A PORTAGE FAUNA IN THE MACKENZIE RIVER VALLEY. 
3 
Ontaria clarkei 
r Paraptyx cf. Ontario. 
Styliolina jissurella 
Tentaculites mackenziensis n. sp. 
Bactrites aciculum 
Buchiola retriostriata is an abundant species in each of the faunules 
and it differs in no way from the characteristic and widely distributed 
B. retriostriata of New York Portage. 
CORRELATION. 
The rather meagre character of this fauna is a conspicuous feature 
which is probably destined to largely disappear with additional collecting, 
just as it has in the case of the New York Portage fauna now embracing 
nearly 200 species, which, according to Dr. Clarke, 1 at the close of the 
first survey of that state comprised “but a handful of species.” Future 
work in the Mackenzie valley will no doubt add numerous species to those 
at present known. Casual examination of the beds holding this fauna 
would lead one to consider them as “ essentially barren of organic remains ” 
just as the New York Portage beds were originally characterized. 
Corals, which comprise an important element of the Devonian faunas 
above and below the Simpson shale, are unknown in it. Their absence 
from this horizon recalls a similar peculiarity of the Portage fauna of New 
York which also lacks the coral element. This characteristic may be due 
to the low temperature 2 which has been attributed to the Portage sea in 
New York. 
Evidence of crinoidal life in the fauna is likewise meagre, the collection 
showing only some fragments of a very fragile type of crinoid arm. The 
paucity of this element of the fauna is another reminder of the New York 
Portage. 
The only braehiopod found in the fauna is a new species of Cyrtina 
which is without resemblance to any species in either the faunas above or 
below the Simpson shale. This fossil contributes nothing toward indicating 
the affinities of the fauna, but helps to emphasize its contrast with the other 
faunas of the section. 
None of the fossils perhaps have greater significance with reference 
to the correlation of the fauna than two species of Entomis — E. variostriata 
and E . serratostriatu. Roth are characteristic of horizons corresponding 
to the New York Portage on both sides of the Atlantic, One of these, 
Entomis serratostriata , is a well known index species of the fauna in Europe. 
The pelecypods of the Simpson shale fauna include two species which are 
among the most characteristic and widely distributed fossils of the cos- 
mopolitan Manticoceras intumescens fauna. 8 These are Buchiola retriostriata 
and Ontaria clarkei. B. retriostriata has a world-wide distribution, occurring 
in the Urals, the western European province, and throughout the Appala- 
chian and New York provinces of the Portage. This fossil is reported by 
piarke to be the most abundant, with one exception, in the Portage of New 
Ubid p. 377, 
*Clarke, J. M., ‘'Strand and undertow markings of upper Devonian time as indications of the 
prevailing climate.” N.Y. State Mus, Bull. 196, pp. 199-238, pis. 7-29. 
*N.Y. State GeoL, 10th Ann. Rept., 1896, p. 41. 
61973—2 
