ORISKANY OF GASPE, QUEBEC 327 



I 



Gaspe, Quebec. — In the counties of Gaspe and Rimouski, unconform- 

 ably overlying the Quebec group, "is a series of limestones about 2,000 

 feet in thickness." In regard to these limestones, Billings * writes that — 



"The entire volume of these limestones is about 2,000 feet. The two lower 

 divisions (1 and 2) [160 feet] are most probably Silurian, about the age of the 

 [Lower] Helderberg of (he New York geologists. The upper two members (7 and 

 8) [800 feet] are nearly of the age of the Oriskany sandstone, and are, therefore, 

 about the base of the Devonian. Divisions 4, 5, 6 [880 feet] may be regarded as 

 constituting passage beds between the Upper Silurian and Devonian." 



There can be no doubt that " division 8 " of the " Gaspe limestone v 

 is equivalent to the Oriskany of New York, and while there are nearly 

 as many Lower as Upper Oriskany species present, the writer inclines 

 to regard this division as of Upper Oriskany age. In the sandstones 

 1,100 feet above " division 8 " occur three Oriskany species — Stropheodonta 

 blainvillei (Billings), Rensselseria ovoides (Eaton), and Anoplotheca jiabellites 

 (Conrad). From the same horizon, Billings has described Zaphrentis 

 corticata, Chonetes canadensis, C. daivsoni, C. antiope, Stropheodonta blain- 

 villei, S. tullia, Spirifer gaspensis, Grammysia canadensis, Murchisonia egre- 

 gia, and Modiomorphia inornata. On the basis of the known fossils, 

 there is no positive evidence that the lower 1,100 feet of these sandstones 

 should not be regarded as of Oriskany, or at least of Esopus, age. 

 However, the entire Gaspe limestones and sandstones of more than 

 9,000 feet thickness appear to represent uninterrupted deposition from 

 early Helderbergian time to the close of the Devonian. Regarding this, 

 Professor Hall f states that — 



" From the Reports of the Canadian Geological Survey we learn that the physical 

 conditions in the northeastern part of that territory, from the beginning of the 

 Oriskany period, continued with little change through a long interval, and so uni- 

 form as to have prevented, up to the present time, the establishment of any lines of 

 subdivision among the strata, which in their lower part, bear fossils characteristic 

 of the Oriskany sandstone, and in their higher members those which mark the 

 period of the Hamilton and Chemung groups of New York." 



Of the Gaspe limestones and sandstones. Logan J writes as follows: 



" The limestones of cape Gaspe appear, for the most part, to belong to the Lower 

 Helderberg group. The fossils of the summit, however, bear a striking resemblance 

 to those of the Oriskany formation, with which several of them are identical. It 

 appears probable, therefore, that we have here a passage from the Lower Helder- 

 berg to the Oriskany, and the latter formation may be more especially represented 

 by the lower part of the Gaspe sandstones. . . . We have already mentioned 

 that a species of Rensselserla, identical with or closely resembling R. ovoides, which 



* Pal. Fossils, vol. ii, pt. i, 1874, p. 2. 

 f Pal. N. Y., vol. iii, 1859, p. 404. 

 % Geol. Canada, 1863, p. 403. 



