334 INDEX TO THE STEATIGRAPHY OF NORTH AMERICA. 



fishes and land plants of Upper Devonian age at Scaumenac Bay, and of an entirely different 

 series of fishes and plants, of Lower Devonian age, on the opposite or New Brunswick side of 

 the river, near Campbellton. Large collections were made at each of these locahties, especially 

 of the fossil fishes, which were described by the writer in 1880,°' 1881, *> and 1883,'' and described 

 and illustrated in 1887'' and 1889.^ Many of these specimens were exhibited and described at 

 the meeting of this association at Montreal in 1882. 



Comments on the species and references to the hterature follow in Whiteaves's 

 account. 



M 20. GASPB PENINSTJIiA. 



Logan "" described from this region the Gaspe limestones and Gaspe sandstones 

 and assigned them respectively to the Silurian and Devonian. Ells ^°^ reviewed 

 their distribution and stratigraphy in the field and concluded that — 



Of these Gaspe limestones it is now considered that only the two lower members, representing 

 a thickness of 160 feet, can with propriety be assigned to this system [SUurian] whUe the pre- 

 ponderance of fossils of Devonian aspect, even in the basal bed, renders it probable that the whole 

 may ultimately be transferred to the Devonian system. 



This statement by-Ells is quoted with agreement by Clarke ^"^ in a monographic 

 work on the Gaspe section. Clarke, however, goes further and places all of the 

 Gaspe limestones, including Logan's divisions 1 and 2 (St. Alban), in the Devonian 

 as equivalents of the Helderbergian of New York.^"" The Canadian Survey has not 

 accepted this correlation and the map of North America expresses the classification 

 and distribution determined by Ells. 



According to Logan the Gaspe limestones "comprise about 2,000 feet. They 

 are intimately interbedded with calcareous argillaceous shales and exhibit intra- 

 formational contortions and conglomerates." The Gaspe sandstones, which aggre- 

 gate approximately 7,000 feet, are partly conglomeratic and vary in color from drab 

 to red. They contain plant as well as marine animal remains and are interpreted 

 by Clarke as the deposit from a land of strong relief in a lagoon conomunicating from 

 time to time with the sea. 



The fossils from the Gaspe sandstones are described by Billings,*^ who gives 

 a condensed statement of Logan's section. 



The age of the Gaspe sandstones has been discussed by Williams, Schuchert, and 

 Clarke. Williams ^^'^ briefly states the problem : 



In the York River beds at the base of the Gaspe sandstones there is found a number (at 

 least a dozen) of fossils which if found alone would be iatrepreted as positive evidence of an 

 Oriskanian fauna; associated with these is another lot of fossils, at least as many, which if found 

 alone would be as positive evidence of a HamUtonian fauna. The sediments were deposited at 

 some particular epoch of the geological time scale. What does this composite faima signify as 

 to the epoch to which the York River beds belong ? 



Dr. Clarke in the volume referred to gives the decision in favor of the Hamiltonian epoch, 

 apparently on the ground of the greater number of species identical or closely related to Hamil- 



" Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 20, p. 132; reprinted in Canadian Naturalist and Geologist, vol. 10, p. 23. 

 6 Am. Jour. Sci., 3d ser., vol. 21, p. 94; reprinted in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 5th ser., vol. 8, p. 159; and Cana- 

 dian Naturalist and Geologist, new ser., vol. 10, pp. 27, 93. 

 «Am. Naturalist, vol. 17, p. 158. 

 <* Trans. Royal Soc. Canada, vol. 4, sec. 4, p. 101. 

 = Idem, vol. 6, sec. 4, p. 77. 



