91 



Gasteropoda. Stoniatia, Ciimlia. Fnli;-nraria, Pleurotoma. 

 Lamellibi'uiicliiata. Axiiiu'a. Acila, fonehocele, Tlietis. ami nmny 

 kinds of Tuoeerainns. 



The marine fauna' of tlie coal-hoarinii; series of the Vancouver and 

 Queen Charlotte Islands ap])ear, therefoi-e, to lie entirely ditt'ei-i'Ut. and as 

 3'et not a siiigle s]K'eies can be satisfaetorily identified as coTuniovi to 

 both. 



The preceding observations may be suniniai-ized or recapitulated as 

 folloAvs : — 



1. That in Europe there are beds of passage which connect the marine 

 deposits of the Oolitic or Upper Jurassic epoch with those of the Cre- 

 taceous, but that similai- transitional strata have not yet been recognized 

 in America. 



2. That some of the Queen Chai-lotte Tslan<l fossils bear a considerable 

 resemblance to European Oolitic types, but that this analogy is often of 

 a very general character, and can scarcely in any case be shown to 

 amount to actual specific identity. 



3. That among the specimens collected by Mr. Richardson there are 

 at least one or two species which are known to be Cretaceous : also, that 

 the collection indicates a fauna much more like that of the Shasta Group 

 of California and British Columbia than that of the coal-bearing series of 

 Vancouver and the adjacent islands. 



While, on the one hand, the fossils described in these pages show that 

 the probable geological position of the beds which contained them is 

 near the base of the Lower Cretaceous formation, or top of the Upper 

 Jurassic, they are insufficient to mark the detinite horizon to which the 

 series should be referred. It is sufficiently obvious that they exhibit a 

 blending of the life of the Cretaceous period with that of the Jurassic, 

 and perhaps the best course would be to regard the Queen Charlotte 

 Island series provisionally as merely, one of the oldest members of the 

 Shasta Group, until the organic remains of the beds associated together 

 under that name are better understood. 



The Carbonaceous shales near Cowgitz contain a Unio which can 

 scarcely be distinguished from a Wealden species, and this circumstance, 

 though it certainly seems to tend towards the establishment of a con- 

 nection betAveen the Queen Chai-lotte Island rocks and the Wealden of 

 Europe, throws no light upon the exact age of the former. The Wealden 

 is a pui-ely local deposit, which by some writ^-s is regarde.l as syn- 

 chronous with the Lower Xecomian, and by others as belonging to the 



