Section IV, 1921 [21] Trans. R.S.C. 



The Distribution of Stringocephahis Burtoni in Canada^ 



By E. M. Kindle, A.B., M.Sc, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. 



(Read May Meeting, 1921) 



Introduction 



Stringocephahis hirtoni is one of the index or guide fossils of the 

 Middle Devonian in Europe and the British Isles. Thirty-one years 

 ago the late Dr. J. F. Whiteaves' read a paper before this Society in 

 which he announced for the first time the occurrence of this species 

 in North America. Billings,^ as early as 1875, had noted in a collection 

 of fossils from Lake Winnipegosis "a brachiopod resembling Stringo- 

 cephalus" but Whiteaves first definitely identified this genus and 

 species on this side of the Atlantic. 



Dr. Whiteaves' description of this fossil was based on two 

 collections. One was made on the shore of Lake Winnipegosis in 

 Manitoba by J. B. Tyrrell and J. F. Whiteaves in 1888. The other 

 was made at the Ramparts of the Mackenzie during the same season 

 by R. G. McConnell. 



These two finds of Stringocephahis at points 1,300 miles apart 

 representing the first discovery of the genus in America were made 

 curiously enough during the same year within a month of each other. 

 For 29 years no additions were made to our knowledge of the dis- 

 tribution of this fossil as represented by the collections of McConnell, 

 Tyrrell, Dowling and Whiteaves at the Ramparts and in Manitoba. 



Recent Work 



In 1917 the writer found Stringocephalus burtoni on the south 

 shore of Great Slave lake occurring abundantly in a magnesian lime- 

 stone. This locality is about midway between the only two previ- 

 ously known North American localities for this fossil. The extension 

 of field work to the lower Mackenzie in 1919 led to the discovery by 

 the writer of 6*. burtoni in the mountain region below Norman. This 

 fossil was found in three different mountain ranges on the lower 



1 Published by permission of the Deputy Minister of Mines. 



^J. F. Whiteaves: Descriptions of Some New and Previously Unrecorded 

 Species of fossils from the Devonian Rocks of Manitoba, Proc. and Tran's. Roy. 

 Soc. Can., Vol. VIII, 1890 (1891) pp. 93-110, PI. IV to X. 



^ Rept. of Progress, Geol. Surv. of Canada for 1874-75, p. 68. 



