13 



Breton, in the county of Sydney, and in Hants; but its most remarkable and interesting ex- 

 posures are at Horton bluff and at Hillsborough, and other places in southern New Brunswick. 

 In the last-mentioned locaUty, it affords the remarkable bituminous mineral known as Albertite." 



Field- avork of 1908 and (jeneral conclusion regarding age. 



During the summer of 1908, the writer, on behalf of the Geological Survey, visited the Albert 

 shales area (22), spending some weeks at the Albert mines, where a large collection of fish remains 

 was obtained, principally from beds of readily splitting brown shales exposed on the western 

 branch of Frederick brook, in an exposure from which two collections, lately received by the 

 Geological Survey, had been made. By searching the dump, a number of specimens, brought 

 from a low level, were also found. To the southwest of the Albert mines, an examination of 

 the beds was also made at Rosedale, Baltimore, Turtle Creek, Mapleton, and Elgin Corner, as 

 well as at exposures seen in brooks and near the road. Continuing the examination of the shale 

 area to the northeast, some time was spent at Taylorville, on the Memramcook river, within 

 reach of Behveau by road, at both of which places there are exposures of shale. At Taylorville 

 there is a low cliff for some distance along the river front, constituting an excellent exposure 

 of the Albert shales, from which, however, only plant remains were obtained. 



The shales of the Albert mines and Beliveau are similar in character, and have a flora and 

 fish fauna common to both, the Beliveau area, between the Petitcodiac and Menn-amcook rivers, 

 being a continuation to the northwest of the Albert mines area. All the species of fishes that 

 have been found so far at Beliveau are included in the Albert mines fauna. There is a great 

 similarity between the fishes of the Albert mine and Beliveau areas, and those described by Dr. 

 Ramsay H. Traquair from the Calciferous Sandstone series of Scotland; they belong to the 

 same genera, but differ as to species. 



The genera of Palseoniscidae, Rhadinichthys, Elonichthys, and Canobius, so abundantly 

 represented in the New Brunswick and Scottish shales, have l^een considered to be typical of 

 the Carboniferous age. Cheirolepis canadensis, Whiteaves, from the upper Devonian of Scaume- 

 nac bay, Quebec, is an early member of the family, and the only completely preserved repres- 

 entative of the Palseoniscidge known from the Devonian of North America. The species of 

 Rhadinichthys described from the Carboniferous rocks of England, Scotland, and the United 

 States, with R. alberti from New Brunswick, include the known species of the genus, with the 

 exception of three from the upper Devonian of New York state, described from fragmentary 

 remains, with doubtful generic reference, under the names Palceonvxus aniiquus, Williams, P. 

 reticulatus, Williams (both from the Portage beds near Buffalo, New York), and P. deronicus, 

 Clarke, (Naples beds of Sparta, New York). These three species are thought by Eastman to 

 be properly referable to Rhadinichthys. Also, Eastman has lately described (20) a species, 

 R. deani, from the base of the Waverley series in Kentucky, and another of the same genus, not 

 specifically named, from the Chemung of Warren, Pennsylvania. The remains on which R. 

 deani is based were obtained from phosphatic nodules, and, although fragmentary, are remarkable 

 for the preservation of the soft tissues of the head. It is probable that the discovery of less 

 fragmentary remains will prove these Devonian species to be generically distinct from the 

 Scottish Carboniferous species on which Traquair founded his genus Rhadinichthys. 



