208 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



The opinion given by Whiteaves in his vice-presidential address be- 

 fore the American Association in 1899 ^ was evidently founded upon 

 Schucl^ert's interpretation above referred to; and the opinion as to the 

 Age of the Gaspé sandstones given by J. M. Clarke appeared to confirm 

 that interpretation.2 



Also, I was led by similar evidence to interpret the age of the fauna 

 of a limestone from the Island of Côte St. Paul as Hamilton, and so 

 reported to Dr. F. D. Adams in a letter dated February 23, 1906. The 

 reasons for doubting the middle devonian age of these several beds were 

 briefly stated in a paper I read before the Geological Society of America 

 last December.^ As the settlement of the question as to the geological 

 date of the final withdrawal of marine sedimentation from all this eastern 

 province of the continent outside the main Appalachian axis is involved, 

 a critical review of all the evidence in hand is warranted. 



Review of the Evidence. 



Througli the courtesy of Dr. F. D. Adams, I have had the oppor- 

 tunity of studying a carefully collected set of specimens from the original 

 localities. In the year 1901, Dr. Adams had the St. Helen's Island thor- 

 oughly examined and three separate masses of limestone containing fos- 

 sils were discovered in the breccias. The following description of the 

 localities from which the lots quoted came is from Mr. Ardley's letter 

 of June 1, 1901. 



" Eedpath Museum, 

 Montreal, June 1st, 1901. 

 Lear Dr. Williams: 



I have the Material from St. Helen's Island boxed and ready for 

 shipment. There are six boxes in all. Marked on slips of paper inside 

 No. 1, 2 and 3. There i.s one box of No. i. (his Is the flat block of lime- 

 stone in tvhich are the ivinged spirifers, there are four boxes of No. 3, 

 tliis is the next block of limestone, the first of what Sir W. Logan calls 

 small arches; this is the richest in fossils, the limestone in this mass does 

 not appear to have been broken up. I have not found Favosites or 

 Zaphrentis at this point. No. 3, one small box, this is a few yards separ- 



' Viz. that the limestones of St. Helen's Island " are prohahUj the ((/iiiralents 

 of part of the Hamilton formations of Ontario and New York and not of f.oiicr 

 Hclderberg." (Whiteaves, J. F. A'ice-presidential address, Section E. Am. Ass'n. 

 Adv. Science, 1899, p. 16.) 



2 See J. M. Clarke, Early Devonic History of New York and Eastern Ameri- 

 ca, 1908, p. 87. 



3 Williams, Henry S. "On the age of the Gaspé Sandstone," (not yet pub- 

 lished, April, 1909). 



