REVIEWS 
Early Devonic History of New York and Eastern North America. 
By JoHN M. Crarke. New York State Museum, Memoir 9g, 
1908. 
Our knowledge of the Paleozoic faunal history of North America is 
derived largely from the faunas of the interior epicontinental seas which 
were spread out upon the continent from time to time, sometimes as great 
tongue-like embayments, and again as great sheet-like expansions which 
covered large areas of the continental surface. These shallow epiconti- 
nental seas teemed with life and the sediments deposited in them are 
frequently abundantly fossiliferous. The various elements in these faunas 
usually give evidence of being immigrants, and the originating tracts in 
which they were evolved are believed usually to have been in shallow areas 
on the borders of the oceanic basins. In these border regions having 
more direct communication with the permanent oceanic basins, the physical 
conditions were doubtless more nearly continuous than in the more or less 
transient interior epicontinental seas, and the life history also was prob- 
ably less liable to abrupt changes. At the present time the Paleozoic rocks 
of most of the border region of the continent are deeply buried beneath 
the sea or beneath younger strata, the most notable exception to this con- 
dition being found in the great eastern angle of the continent which includes 
the maritime provinces of Canada. Because of their peculiar relations to 
the faunas of the interior, any contribution to our knowledge of the ancient 
faunas of these maritime provinces is received with especial favor. A 
most notable contribution to the paleontology of this region is a memoir 
on the Early Devonic History of New York and Eastern North America, 
by the Director of Science of the New York Education Department, which 
is devoted to a discussion of the lower and middle Devonian faunas of the 
Gaspé region. 
Before entering upon a description of the faunas to be considered, ~ 
Dr. Clarke has sketched the geology of the region which was first worked 
out by Sir William E. Logan many years ago. A glowing tribute is ren- 
dered this great pioneer in the investigation of Canadian geology, who 
‘“‘sought and found the key to the geologic structure of the country; and 
so conclusively and with such admirable finish was the work of this master 
hand accomplished that in all the years since elapsed, from 1844 and 1845, 
little has been added to, and naught subtracted from his achievements.” 
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