1854.] 



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places in Nova Scotia, and Dr. Gesner, in his Report on the Geology of Prince 

 Edward Island,* notices the occurrence of trap dykes at two localities on the 

 northern coast, a circumstance which still farther increases the resemblance. 

 There are, however, a few places in which beds occur which much resemble 

 the upper parts of the coal formation of Nova Scotia, and it is in these localities 

 chiefly, though I believe not exclusively, that the coniferous wood in question 

 occurs, along with a few other vegetable fragments, for the most part very im- 

 perfectly preserved. Some interest, therefore, attaches to these fragments of 

 fossilized wood, as a means of comparison between the oldest portions of the red 

 sandstone formation of Prince Edward Island, and the inferior members of the 

 coal formation on the opposite coasts of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, in 

 which coniferous wood is also of very frequent occurrence. 



1. Coniferous wood from Gallas or Gallows Point , west side of Orwell Bay. 

 At this place, which I visited in 1842, the following beds appear in descending 

 order, the dip being to E. S. E. at angles of 6 to 8 : red and brownish sand- 

 stones, gray sandstone with bands of concretionary limestone, and containing 

 carbonized vegetable fragments, some of them resembling catamites, but without 

 joints, gray and brown shales or indurated clays; brownish sandstone, with 

 large trunks of trees silicified. One of these trunks measured three feet in its 

 greatest diameter ; they are prostrate and somewhat flattened. I have no doubt 

 that these rocks underlie the ordinary red sandstones of the island, and Dr. Ges- 

 ner, who examined them in 1847, takes the same view, affirming them to be 

 carboniferous, and stating that he found in them catamites and stigmaria, which, 

 if well characterized specimens, would go far to confirm that conclusion. 



My specimens of fossil wood from this place are perfectly silicified, and of a 

 dark clove-brown color. They are much fissured in the direction of the medul- 

 lary rays, and the fissures are filled with flesh colored sulphate of barytes. Under 

 the microscope, transverse slices show a somewhat dense tissue of quadrangular 

 cells arranged in rows. Longitudinal slices in the direction of the medullary 

 rays, show parallel elongated cells, medullary rays not strongly marked, and 

 traces of hexagonal discs of the Araucarian type on the walls of the cells. Two 

 rows of these discs occupy the whole breadth of a cell. 



2. Specimens from Des Sables and Crapaud. At these localities the only 

 rocks seen are the ordinary red sandstones, and the coniferous wood is found 

 only in loose fragments on the surface. From the large quantity scattered over 

 the fields, and the general scarcity of travelled boulders in this part of the island, 

 I have no doubt that it now lies over or near its original site. The specimens 

 from this place are dense and without fissures, and have a structure quite similar 

 to that of the wood from Gallas Point, though not in so perfect preservation. 



3. A specimen from, some part of the sovth shore of Prince Edward Island , now 

 in the collection of the Puton Literary Society. This specimen was obtained 

 from a person who stated that it was a portion of a large trunk. It still retains 

 in its crevices remnants of the matrix of coarse reddish sandstone. It is cracked 

 in lines radiating from the centre, and is perforated by numerous vermicular 

 holes, now somewhat flattened, but which were probably the burrows either of 

 Teredines or xylophagous larvae. Some parts of this specimen retain their 

 structure in a very perfect condition. It is of precisely the same character with 

 that already described, and shows one or two rows of discs on each cell. 



All these specimens probably belong to the same genus, and perhaps to the 

 same species of coniferous trees ; and they all differ materially from the conife- 

 rous wood of the coal formation. I have slices of the latter from various parts 

 of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, some of them from the new- 

 est beds of the coal formation. All of them are of much coarser texture than 

 the specimens from Prince Edward Island. The cells are wider, and usually 

 with three or even four rows of discs, and the medullary tissue is more strongly 

 marked. In the closeness of the cellular tissue, fewer rows of discs, and fine- 

 ness of the medullary rays, the Prince Edward Island specimens, though dis- 

 tinctly of the Araucarian type, approach more nearly to the modern pines of this 



* 1847. 



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