PALyEONISGID FISHES 



FROM THE 



ALBERT SELALES OF NEW BRUNSWICK 



BY 



Lawrence M. Lambe 

 Vertebrate Pakeontologi^ t. 



introduction. 



Albert shales^Area — General character — Mode of occurrence, etc. 



The highly bituminous, calcareous shales of New Brunswick, as developed in Albert and 

 Westmorland counties, and known as the Albert shales, can be traced from about two miles 

 west of Elgin Corner, across Albert county in a northeasterly direction, to the Memramcook 

 river, at Taylorville, in Westmorland county, a distance of a little over thirty miles. Through- 

 out this distance they are not continuously exposed, and in Albert county their breadth is seldom 

 seen to exceed half a mile; in Westmorland county their exposed breadth is greater. Slight 

 changes in the physical characters of the beds are found at different localities, and sandy layers 

 and dolomitic-looking limestone are occasionally introduced as thin bands. The shales and 

 sandy layers are bituminous throughout, in a varying degree according to locality. 



Associated with the Albert shales, and lying conformably beneath them, are greenish-grey 

 conglomerates, the whole having an estimated thickness of about 1,000 feet. The shales are of 

 a dark grey and brown colour, and are sometimes much disturbed, being in places faulted and 

 inclined at high angles. They are generally overlaid unconformably by massive beds of dark 

 coloured conglomerate, associated with sandstone. 



At Albert Mines and vicinity, certain layers of the shales are replete with the remains of 

 fishes of the family Palajoniscidffi. These fish-bearing beds consist for the most part of brown to 

 dark grey shales, of which the brown generally split very readily into thin sheets, and brownish 

 black oil bands, attaining a thickness sometimes of 5 or 6 feet. These latter, on account of their 

 richness in oil and sulphate of ammonia, are attracting considerable attention at the present time, 

 commercially. In this connexion the reader is referred to the report of Dr. R. W. Ells (21), lately 

 pubUshed, on the oil-shale industry of Scotland, where similar b(Kls occur, and the very favour- 

 able conditions existing in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for the establishment of a like 



9981—2 9 



