schists, that with Paradoxides of the St. John or Acadian Group, and 

 the argillites of Braintree and St. Mary and Trinity Bays. 3d. .The 

 lowest Primordial fauna, or Infra-Primordial, still more sporadic, 

 with more simple and primitive forms, of Conception Bay, Smith's 

 Sound, and St, John's harbor, Newfoundland. 



