258 



" Shasta Group " of the Califoj-uian geologists is separahle, on palseonto- 

 logical gi-ounds, into two well-marked divisions, one of which represents 

 the Upper Neocomian and the other tlie Gault of Eiu-ope. The localities 

 in Bi-itish Columhia at which these supposed Upper ISTeocomian rocks 

 occui', and a list of the fossils of the latter, with descriptions of three new 

 species, are given in the paper cited. On the Pacitic Coast of the United 

 States and Canada the most characteristic fossils of the equivalents of 

 the Upper ISTeocomian appear to hethe Belejnnites impressvs, Ancyloceras 

 2)ercostatus and Aucella Piochii of Gabb, which latter shell is almost 

 unquestionably synonymous with A. Mosquensis Von Buch, of the 

 Russian Neocomian. 



The Gault of Europe seems to be represented in America, not only by 

 the Lower Shales of the Queen Charlotte Islands, as already suggested, 

 but also by the fossiliferous porphyrites and felsites of Sigutlat Lake 

 and the Iltasyouco river, B.C. (which were formerly supposed by the 

 ^writer to be of Jurassic age) and by those Californian rocks which were 

 formei-ly included in the Shasta Group and which hold such fossils as 

 Lytuceras Batesi, Hajjloceras Breiceri and Hoplites Stoliczhanus. 



At the base of the series, however, in Skidegate Inlet, at localities 

 Nos. 7, 8, 9,»13 and 15, in rocks which, according to Mr. Richardson 

 -and Dr. Dawson form part of the Lower Shales, and associated with 

 others that elsewhere occur mingled with purely Cretaceous types, 

 there occur a few fossils which the writer has entirely failed to distin- 

 guish from the following species that have heretofore been regarded as 

 Jui-assic by American geologists. 



Belemniies densus, Meek & Hay den. 

 Pleuromya subcompressa, Meek. (Sev- 

 eral varieties.) 

 Astarte Packard!, White. 

 Grammatodon inornatus. 



Modiola ( Volsella) subimbricata,Meek. 

 Oxytoma Nebrascensis, Meek & Hay- 

 den. 

 Camptonectes extenuatus, M. & H. 

 Gryphtea Nebrascensis, M. & H. 



Moreover, the Vanihora pulchella of the Lower Shales is possibly only 

 a variety of Lyosoma Fowelli, White : the Cardiwn tumidulum of the 

 Lower Sandstones may be an extreme form of the Protocardiwn 

 Shumardi of Meek and Hayden, while the Bhynchonella Maudensis from 

 the sanae rocks is very likely only a small local variety of the B. gnatho- 

 phora of M«ek. 



Further, the fossiliferous volcanic rocks of Sigutlat Lake and of the 

 Iltasyouco River on the mainland of British Columbia (which are 

 now believed by the writer to be of the same age as the Lower Shales, 

 as the two formations contain seven species in common, namely, Olcoste- 



