ON THE LOWER SILURIAiT (TRENTON) FAUNA OF BAFFIN LAND. By Charles Schucheet, Assistant Curator, Division of Stratigraphio Paleontology. INTRODUCTION. In the summer of 1897, a number of men took advantage of the Sev-enth Peary Arctic Expedition to cruise in Arctic seas and to hunt and hsh in Baffin Land. The author had the pleasure of meeting these men while on board the steamer Hope, and learned that they intended to make a whale-boat trip to the head of Frobisher Bay. As many Lower Silurian fossils had been seen by Hall during his exploration of this bay, the author requested the Baffin Land party to search for fos-sils. On the subsequent retarn of the steamer Hope from North Green-land, it was a great surprise to find that Messrs. J. N. Carpender, R. W. Porter, A. V. Shaw, A. H. White, and F. Gr. Goodridge, had made splendid collections of fossils during their stay of but a few hours at Silliman's Fossil Mount, which is at the head of Frobisher Bay. These fossils are well preserved, and here, as is so often the case in Paleozoic faunas, the brachiopod specimens predominate. However, unlike other Trenton faunas, the Arctic mollusca usually preserve the shell, and this is the more remarkable because all the fossils weather out of a bluish clay. The author's interest in and admiration for these well-preserved fossil forms from a rarely visited region was so great that he could not resist asking the loan of the various collections for the purpose of making them known to paleontologists. Mr. J. N. Carpen-der, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, who had the most extensive col-lection, with great liberality allowed the author to make a selection from these fossils for the U. S. National Museum. From him, there-fore, this Museum has received 54 species represented by 113 speci-mens. The next largest lots were gathered by Messrs. A. H. White and A. V. Shaw, and purchased for the Museum. Mr. F. G. Goodridge presented one of the finest trilobites found. Mr. R. W. Porter also made a good collection, which he deposited in the American Museum Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXII— No. 1 1 92. 143
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