u8 The American Geologist. A ■■■—•'- : " ; 
deposits, as Stanton has pointed out. Hatcher has, indeed, 
told us that in his work in that region he saw no Pierre de- 
posits beneath the Judith River beds, hut did sec deposits re- 
sembling the Pierre overlying- the Judith heds. It will, how- 
ever, not he insisted that this statement shakes the positive ob- 
servations of many other geologits. 
Dr. Williston has done us a service in identifying a number 
of species from the Ceratops heds of Wyoming. All will 
agree with him that there is a striking resemblance between this 
fauna and that of the Belly River beds; hut it is certainly quite 
as probable that the Canadian geologists have been mistaken 
as that those south of parallel forty-nine have all fallen into 
error. And what avails it to depress the Judith River and 
Ceratops beds into contemporaneity with the Fox Hills, while 
the Belly River beds repose beneath the Pierre? At best, the 
interval between the two formations is diminished only a little. 
In the present state of our knowledge, it would be both un- 
fair and unprofitable to dispute the conclusions of the Can- 
adian geologists. Nevertheless, that region in British America 
ought to be reinvestigated. Only when the stratigraphy has 
compelled us to do so can we believe that a fauna, so large and 
varied, has continued with comparatively little modification 
through the period of two or three distinct formations. 
As to the invertebrate portion of this fauna, ^"hiteaves 
declares (Cont. Canad. Palaeont., i, 1885. pp. 55. 89) that it 
would seem impracticable to separate by means of it the Belly 
River deposits from the Laramie. He also remarks in this 
connection that Dr. Dawson's "Lower Dark Shales," found 
beneath the Belly River beds can scarcely be separated on 
palaeontological grounds from the Pierre. Is it possible that 
the Pierre beds too are duplicated in that region? 
As regards the vertebrates; of Mr. Lambe's 33 species, 15 
are identified as species already described by Cope and Leidy 
from the Judith basin; one, Baena hatcheri, had been reported 
from Converse county. Wyoming. From the latter locality. 
Dr. Williston reports 6 or 7 more of the Belly River species. 
I )f Mr. Lambe's species which have not yet been found else- 
where, 7 belong to genera which have been found in the Judith 
beds; and none of these, except Trachodon, is known to en- 
dure through more than a single period. Furthermore, of the 
