444 J. F. Whiteaves—Acge of Mesozoic Rocks . 
Art. LVI.—WNotes on the possible age of some of the Mesozore 
rocks of the Queen Charlotte Islands and British Columbia ; 
by J. F. WHITEAVES. 
As far back as the year 1869, Mr. W. Gabb expressed the 
opinion that the Californian rocks, to which he gave the provis- 
ional name of the “Shasta Group,” were probably the equiva 
lents of the Gault and Neocomian of Europe, and this view was 
endorsed by Prof. J. D. Whitney. On behalf of the Canadian 
Survey Mr. J. Richardson visited the Queen Charlotte Islands 
in 1872, and made a small but interesting collection of fossils 
from the coal-bearing deposits of Skidegate Inlet. Among the 
species recognized at this locality were Ammonites Brewert. A. 
Stoliczkanus and Aucella Piochii of Gabb, of the Shasta group 
of California, also Ammonites Timotheanus Mayor, and Inocera- 
mus concentricus, of the European Gault, but associated with 
these were several new Ammonites which appeared to have 
rather a Jurassic facies. The conclusion reached on this rather 
meagre and unsatisfactory evidence was that the rocks border- 
ing Skidegate Inlet could scarcely be much older than the 
Upper Jurassic or much newer than the Middle Cretaceous. 
Four years later Dr. G. M. Dawson obtained a small series of 
fossils from the bedded volcanic rocks at the Iltasyouco River 
and Sigutlat Lake, in the Coast Range of British Columbia. 
Having then no reason to doubt the correctness of Mr. Meek's 
conclusion that certain rocks in the Black Hills of Dakota were 
of Jurassic age, the writer of the present article at once assume 
that the Iltasyouco and Sigutlat fossiliferous strata were also 
Jurassic, on account of their holding such fossils as @ryphea 
Nebrascensis, Volsella formosa, Astarte Packardi, Plewromy% sub- 
compressa, and the like. oo tea 
The exact age of the “ Aucella schists” of Russia, Siberia 
etc., has been the subject of much discussion, and Kurop 6 
geologists are still at issue on this point. D’Orbigny, 1? 18406, 
sige them in the “Oxfordien” division of the donee 
[rautschold (1864 and 1866) claimed that they are about * 
age of the Kimmeridge Clay, but later (in 1875) placed en ¢ 
the extreme summit of the Jurassic system, in the a ae 
Group of ht ty and this latter view is also maintained by 
Rudolph Ludwig. Ever since 1867, however, Eichwald has 
strenuously argued that they are Necomian, and in the oe 
geological section of these rocks which the present writer oe 
seen, the Aucella schists are represented as immediately 2” 
conformably overlying the Kimmeridge Clay, as the Gault does 
at Culham in Berkshire (England), a circumstance which eaten 
of those who attended the late Prof. Phillips's geology lass # 
