1867.] HARTT — ON CARBONIFEROUS LIMESTONES. 223 



Edmundia very like a western coal measure form. . . Taking 

 the whole group of Windsor Mollusca, including the Lamillibranchs, 

 any one familiar with the fossils of the western coal measure and 

 permo-carboniferous beds, would, upon pakeontological grounds 

 alone, be very strongly inclined to refer the Windsor rocks at least 

 to the upper coal measures." This conclusion Mr. Meek hardly 

 feels that we ought to accept, seeing that so many able geologists 

 have united in placing the beds in the sub-carboniferous, but 

 expresses his opinion that " it may be an example of what 

 Barrande would call an upper coal measure, or even permo- 

 carboniferous fauna, < colonized ' far back in the sub-carboniferous 

 period." 



The carboniferous limestones and marls of Windsor certainly 

 overlie the plant bearing shales and sandstones of the lower coal 

 measures, which are seen exposed at Windsor Brook, Horton 

 Bluff, Gaspereaux, and Wolfville, skirting the edge of the 

 carboniferous basin ; and Dr. Dawson has described these marine 

 limestones, marls and gypsums as occupying a synclinal trough in 

 these lower coal measure strata, extending from Windsor to 

 Stewiache, a distance of some fifty miles.* Over this region the 

 middle coal measures do not occur, so that of these limestones 

 there is no stratigraphical evidence to contradict the evidence 

 afforded by palaeontology as to their permo-carboniferous age, and 

 in this region Dr. Dawson has suggested that the upper limestones 

 may represent the coal measures. I have not had any opportunity 

 of studying these limestones except about the Basin of Minas 

 neither have I been able to examine sufficient suites of fossils to 

 enable me to determine whether the above divisions I have marked- 

 out obtain elsewhere. From a careful study of the evidence 

 brought forward by Dr. Dawson, it certainly seems proven that 

 the limestones, with their fossils, underlie the true coal measures 

 in other parts of Nova Scotia. 



This whole subject is one of great interest, and needs the most 

 careful investigation. It will now be of much importance to have 

 the limestones of north-eastern Nova Scotia and of Cape 

 Breton compared with those of the Basin of Minas, in order to 

 ascertain whether the same divisions obtain there as at Windsor. 

 Another interesting point to be studied is the extension of the 

 marly sandstones and gypsums, the conditions of their deposition, 

 and the influence which they may have had in the extinction of 



* Proceedings of Geological Society, Yol. xv., Part I., pp764U65^ 



