Renews, — J. F. Whiteaves — Canadian Palaeontology. 129 



II. — Report on the Invertebrata of the Laramie and Creta- 

 ceous Books of the North-west Territory. Contributions 

 to Canadian Palaeontology. By J. F. Whiteaves, F.G-.S., etc. 

 Palaeontologist and Zoologist to the Survey. Vol. I. Part 1. 

 8vo. pp. 89 and 6 Plates. (Montreal, Dawson Bros., 1885.) 



TTNDER the title of 'Contributions to Canadian Palaeontology,' it is 

 i_j proposed to publish such papers as cannot be conveniently included 

 in either of the volumes on the Palaeozoic or Mesozoic Fossils of 

 Canada, now in course of preparation. This first part contains a deter- 

 mination of the marine, brackish, and freshwater invertebrate fossils 

 — with one exception, all mollusca — collected by Dr. G. M. Dawson 

 and others in the North-west Territory of Canada. Many of these 

 fossils have already been described by Messrs. Meek and Hayden 

 and other United States palaeontologists, and of these reference is 

 made to the synonymy, and the localities are given where they occur. 

 The new forms are fully described and figured. They include TJnio 

 Albertensis, Anomia perstrigosa, Corbicida obliqua, C. perangulata, 

 Panopcea simulatrix, P. curta, Acella, sp., Physa Copei, var. Canadensis, 

 Acroloxus radiatulus, Pahda angulifera, P. obtusata, AncJiistoma 

 parvulam, Valvata filosa, V. bicincta, Gervillia recta, var. boreahs, 

 Modiola dicliotoma, Cyprina ovata, var. alia, Protocardia borealis, 

 Panopcea subovalis, Scaphites subglobosns, Crenella (?) parvida, TJnio 

 supragibbosus, Bhytopliorus glaber, Planorbis paucivolvis, Hydrobia 

 subcylindracea, and the solitary Crustacean PEoploparia ? Canadensis. 

 The rocks from which these fossils have been obtained are fully 

 described by Dr. G. M. Dawson in the Report of Progress of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, 1882-4. In the Laramie Group are 

 included, (1) Porcupine Hill beds, of freshwater sandstones and shales 

 —2500 feet; (2) Willow Creek beds, also freshwater— 450 feet ; (3) 

 St. Mary River Series, nearly all freshwater — 2800 feet; thus making 

 a total thickness of 5750 feet of strata assigned to the Laramie 

 Group. In the underlying (so-called) Cretaceous series the following 

 subdivisions are made : (a) Fox Hill Sandstones, brackish- water, 

 80 feet ; (b) Pierre shales, marine, 750 feet ; (c) Belly River series, 

 910 feet; (d) Lower dark shales, 800 feet ; in all a total thickness 

 of 2540 feet. The stratigraphical disposition adopted by Dr. G. M. 

 Dawson of a Cretaceous series and an upper series—-- the Laramie — 

 of extra Cretaceous rocks, is not, according to Mr. Whiteaves, 

 supported by the palaeontological evidence. This author states that 

 the "invertebrate fauna of the 'Belly River series' seems to be 

 essentially the same as that of the Laramie of the United States and 

 Canada, unless more than one formation has been contounded under 

 the latter name, and that it is at present scarcely possible to separate 

 the ' Lower Dark Shales ' of Dr. Dawson's Report from the ' Fort 

 Pierre and Fox Hill Groups ' on purely palaeontological grounds." 

 If this statement is correct, that the fossils of these two important 

 series of strata are similar, it would be interesting to know the 

 reasons which have led to the separation of the Laramie division 

 from the Cretaceous in Canada. G. J. H. 



DECADE III. VOL. III. — NO. III. 9 



