376 ' NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



In the regions of British Columbia now included within the districts of 

 Athabasca and Mackenzie, a wide expanse of black shale is known from the 

 Clearwater or Little Athabasca river (lat. 57 n., long. 1 io° w.) northward 

 along the Elk, Peace and Great Slave rivers to Great Slave lake (6i° n.). 

 Meek, in giving an account of the fossils collected in this region by Kenni- 

 cott', and Isbister 2 , who had previously traversed the region with Sir John 

 Richardson, notes that at the mouth of the Clearwater the shales are 150 

 feet thick, lie on a concretionary limestone and are overlain by sandstones. 

 Isbister regarded these bituminous shales, on the basis of some identifications 

 of fossils by H. Woodward, as equivalent to the Marcellus of New York; 

 but Meek has shown the lower limestones to bear a middle Devonic fauna 

 with Hamilton characters, and the overlying sands are regarded as equiva- 

 lent of the Chemung. This judgment, at least so far as the character of 

 the lower limestones is concerned, is substantiated by Whiteaves, who has 

 based his study of the fossils on new material largely collected by R. G. 

 McConnell. 3 Near Fort Resolution on Great Slave lake these bituminous 

 shales carry Styliolina fissurella, Chonetes s e t i g e r, 

 "Avicula laevis" (= P t e r o c h ae n i a fragilis), a " Lucina-like 

 bivalve " (probably some form of Ontaria, perhaps (). s u b o r b i c u 1 a r i s) 

 and L i n g u 1 a cf. s p a t u 1 a t a. Herein is the same indication of alliance 

 to the black shales fauna of New York, whether Genesee 'or Portage, an 

 indication of the contiguity of the true Intumescens fauna being shown in 

 the presence of the "Lucina-like bivalve" and also in the occurrence 

 reported by Whiteaves (to which we have previously adverted) 4 of a 

 goniatite, undoubtedly M a n t i c o c e r a s intumescens, on the Hay 

 river, which enters Slave lake west of Fort Resolution, in association with 

 species characterizing the brachiopod facies or cuboides zone fauna 

 (Hypothyris cuboides, Pugnax pugnus, etc.). 5 Still farther 



1 Chicago Acad, of Sci. Trans. 1869. 1:61. 



2 Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. 1855. 11: 497. 



sContrib. to Canadian Paleontology. 1891. v. 1, pt 2. 



* See part 1 of this work, N. Y. State Geol. An. Rep't. 1896. p. 138. 



s Whiteaves. Op. cit. 



