﻿156 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



THE CARBONIC FAUNA OF THE MAGDALEN ISLANDS 

 By J. W. Beede 



The Carbonic (Mississippic) fauna of the Magdalen islands, col- 

 lected by Doctor Clarke, was submitted to the writer for study. Like 

 the earlier Paleozoic faunas of the Gulf of St Lawrence region, 

 these Carbonic faunas are peculiarly interesting and exhibit char- 

 acters which throw much light on the history and geography of the 

 time and region in which they lived. 



In preparing these notes the writer has been under obligation to 

 the authorities of the Peter Redpath Museum, McGill University, for 

 the loan of material from the Dawson collection for comparison with 

 the fauna in hand, and to> Dr Stuart Weller for similar aid from the 

 Walker Museum. 



History and correlation of the fauna 



The only mention heretofore made of this Magdalen islands fauna 

 is in Richardson's report of 1881, to the Canadian Survey. The very 

 few fossils then collected were submitted to Sir William Dawson 

 for identification and his letter in reply is quoted as follows : 

 " I should think the fossils herewith returned indicate, so far as 

 they go, a lower Carboniferous age. The most characteristic is a 

 small specimen of Bakewellia antiqua, a very widely dis- 

 tributed species, of which I send one of my own specimens from 

 Windsor for comparison. There is also a Modiola or Cypricardia, 

 which may be the shell I have called a v o n i a , from Windsor, in 

 Nova Scotia ; and a little Cardinia like C . m a r a , but not 

 determinable. The most abundant species is a Serpulites which is 

 very near S. annulites, from Nova Scotia, but the state of 

 preservation is so peculiar that I can not be sure of it; the rock 

 altogether resembles one of those black eroded limestones, which, 

 in Nova Scotia, we find in close proximity to the beds of gypsum 

 and which are usually very bare in fossils." 



Sir William here drew no conclusion regarding correlation, but it 

 is fair to infer that he supposed the fossils from the Magdalens and 

 Nova Scotia to be intimately related. An inspection of the list of 

 species recorded later in this discussion shows that the relation of 

 these faunas is quite as intimate as Dawson suspected. Indeed it 



