303 



Gabb, on pages 245 and 246 of the third part of this volume. South 

 side of AUiford Bay, C. F. Newcorabe, 1895 : a crushed specimen, about 

 twenty-six millimetres in breadth, and showing the characters of the thin, 

 sharp ribs better than any of those that had previously been collected. 



It is doubtful whether these specimens should be regarded as 

 representing a small, local and stratigraphical variety of the " Terebratella 

 obesa" of Gabb, from the Chico Group of California, (which is probably 

 a Bhynchonella) or as a distinct and previously uridescribed species. Pro- 

 fessor John C. Merriam, who has kindly compared them with the types 

 of that species in the Museum of tho University of California, at Ber- 

 keley, writes as follows, in regard to this point, in a letter dated October 

 17th, 1898. " I would not like to form a definite opinion without seeing 

 some more perfect material, but may say that I doubt whether your 

 specimens are 7'. obesa. T. obesa is somewhat different in form and seems 

 uniformly to possess more ribs than your specimens. I think our specimen 

 of T. obesa has about ten more ribs than the largest specimen among 

 those which you sent. 



" T. obesa seems to me to be a Ehynchonella. The type has on some parts 

 numerous pits, but they are very large and irregular. I think they are 

 formed by some borer, perhaps an unknown sponge. The pits are at any 

 rate quite different from those of the terebratuloids. 



" Mr. F. M. Anderson, who is working in Cretaceous paheontology 

 here, has just examined these Rhynchonella? from 8kidegate Inlet, and 

 agrees with me that it is safer not to call them obesa. He thinks the 

 form is different and suggests that your specimens represent a smaller 

 species than obesa, which even in young forms seems to have more ribs 

 than your species. He suggests also that your specimens are from the 

 Horsetown, while obesa is from the Chico." 



Under all the circumstances it seems most prudent to distinguish these 

 rather coarsely ribbed Rhynchonella from the Lower Shales of the Queen 

 Charlotte Islands, at least provisionally, by a different and new specific 

 name. 



Rhyxchoxella orthidioides. (N. Sp.) 



Plate 39, fi^. 5. 



Shell small, compressed, transversely subelliptical and a little broader 

 than long ; front margin slightly curved in the middle but apparently 

 devoid of a distinct fold or sinus. Ventral valve flattened somewhat 

 obliquely, with a faint shallow depression at the midbreadth in front, its 

 umbo rather narrow and moderately prominent : dorsal valve uniformly 

 compressed convex, rather more convex than the ventral, beak of the 

 dorsal incurved. 



