[matthew] CAMBRIAN FORMATION IN EASTERN CANADA 73 



The basal beds of the St. John group may be compared with those 

 at the base of the Cambrian terrane in eastern Quebec. As on the 

 north side of the Gulf of St. Lawrence so on the shores of the Bay of 

 Fundy, the lowest strata are barren sandstones. In the former 

 region the sandstones give place to limestones which contain an 

 Olenellus fauna, but in the latter the beds which follow the sandstones 

 are glauconiferous shales holding the Protolenus fauna. 



These gray and greenish gray sandstones and shales were spread 

 over the St. John basin and are found in each of the other two basins 

 of Cambrian rocks near to it. 



By some examples cited above we have shown the diversity of 

 the Brachiopods in this fauna, but the unity of the fauna is shown by 

 the trilobites, which apparently were better fitted for migration from 

 one area to another. They were Nekton, while the Brachiopods were 

 Benthos. 



Though not found in all parts of the Kennebecasis basin, the 

 Protolenus sandstones -and shales, where they come to the surface, 

 are uniform in their appearance with the more widely and more evenly 

 distributed strata of the same age in the St. John Basin. 



One character which links together the Protolenus beds of the 

 St. John group and the Olenellus limestone of southern Labrador, 

 is that both have numbers of Foraminifera associated with the other 

 fossils; those of Labrador so far as I know have not been described. 



The Protolenus beds of the St. John basin abound in nodules of 

 phosphate of lime. These nodules are also found in the Cambrian 

 sandstones of Sweden, where they are supposed to have been formed 

 in a shallow sea of clear ocean water, in the vicinity of the coastline. 



PARADOXIDES BEDS. 



On entering this part of the Cambrian system we meet not only 

 a different class of sediments but a much greater abundance and vari- 

 ety of organic remains. In this group though it is not a very bulky 

 one, we have evidence of three or four distinct substages, each con- 

 taining its special group of organisms, and each characterized by some 

 differences in the aspect of the mud in which the organic remains 

 were buried. They all indicate deposition of a fine clayey sediment 

 on a sheltered area of the sea-bottom, probably a comparatively 

 shallow bay, protected from strong marine currents. 



LAMELLATUS SUBZONE. 



The older portion of the Paradoxides beds shows a full proportion 

 of sub-faunas at St. John and thus enable one to compare it closely 

 with the Lower Paradoxides beds of Europe. 



