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MUSEUM BULLETIN NO. 2. 
THE ALBERTELLA FAUNA. 
The Albertella fauna has had an interesting history. It was 
first discovered in 1905 by Mr. C, D. Walcott 1 in a shale 75 feet 
above a quart zitic sandstone on Gordon creek, 6 miles from the 
south fork of Flathead river, Ovando quadrangle (U. S. Geol. 
Survey), Powell county, Montana. In 1907, drift blocks up 
to several tons in weight were discovered on the south slope of 
Mount Bosworth about 500 feet northwest of the main line of the 
Canadian Pacific railway between Hector and Stephen, British 
Columbia. 2 The duplication between these drift blocks and 
the original locality in Montana is nearly perfect, specimens 
from the two localities containing at least four identical species 
and being almost interchangeable. At the time the drift blocks 
were discovered their horizon in the section could not be located 
and subsequent attempts have likewise proven futile. The 
fossiliferous shale carrying the Albertella fauna, an assemblage 
of more than a dozen species, is at least 4 feet thick, yet the 
only trace of its presence in the measured sections is a fragment of 
one specimen referred to the genus from which the fauna derives 
its name. On Mount Stephen, 8 miles away, the beds with 
which the Albertella fauna is correlated, and which themselves 
contain fragments referable to the genus, are overlain and 
underlain by Olenellus, and the Albertella fauna was, therefore, 
assigned to the Lower Cambrian. 3 
In a recent publication Walcott 4 mentions finding the Albertella 
fauna in the Mount Robson region of British Columbia, 150 miles 
north of the main line of the Canadian Pacific. Curiously 
enough the fauna was there also found in drift blocks, though 
their horizon was located in the measured section. It is des- 
cribed as occurring 550 feet above the top of the Lower Cambrian 
in the Chetang limestone, yet the apparently contradictory 
statement is made 6 that it “occurs at about the same horizon 
in the Mount Bosworth section” where it has been referred to the 
Lower Cambrian. A large part of the discussion of the basal 
1 Mon. U. S. Geol. Survey, vol. 51, Pt. I, p. 168, locality 4v, 
2 Idem, p. 197, locality 35c. 
3 Walcott: Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 53, No. 5, 19QS, pp. 203 and 214 
4 Smithsonian Misc. Coll. vol. 57, No. 12, 1913, p. 338. 
* Idem. 
