L. M. Lambe — Fish Fauna of the Albert Shales. 165 



Art. XYIII. — The Fish Fauna of the Albert Shales of New 

 Brunswick^ / by Lawrence M. Lambe, Geological Survey 

 Branch, Department of Mines, Ottawa, Canada. 



The bituminous shales of Albert and Westmoreland coun- 

 ties, New Brunswick, which are attracting, at the present time, 

 considerable attention on account of their richness in oil and 

 sulphate of ammonia, have long been known to hold very 

 abundant and well-preserved remains of fishes of the family 

 Palgeoniseidse. These fishes are particularly numerous at the 

 Albert mines, where, for some years during the latter half of 

 the past century, the mineral albertite was extracted in pay- 

 ing quantities. The beds at this locality consist principally of 

 brown or gray, readily splitting, sometimes almost papery, 

 'shales, and nearly black "oil bands" reaching a thickness 

 often of 6 feet. Associated with the Albert shales, and lying 

 conformably beneath them, are greenish-gray conglomerates, 

 the whole having an estimated thickness of about 1000 feet. 

 The shales are sometimes much disturbed, being in places 

 faulted and inclined at high angles. They are generally 

 overlaid unconformably by massive beds of dark-colored con- 

 glomerate associated with sandstone. 



It is in the brown shales principally that the fish remains 

 occur, but excellently preserved specimens are also found in 

 the thick beds as well as in nodules. The majority of the 

 specimens show the full contour of the fish, with the fins in 

 place, but the head is usually so crushed as to obscure the 

 relationship of its constituent parts. In many examples very 

 full details are given of the structure of the scales, fin rays, etc. 

 and of their surface ornamentation. 



Dr. Charles T. Jackson, in 1851, + described three species 

 from the Albert mines, viz. — Palceoniscus alberti, P. brownii 

 and P. cairnsii, besides referring to a number of specimens 

 which were not at the time named specifically. 



In 1377J Dr. Ramsay H. Traquair assigned Palceoniscus 

 alberti and P. cairnsii to his genus Rhadinichthys, and P. 

 brownii to Elonichthys. 



In the same year§ Sir J. William Dawson added to this 

 particular fauna by describing Palceoniscus {Rhadinichthys) 



* Communicated with the permission of the Director of the Geological 

 Survey. 



•f-Keporf on the Albert Coal Mine, etc., Boston, 1851. 



X Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc, vol. xxxiii, p. 559, 1877. 



§ Canadian Naturalist, new series, vol. viii, p. 338, 1878. Part 6, pp. 

 315-378, published December 1877. 



