DESCRIPTIONS A^^D ILLUSTRATIONS OF FOSSILS FROM VAN- 

 COUVER'S AND SCCIA ISLANDS, AND OTHER NORTHWESTERN 

 LOCALITIES. 



By F. B. Meek, ralcco)iiologist. 



The fossils described and illustrated iu tins paper were iu part col- 

 lected by Mr. George Gibbs, geologist of the Xorthwestern Boundary 

 Survey, under the direction of Archibald Campbell, esq-, the commis- 

 sioner appointed in behalf of the United States Government on the 

 joint commission for the survey of the Northwestern Boundary-line. 



Most of the Cretaceous species from Vancouver's Island, however, had 

 been some time previously sent on to the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 briefly described, without illustrations, in a paper published by the 

 writer in the Transactions of the Albany Institute (vol. iv, 1856), for 

 the first time announcing the discovery of Cretaceous rocks at that dis- 

 tant northwestern locality. On the return of the Boundary commission 

 iu 1861, the additional collections of fossils obtained during that survey 

 were submitted to the writer for study, and preliminary descriptions of 

 those believed to be new were published in the Proceedings of the Phil- 

 adelphia Academy of Natural Sciences for that year. Soon after, the 

 following more extended descriptions, and the accompanying plates of 

 drawings of these fossils, were prepared for publication in Mr. Camp- 

 bell's report, in connection with that of Mr. Gibbs, on the geology of the 

 country along the line of the boundary. None of the elaborate geolog- 

 ical or natural history results, however, of this survey were published in 

 Mr. Campbell's report; and consequently none of the descriptions and 

 drawings, as presented in this paper, were ever issued. In the mean time, 

 figures of four or five of the Cretaceous species bave been published 

 (mainly without descriptions) in the reports of the geological survey of 

 California ; but the other species have not hitherto been illustrated, nor 

 any of them described with much detail. 



As it has, therefore, been considered very desirable that full descrip- 

 tions of all of these species, with figures of the same, from the original 

 typical specimens, should be published, permission was obtained through 

 Mr. Gibbs, the geologist of the survey, to publish this paper through 

 whatever agency might be found most convenient. 



All of the fossils under consideration, with possibly the exception of 

 one Tertiary species, it will be seen, belong to the Carboniferous and Cre- 

 taceous systems. Those of Carboniferous age come from the eastern 

 slope of the second principal range of theEockylMountains, near a small 

 stream known as Katlahwoke Creek, latitude 49^ north, and longitude 

 114° west from Greenwich ; this being the highest northern point, it is 

 believed, at which rocks of this age have yet been identified by organic 

 remains along the Eocky Mountain range. They are contained in a 

 hard gray and bluish-gray liuiestone, breaking with a rough, irregular 

 fracture, and sometimes presenting an obscurely subcrystalline struc- 

 ture. These limestones, according to the observations of I\Ir. Gibbs, 



