8 



Cambrian 

 system in 



sy.- 

 W 



First 



classification 

 of the 

 Cambrian 

 in New 

 Brunswick. 



The Ceratopyge fauna which follows, and which is equivalent in age 

 to the Tremadoc slates of Wales, is considered by the Swedes and 

 Germans to be a part of the Ordovician, or Lower Silurian system. 



In Wales there is a great development of the Cambrian system, the 

 thickness from detrital sources being increased by additions of 

 volcanic ashes and lava. 



The original work of the Geological Survey of Great Britain in this 

 district, especially in the south of Wales, has been greatly extended 

 and improved upon" by the late Dr. Henry Hicks, to whom we are 

 largely indebted for the elaboration of the several groups which make 

 up the Cambrian system in that principality and for the description of 

 their faunas. His classification from the base upward is as follows : 



Caerfai group, including the Olenellus zone. 



Solva group : this by its fossils belongs to the Lower Paradoxides 

 beds. 



Menevian group : this also contains Lower Paradoxides species, 

 the Upper Paradoxides fauna has not been definitely recog- 

 nized in Wales. 



Maentwrog group Olenus fauna. 



Ffestiniog group, with Lingulella Davisii, &c. 



Dolgelly group, with Parabolina, Peltura, &c. The summit of this 

 is equivalent to the Dictyonema shale of Sweden. 



Tremadoc group; this contains the genera Niobe and Asaphellus, 

 and is equivalent to the Ceratopyge fauna of Sweden.* 



These standards have already been applied to the Cambrian rocks 

 in New Brunswick, where most of the faunas referred to above have 

 been recovered and the lithological aspect of the strata in which they 

 exist has been noted ; so that there was now a standard more acces- 

 sible to the Canadian geologist, and comparatively close to the pro- 

 posed field of exploration, and a district where lithological resemblances 

 may be supposed to have a more definite value. 



The lithology of the New Brunswick Cambrian beds had been 

 studied and described before any fauna except that of the Lower 

 Paradoxides beds was known in them, so the terms used in designa- 

 tion the several groups of strata in this system in New Brunswick, are 

 based on their lithological aspect. Hence we have the following : 



* Fauna of Olenellus zone in Wales. Geol. Mag., London, 1892, p. 21. 



