REVIEW OF GEOLOGIC INVESTIGATIONS 259 



To complete this sketch of the history of geologic studies in this prov- 

 ince, it will be necessary to enumerate the paleontologic collections made 

 by previous investigators. The first reference to fossils from the Upper 

 Yukon basin appeared in a paper by Meek/'^ published in 1867. In this 

 five Devonian species, reported to have been found on the Porcupine river 

 in ' Eussian America, are included with the fossils described from the 

 Mackenzie river. These fossils, which are stated to have been obtained in 

 part by Kennicott from a missionary in course of the journey already 

 referred to, are credited to three different localities on the Porcupine. 

 The locality described for Favosites polymorpha would be not far from 

 Fort Yukon, in the Yukon flats, or nearly 100 miles from the nearest out- 

 crop of bedrock. Examination of the specimens shows that they came 

 from a rock material different from any of the fossiliferous horizons of 

 the Devonian observed by the writers either on the Porcupine or Yukon 

 rivers. It appears probable that the five species credited to the Porcupine 

 river were all obtained from the Eeverend W. W. Kirby, and that they all 

 came originally from the IMackenzie and not from the Yukon. 



In his account of the journey up the Yukon in 1867, Dall mentions 

 having found, "just above the Eamparts, pebbles of Niagara limestone 

 with its characteristic fossils."^^ No information concerning the species 

 represented in these pebbles appears in connection with this observation 

 nor in subsequent papers. 



McConnell reports having foimd Atrypa reticularis and crinoid stems 

 in the yellow limestones of the lower Eamparts while descending the Por- 

 cupine river in 1889, and states that these limestones "are probably refer- 

 able in part at least to the Devonian.'^^* The writers' observations seem to 

 indicate that only Silurian and Ordovician rocks are present in the lower 

 Eamparts. A. reticularis is a common species in the Silurian fauna of 

 the lower Eamparts, and the specimens obtained by McConnell probably 

 represent that fauna. 



In 1896 Spurr made a collection of fossils from the white limestone 

 near Nation river, on the Yukon, which demonstrated the presence of a 

 Carboniferous horizon in the region.-* He also obtained some obscure 



''^ p. B. Meek : Remarks on the geology of tbe Mackenzie river, witli figures and de- 

 scriptions of fossils from the region in the museum of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 chiefly collected by the late Robert Kennicott, Esq. Ti'ansactions of the Chicago Acad- 

 emy of Science, vol. 1, 1867, pp. 61-114, pis. 11-15. 



2' W. H. Dall : Exploration in Russian America. American .Journal of Science, second 

 series, vol. 46, 1868, p. 98. 



^ R. G. McConnell : Report on an exploration of the Yukon and Mackenzie basins. An- 

 nual Report of the Geological and Natural History Survey of Canada, new series, vol. 4, 

 1890, p. 133D. 



=** J. E. Spurr: Geology of the Yukon gold district. Eighteenth Annual Report, U. S. 

 Geological Survey, part 3, 1898, p. 170. 



