walcott.] NEW BRUNSWICK AND CAPE BRETON. 65 



as ' Primordial, ? or, as we now call it, Cambrian." He then calls atten- 

 tion to the article in which he correlated the St. John group fauna with 

 the Solva group, stating, u In other words, it is the fauna of the older 

 part of the Lower Cambrian." 



In a preliminary study of the Cambrian fauna of North America 1 a 

 review is given of the history of the term " St. John group " by Mr. C. I). 

 Walcott. In this the use of u St. John " was advocated as against "Aca- 

 dian," and all species described by Mr. C. F. Hartt in the second edition 

 of Dawson's Acadian Geology were illustrated. 



When discussing the faunas of the St. John group, Mr. Matthew 2 states 

 that it is' highly probable that the group covers nearly the whole of the 

 Cambrian age ; and that the fauna of the Upper Cambrian is equivalent 

 to that of the shallow- water deposit of the St. John group near the sum- 

 mit of the series. The fauna discovered by Mr. Fletcher in the Cam- 

 brian shales of Mira River, Cape Breton Island, is considered by Mr. 

 Matthew, 3 to belong to the Olenus division of the Cambrian fauna. The 

 species recognized by him are Peltura scarabceoides, Splicer ophthalmus 

 alatus, and Agnostus piriformis. In the same paper he mentions the 

 faunas of the Olenus division as found in Newfoundland. (An abstract 

 of this paper appeared in the Canadian Record of Science, vol. 2, 1886, 

 pp. 255-258.) 



Incited by the announcement of the discovery of fossils beneath the 

 Paradoxides zone in Sweden and Russia, Mr. Matthew 4 began anew the 

 study of the red rocks beneath the Paradoxides zone. These strata 

 had been spoken of as the upper member of the Coldbrook group 5 and as 

 constituting a series lower than the Primordial rocks at the base of the 

 Siluriau. They were subsequently joined to the St. John group 6 as the 

 base of that group. In a later report in 1888, Mr. Matthew 7 says: " It 

 is now found that this red series is unconformable, not only to the St. 

 John group, but also (as had been previously discovered) to the under- 

 lying Coldbrook group." Iu the valley of Long Reach of the St. John 

 River Mr. Matt hew estimates that the red series has a thickness of 1,20.0 

 feet. He compares it with the red shales described by Dr. Murray in 

 Newfoundland 8 and correlates it with the Caerfai group of Wales and 

 the lower division of the Sparagmite formation of Norway. 9 A detailed 

 description of the section is given 10 with names of the fossils that have 

 been found in the various beds. These include trails and casts of marine 



1 On the Cambrian faunas of North America ; preliminary studies. TJ. S. Geological Survey Bull. No. 

 10, vol. 2, 1884, p. 289, separately paged, p. 9. 

 'Illustrations of the fauna of the St. John group, No. 4, Can. Rec. Sci., vol. 2, 1887, p. 362. (Abstract.) 



3 On the Cambrian faunas of Cape Breton and Newfoundland. Royal Soc. Canada Proc. and Trans., 

 vol.4, sec. 4, 1887, p. 147. 



4 On a basal series of Cambrian rocks in Acadia. Can. Rec. Sci., vol. 3, 1888, pp. 21-29. 

 8 Observations on the geology of southern New Brunswick. Fredericton, 1865, p. 24. 



6 Bailey, L. W., and G. F. Matthew. Preliminary report on the geology ofsouthern New Brunswick. 

 Geol. Surv. Can., Rep. Prog., 1870-71, 1872, p. 59. 



7 On a basal series of Cambrian rocks in Acadia. Can. Rec. Sci., vol. 3, 1888, p. 22. 

 8 0p.cit.,p.23. 9 0p.cit.,p.25. i°Op. cit, n. 27. 



Bull. 81 5 



