﻿l60 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



The peculiarities of the Oyster basin fauna, besides those already 

 discussed, are relatively few, it being a better balanced one than 

 that of Cape le Trou. As to which of these two is the older will 

 probably have to be left' to the stratigraphy. In the Windsor (Nova 

 Scotia) section most of the Spiriferacea were confined to the base 

 of the section or were more abundant there than anywhere else. 

 We do not know the range of the species in that section. The fact 

 that Marti n i a glabra occurs here and not at Cape le Trou 

 could be interpreted as evidence for the greater age of the Oyster 

 basin beds. The restricted Productus fauna of the latter beds and the 

 absence of Aviculopecten lyelli would also point in the 

 same direction. There can be little doubt that the Cape le Trou 

 beds represent beds d or e, or both, in the Windsor section. From 

 the description given by Dawson 1 it also seems probable that the 

 Oyster basin rocks may represent the base, beds a, and b, of the 

 Windsor section. The Nodosinella, worms etc., together with 

 Martinia glabra, would seem to indicate it, but by no means 

 certainly. 



The Nodosinella from a pebble on the beach of Coffin island at 

 Grand Entry is of peculiar interest in being closely allied to a 

 British species. The Nuculas show a fairly close relationship to 

 British species. 



The Oyster basin fossils indicate quite as close alliance with the 

 remaining American Mississippi faunas as does the Cape le Trou 

 fauna. One species, Schizodus cuneus Hall, is almost cer- 

 tainly specifically identical. Girty records Martinia glabra? 

 from the Moorefield shales of Arkansas, and two or three other shells 

 are likely to prove identical on further evidence. None of the 

 Magdalen islands species has been considered identical with the 

 other American species unless the evidence was practically conclu- 

 sive. This method is hardly practical in studying faunas of the 

 same general basin and succession, but in treating isolated basins it 

 is the only safe one. Aside from the evidence referred to, the 

 affinities of the Oyster basin fauna seem to lie quite as strongly with 

 the Kinderhook as do the affinities of Cape le Trou fossils. 



I can not hope to have avoided all British and western European 

 synonomy in describing these fossils, since neither the great mass 

 of the literature nor the time to utilize it has been at my disposal. 



1 Acadian Geology, p. 279, 280. 1878. 



