80 THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



rane, in Conception Bay at least, are found to belong to the Ordovi- 

 cian system, for trilobites of this age have been found at Bell Isle 

 in the iron bearing beds that are present in that island. 



REVISION OF THE ETCHEMINIAN FAUNA OF 

 CAPE BRETON. 



After the differentiation of the Protolanus fauna from the Para- 

 doxides fauna at the base of the St. John Group in the older Palaeozoic 

 rocks of eastern Canada, there still remained a fauna of a few species 

 in the red sediments covering the volcanic effusives beneath the St. John 

 group. Owing to there being a complete change in the aspect of 

 the sediments in passing from these red beds to the gray beds of the 

 St. John group, the former were thought to be of a different series 

 from the St. John sediments. 



In some cases these red rocks were seen to be divided from the 

 volcanics by a breccia of volcanic fragments, but in others there were 

 rounded quartz pebbles at the contact; everywhere, however, there 

 seemed to be a close association between the volcanic effusives and the 

 overlying red beds. Furthermore, in the basin of Cambrian rocks 

 next north-west of the St. John basin, these Cambrian rocks had 

 neither the volcanic terrane nor the red beds as a foundation, but 

 rested directly upon very old pre-Cambrian rocks. It was therefore 

 thought that there must be a difference of faunas between the St. 

 John group and these red beds which were called the Basal Cambrian 

 or Etcheminian, and their limited fauna was given the latter name. 

 The fossils found in these beds are all marine organisms. At Hanford 

 brook, about twenty-five miles east of St. John, they contain an Obolus 

 and a Hyolithes beside other organisms, poorly preserved and of 

 obscure generic types. 



In a visit made to Newfoundland (1898) the writer found that 

 there was a considerable fauna at this horizon in the Palaeozoic 

 rocks of that island. This was found at Conception Bay in the 

 south-east part of Newfoundland and was distinct both from the 

 fauna of the Protolenus zone and the higher parts of the Cambrian 

 system. 



Afterwards, being sent by the Geological Survey Department of 

 Canada to investigate the Cambrian rocks of Cape Breton island in 

 Nova Scotia, he noticed that the group of marine forms found in the 

 calcareous sandstones of Young's point near George R. which from 

 the genera reported as occurring there had been thought to resemble 

 those of the Ordovician system, were really at the base of a great thick- 

 ness of Cambrian rocks, and therefore could not be Ordovician. The 



