igoi] Reviews. 6i 



of those of the Acadian provinces, since it rests neither upon the 

 ascertained stratig^raphical sequence noron any inference from the or- 

 ganic remains. And in justice to Dr. Matthew, Sir J. W. Dawson, 

 Messrs David White and R. Kidston, authorities quoted by him, 

 he should state the evidence by which he is "constrained to place" 

 (p. 207) in the Eo-Carboniterous ten or fifteen thousand feet of 

 strata constituting- the Mispec and Little River groups of New 

 Brunswick, included in the Devonian by the two first named, 

 by the last in the Upper Carboniferous. On pages 211 to 213 

 there is some obscurity of thought or expression concerning the 

 age of his so-called Windsor formation, two widely divergent 

 views being hinted at, each of which has been held in turn by Dr. 

 Ami. The first, commonly accepted, refers that formation to the 

 Carboniferous Limestone of England ; the second maintains that 

 its fossils indicate the summit, not the base of the Carboniferous 

 system. The confusion of ideas is thus expressed : The Windsor 

 formation is followed upward by the Millstone Grit ; unconform- 

 ably above the latter is the New Glasgow Conglomerate, the basal 

 portion of a continuous series northward into equivalent and 

 newer strata on Prince Edward Lsland called Permo-Carboniferous, 

 Permian and Triassic and probably representing the Windsor and 

 Millstone Grit formations of Nova Scotia! This circular classifi- 

 cation is not stratigraphical. And if the Upper Carboniferous can 

 not be distinguished from the Little River formation or Middle 

 Devonian by its fossils, why should it surprise us that "no charac- 

 teristic fossil evidence has as yet been obtained to enable us to 

 clearly separate these rocks (called Permian) from the Upper or 

 Neo-Carboniferous " ? In the Geological Survey reports Upper 

 Carboniferous and Permian have the same meaning. 



It was not the author who examined the Crow's Nest and Koote- 

 nay passes (p. 210.) Instead of the North Saskatchewan, in the 

 next sentence, he probably means the Bow River. The Albert shales 

 of New Brunswick (p. 212) are not overlaid by the Millstone Grit 

 as stated by him, but unconformably by Lower Carboniferous lime- 

 stone, shales and conglomerate. It is also a notable fact that the 

 Cretaceous beds of the Kamloops district in British Columbia 

 (p. 217) described by him as "consisting of argillites, limestones 

 and sandstones," contain no limestones. The author (p. 218) 

 quotes the "Paskapoo series" or Paskapoo formation, pr upper 



