10 



industry in eastern Canada. Dr. Ells expivsses the opinion, "that in general character and 

 value, the shales of New Brunswick — both as regards the products of crude oil and sulphate of 

 ammonia obtained therefrom^ compare favourably, and in some cases undoubtedly surpass 

 those distilled in Scotland." 



The majority of the fish-remains in the Albert mines area come from the thinly splitting 

 brown and grey shales; but excellently preserved specimens also occur in the thicker and darker 

 layers, and some have been found in nodules. 



Mr. R. D. Stewart (19) in "The Chemistry of the Oil-Shales," part III of the memoir of 

 the Geological Survey (Scotland), enters fully into the probable origin of kerogen, the term that 

 has been appUed to the carbonaceous matter in shale that gives rise to crude oil in distillation. 



He points out that the carbonaceous matter, with clay, was probably deposited at the bottom 

 of lagoons; and that vegetable matter, such as, for instance, pine-pollen, or lycopod-spores, or 

 animal matter such as might be derived from entomostraca (of which some shales are largely 

 made up), or, in fact, any kind of organic matter, may, through the action of microbes, have 

 been converted into kerogen. 



His conclusion is that "oil-shale may be composed of (1) vegetable matter which has been 

 made into a pulp by maceration in water and preserved by combining with, the salts in solution; 

 (2) richer materials of many kinds, such as spores, which nature has provided with means for 

 some protection against decay; and (3) a proportion of animal matter." 



It is probable that the waters in which lived the fishes about to be described, were cut off 

 to a great extent from the sea, and formed the lagoons in which the material that produced the 

 shales was deposited. 



The numberless remains of fishes in some of the beds can be attributed only to the occasional 

 wholesale destruction of the fishes. 



Any sudden or material change in the condition under which the fishes existed would result 

 in loss of life. Such unfavourable conditions might be caused by the resumption of free com- 

 munication between the lagoons and the open sea, or the lagoons may have felt the influence 

 of drought, and have, at times, almost disappeared. 



The appearance of the fishes in their fossilized state suggests differences in the conditions 

 affecting them after death and prior to entombment in the vegetable mud forming the bottom. 



The appearance of some seems to indicate that decomposition, to a greater or less extent, 

 took place in the water, while others seem to have been desiccated prior to their entombment. 

 Decomposition would result in an increase in the depth of the body, and, according to the lapse 

 of time, a later partial or complete disintegration with a more or less scattered disposition of 

 the remains; the majority of the fishes from the Albert shales have a disproportionate depth, 

 although some are evidently but little distorted and give a nearly true outline of the body. 

 The latter were probably soon enclosed in the muddy bottom, and thus escaped the action of 



