DEVONIC FISHES OF THE NEW YORK FORMATIONS 1 89 



This rather full statement in regard to conceptual waterways has been 

 made not for the purpose of criticism, but in order to synthesize as far as 

 possible certam elements of apparently contiicting nature. The test of a 

 sound judgment is its ability to unify various and sometimes even dissonant 

 concepts. In the present instance it becomes necessary to reconcile with 

 the evidence furnished by Helderbergian and Oriskanian invertebrates in 

 favor of an invasion from the northeast, certain other evidence that appears 

 at first sight discordant, namely, the failure of any Lower Devonic verte- 

 brates to take part in the migration. As will be seen from an inspection 

 of the faunal lists given on pages 13 and 14, the abundant and rather 

 diversified fish fauna occurring in the synclinal basin of the Restigouche 

 near Campbellton, N. B., is without a single representative in rocks 

 of Lower or Middle Devonic age in the Appalachian province. No 

 traits are observed in the Onondaga or Hamilton fish faunas which can be 

 ascribed to an immigration from eastern Canada by way of the putative 

 water route called by Clarke the "Appalachian strait," and by Dana 

 the " Connecticut trough," which is supposed to have been open during 

 the late Siluric and greater part of the Devonic. None of the Appalachian 

 Mesodevonic vertebrates can be regarded as the genetic descendant of 

 forms that existed at an earlier period in the maritime provinces in eastern 

 North America. The problem is to reconcile this diversity of evidence 

 without contradiction, and it is believed that a solvent will be found in Dr 

 Clarke's recent determination of the Gaspe sandstones as of later than 

 Oriskanian age. 



In his sketch of the geology of Perce, published in 1904, Dr Clarke 

 declared that the fairly rich marine fauna of the lower beds about Gaspe 

 basin reveals evidence of both early and late Devonic age, and that the 

 prevailing sedimentation is of the same aspect as characterizes both in New 

 York and Europe the deposits of the Devonic or Old Red lakes and 

 lagoons.' This preliminary statement strikes at the root of the whole 

 matter, and sounds the keynote of an interpretation which has since been 



'Perce, a Brief Sketch of its Geology. N. Y. State Mus. Bui. 80. 1904. p. 142. 



