258 



" Shanta Group " of the Californian geologists is separable, on palseonto- 

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

 the Upper Neocomian and the other the Gault of Europe. The localities 

 in British Columbia at which these supposed Upper Neocomian rocks 

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

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

 States and Canada the most characteristic fossils of the equivalents of 

 the Upper Neocomian appear to be the Selemnites impressus, Ancyloceras 

 percostatus and Aucella Piochii of Gabb, which latter shell is almost 

 unquestionably synonymous with A. Mosquensis Yon Buch, of the 

 Hussian 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 Califomian rocks which were 

 formerly included in the Shasta Group and which hold such fossils as 

 Lytoceras Batesi, Haploceras Breweri and Hoplites Stoliczlcanus. 



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. Eichardson 

 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 

 Jurassic by American geologists. 



Belemnites densus, Meek & Hayden. 

 Pleuromya subcompressa, Meek. (Sev- 

 eral varieties.) 

 Astarte Packardi, White. 

 Graminatodon inornatus. 



Modiola ( Volsella) subimbricata,Meek. 

 Oxytoma Nebrascensis, Meek & Hay- 

 den. 



Camptonectes extenuatus, M. & H. 

 Gryphsea Nebrascensis, M. & H. 



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

 a variety of Lyosoma Powelli, "White : the Cardiwn tumidulum of the 

 Lower Sandstones may be an extreme form of the Protocardium 

 Shumardi of Meek and Hayden, while the Rhynchonella Mavdensis from 

 the same rocks is very likely only a small local variety of the R. gnatho- 

 phora of Meek. 



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

 Iltasyouco Eiver 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- 



