Cretaceous in the Northivesi. 9 



sions, was passing through the press, the report of Mr. 

 Whiteaves, F.G.S., Palaeontologist to the Canadian Survey, 

 on the invertebrate fossils of the Laramie and Cretaceous 

 of the Bow and Belly Kiver districts appeared (" Contribu- 

 tions to Canadian Palaeontology," Vol. I. Part i, 89 pages 

 and 11 plates). This valuable Eeport constitutes an inde- 

 pendent testimony, based on animal fossils, to the age of 

 the beds in question, and accords in the main very closely 

 with the conclusions above derived from fossil plants. 

 Unfortunately, however, no animal remains have yet been 

 found in the Kootanie series, and the only fossil recorded 

 from the Mill Creek beds is a species of Inoceramus, charac- 

 teristic in the United States of the Niobrara and Benton 

 groups, but which is found in beds which may be some- 

 what higher than those holding the plants. 



The Structural Features of " Discika Acadica " 

 (Hartt), of the St. John G-roup. 



By G. F. Matthew. 



This rather common species of the Cambrian at St. John 

 Basin was first figured and described in the second edition 

 of Sir J. Wm. Dawson's "Acadian Geology;" but as, owing 

 to the imperfect material in his hands, the original 

 describer, Prof. C. F. Hartt, did not clearly apprehend the 

 nature of this species, a few words relative to the structural 

 features of this, one of the earliest of the gasteropods, may 

 be of interest. 



Mr. P. P. Whitfield first drew attention to the calcareous 

 nature of the test of this species, and suggested that it was 

 a gasteropod allied to Palceacmea or Metoptoma. Mr. C. D. 

 Walcott afterwards referred it to the former genus, after a 

 study of the type-specimens preserved in Prof. Hartt's col- 

 lection at Cornell University; but he subsequently referred 

 it to Dr. H. Hicks' genus, Stenotheca. This is where the 

 late Mr. E. Billings placed a similar shell found in the 

 Cambrian limestone of S.B. Newfoundland, and to this 

 genus they are undoubtedly closely allied ; but an examina- 



