80 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



FAUNA OF THE GASPE LIMESTONES 



In connection with this Oriskany fauna that of the limestones of the 

 Gaspe peninsula, province of Quebec, requires brief consideration. This 

 remarkable series of 2000 feet of limestones was first exploited by Sir 

 William Logan in 1844^ who separated them into eight divisions*, num- 

 bering from bottom to top. The organic contents of the entire series 

 are principally known from the description of the species by Billings*. 

 This author however makes no reference to the considerable number 

 of forms mentioned by Logan in his characterization of his subdivisions 

 of the group. The record of species has been somewhat augmented in 

 recent years by the lists given by Ells in his report on the geology 

 of the Gaspe peninsula, the new identifications of which are largely 

 ascribed to Dr H. M. Ami. This entire series of limestones was origi- 

 nally regarded of Siluric age; Billings afterward demonstrated and Logan 

 conceded the similarities between the fauna of division no. 8 and that of 

 the Oriskany of New York, while Ells and Ami are not disposed to 

 assign to the Siluric any other part than divisions 1 and 2. This 

 great section of limestone deposits doubtless presents the most gradual 

 of known transitions from beds (no. 1 and 2) carrying a fauna cor- 

 relating with Helderbergian time and composition, through a great thick- 

 ness of sparsely fossiliferous calcareous and magnesian beds (no. 8, 4, 

 5, 6) into a profuse limestone fauna with most pronounced Oriskany 

 traits (no. 7 and 8). It is not practicable to here present faunal lists 

 resulting from the writer's recent studies of the series though these 

 would serve to indicate the close similarity of complexion in the lower 

 beds, 1 and 2, and the beds at Stewart's cove, Dalhousie and in the 

 Chapman plantation, Aroostook county, Maine. In the upper beds, no. 

 7 and 8, the fauna carries Rensselaeria ovoides, (a small and 

 slender variety) Megalanteris ovalis, Hipparionyxproxi- 

 mus, Dalnianites, very close to D. stemmatus, Stroj^heo- 

 donta magniventra, Camarotoechia pliopleura, C. 



*l8t annual report geol. sur. of Canada. 

 "Geology of Canada. 1863 cb. 16. 

 'Geol. sur. Canada. 1874, vol. 2, pt 1. 



