14 



In 1908, additional palfeontological evidence was obtained, at Horton bluff, Kings county, 

 N.S., of the Carboniferous age of the beds at this place, exposed in cliffs on the shore of Avon, 

 river. These beds were placed by Dawson, on the evidence of their fossils, in the lower Carbon- 

 iferous, at about the horizon of the Albert shales. Separate teeth and a clavicle (22) were 

 found of a species of Strepsodus probably referable to Sirepsodus hardingi (Dawson), originally 

 described from Horton bluff. Species of Strepsodus, and of the closely allied genus Rhizodus, 

 are known from the Calciferous Sandstone series of Scotland ; both genera are typically Carboni- 

 ferous in Great Britain and North America and apparently do not occur in the Devonian. 



All the Palseoniscidse found in the Albert shales of New Brunswick belong to the same 

 genera as, although differing specifically from those of the Carboniferous Sandstone series of 

 Mid and West Lothian, and other localities in Scotland. 



This series of rocks is considered, by the geologists of the British Survey, and others who have 

 made a special study of the oil-shale fields in Scotland, to form the base of the Carboniferous 

 system in that country. According to them the Carboniferous sandstones are the downward 

 continuation of their Carboniferous Limestone series, and rest conformably on the upper Old 

 Red Sandstone. The Calciferous Sandstone series includes fish-bearing shales, which are almost 

 identical in composition and physical characters with the Albert shales. 



The great similarity of the fish fauna of the shales in the two countries can lead to no other 

 conclusion than that they are synchronous deposits. 



It is believed, therefore, that the age ascribed to these fish-bearing shales in Scotland should 

 also be ascribed, on the evidence of their fossils, to the Albert shales of New Brunswick, and 

 that the strata in the two countries are geological equivalents. 



With the foregoing introductory remarks relative to the Albert shales of Albert and West- 

 morland counties of New Brunswick, the mode of their occurrence and their probable age, we 

 may pass on to a short reference to Dr. Charles T. Jackson's work on this particular fauna, and 

 of that of a number of distinguished palaeontologists in later years. Preceding the descriptions 

 of the species of Palseoniscid fishes so well and abundantly preserved in these rocks is a state- 

 ment of the material on which the descriptive portion of this report is based. 



Earlier Descriptions of, and references to Albert Shale Fishes. 

 In the year 1851, Dr. Charles T. Jackson described a number of Palfeoniscid fishes, obtained 

 by himself and others, from the shales at Hillsborough, Albert county. New Brunswick. The 

 results of his study of these fish remains appeared in his "Report on the Albert Coal Mine 

 (Boston, 1851), pp. 22-25," and in a paper entitled "Descriptions of five new species of Fossil 

 Fishes" in the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, vol. iv, 1851, pp. 138-142. 

 At this time Dr. Jackson described and named three species, PalcconWus alberli,P. brownii, and 

 P. cairn&ii, and gave descriptions of a number of specimens without specific references. In the 

 first named paper reference is made to two plates of illustrations, which, however, were not 

 published.' In th(; second the descriptions are without figures. Lately the original drawings 



>-It is probable, judging from the refcronfcs made by Egerton. Dawson, Traquair, and others, to drawings of 

 Jackson s types, that a few copies at least, of the plates intended for the illustration of the 1851 paper and report on 

 the Albert mme fishes were later distributed to leadin- interested palaeontologists in North America and Europe. 



