50 THE CAMBRIAN. Ibui.l.81. 



IV. The Interior Continental or Central Province. 

 The record of paleontologic investigation in each province will fol- 

 low the geologic review. 



ATLANTIC COAST PROVINCE. 



The Atlantic coast province includes the deposits on the island of 

 Newfoundland, the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and 

 Cape Breton, and the States of Maiue, New Hampshire, and eastern 

 Massachusetts. 



NEWFOUNDLAND. 



Systematic geologic investigation in Newfoundland began with Prof. 

 J. Beete Jukes, who in 184-3 ' published a report of his studies in field 

 and office. He describes the relation of the strata at the base of the 

 Paleozoic section (now referred to the Olenellus zone), to the uucon- 

 formably subjacent crystalline rocks about Conception Bay, and men- 

 tions the red shales in which the Olenellus fauna is now' known to 

 occur, as well as the green and dark shales of the Paradoxides zone, as 

 subsequently known. A description is given of the upper slate for- 

 mation as shown on the islands in the bay, under the name of Bell 

 Island shale and grits ; and of the lower slate under the name of St- 

 John's slate, 2,000 to 3,000 feet thick, as seen near the town of St. 

 John's ; also the superjacent Signal Hill sandstone, about 800 feet thick. 2 

 In the absence of fossils no attempt was made to correlate the forma- 

 tions with those of England. On the map accompanying the report 

 the geographic distribution is given of the lower slate (St. John's) and 

 of the upper slate (Bell Island) formations about Conception Bay and 

 Smith Sound. 



Two years later Capt. H. W. Bayfield 3 described a sandstone with 

 subjacent red and white limestone on the Straits of Belle Isle, which 

 he stated contained a species of Cyathophyllum. This is the first notice 

 of the Lower Cambrian rocks containing Archaeocyathus, and it is the 

 second recorded discovery of fossils now referred to the Olenellus zone. 



At a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, April 20, 1859, 

 Dr. C. T. Jackson exhibited a trilobite from the calcareous slate of St. 

 Mary's Bay, Newfoundland, which he thought identical with Paradox- 

 ides harlani from Braintree, Massachusetts. He said that this forma- 

 tion could be followed, though in an interrupted line, from Braintree 

 to Newfoundland. 4 



In 1850 Mr. J. W. Salter 5 received a specimen of the genus Paradox- 



1 General report of the geological survey of Newfoundland in 1839 and 1840, pp. 160, 2 pis., London, 

 1843. 

 2 Op.cit. pp. 55-60. 



3 On the junction of the transition and primary rocks of Canada and Labrador. Quart. Jour. Geol. 

 Soc, London, vol. 1, 1845, pp. 450-459. 



4 On a trilobite from Braintree. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Proa, vol. 7, 1859, p. 54. 



6 On the fossils of the Lingula-flags or "Zone Primordialo." Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, London, vol. 

 15, 1859, pp. 551-555. 



