30 PARALLELISM OF THE QUEBEC GROUP. 



lus ? Amphus, Bathyurus, Cheirurus, Conocephalites f Dikeloce- 

 phalus, Endymion, Harpides, Holometopus, Illcenus, Leperditia, 

 Lichas, Menocephalus t Nileus, Olenellus, and Shumardia. 



Any one who has studied the palaeontology of the older rocks 

 will perceive that the above is a Silurian fauna. Out of fifty-three 

 genera there are only seven which have a primordial aspect. 

 They are the following : 



Agnostus, Arionellus, 



Bathyurus, Conocephalites, 



Dikelocephalus, Menocephalus, 



Olenellus. 



These seven genera are just sufficient to give to so large a fauna 

 a perceptible primordial tinge, so to speak, indicating a proximity 

 to the base of the Lower Silurian. Of the species there are ten 

 or twelve considered to be identical With well known Calciferous 

 and Chazy forms ; and about as many more which are closely 

 allied to some of those occurring in these and some of the over- 

 lying formations. I have marked the genera Arionellus and 

 Conocephalites doubtful, as it is not quite certain that^l. cylindri- 

 cus, A. Sedgwichi } and C. Zenkeri* are sufficiently determined. 

 It makes little difference however, as the species have a primordial 

 aspect. 



There is no palaeontologist in America who will ever believe that 

 we have in Canada a formation lying 2400 feet below the base 

 of the Potsdam, holding a fauna composed of the genera given in 

 the above list. No English palaeontologist will believe that such 

 a fauna is to be found in rocks older than the Lingula flags. Bar- 

 rande will certainly not admit such a fauna into his Primordial 

 Zone. Dr. Emmons will not take the Point Levis and Phillips- 

 burgh limestones into his Taconic system. In several letters 

 which I received from him in 1860 after the first publication of 

 the Quebec fossils, he says that he considers the Point Levis lime- 

 stone to be the Lower Silurian and of the same age nearly as the 

 limestone of Troy, Bald Mountain, Mount Toby and other places 

 in New York. But he seems to claim the slates which hold the 

 graptolites. Barrande, however, both in his published papers and 

 in his letters to me, steadily refuses to admit the graptolites into 

 the primordial zone. Sir R. I. Murchison also maintains with 

 Barrande that all graptolitic rocks are Silurian. 



* This species may belong to the genus Harpides. 



