No. 1.] DAWSON — GEOLOGY OF NOVA SCOTIA. II 



the older rocks come out from beneath the Carboniferous system, 

 we have a series of shaly and calcareous beds, consisting of two 

 members. The Upper, and more calcareous and fossiliferous of 

 the two, is of the same age with the Lower Helderberg of the 

 New York geologists and the Ludlow of the English geologists. 

 The Lower, more shaly and containing Graptolites, maybe as old 

 as the Clinton, the Upper Llandovery of England." In the fol- 

 lowing sentences the occurrence of similar fossils on the East 

 River and at Earlton is indicated, and the several ages of the 

 New Canaan and Nictaux series already stated are referred to. 

 This paper was written in the summer of 1859, and was pub- 

 lished in a Halifax newspaper, I suppose, in the winter of the 

 same year. It appears that Dr. Honeyman had previously, in 

 a paper which he calls his "debut" in writing on Nova Scotia 

 geology, and dates April, 1859, asserted the Upper Silurian age 

 of the Arisaig series, and on this ground has based very large 

 claims with reference to Nova Scotia geology. I have not a copy 

 of this paper, and do not remember its contents, if indeed I ever 

 saw it ; but on his testimony I have, both in my paper of 1860 

 and in the 2nd edition of Acadian Geology (page 566), acknow- 

 ledged his prior publication, feeling, however, that the credit ot 

 establishing the age of these rocks on a firm basis belonged to 

 Hall, and that Dr. H.'s reiterated assertion of his claims, coupled 

 with sneers at my " supposed Devonian age " of these rocks, was, 

 to say the least, in very bad taste. In truth, what we required 

 at that time was not a mere opinion from any local geologist as 

 to the age of these rocks, but a careful comparison by a palaeon- 

 tologist of the wide experience of Hall. 



Here intervenes an unfortunate circumstance, on which Dr. H. 

 dilates with evident pleasure, though he perfectly well knows the 

 true explanation of it. In the masterly description of the Pictou 

 coal-field by Logan and Hartley (Reports of Geological Survey, 

 1869), one of the most thorough geological investigations ever 

 made in Nova Scotia ; by some unexplained oversight, these 

 authors referred to the older rocks, east of the East River, as 

 Devonian, and gave my authority for this; although in my paper 

 of 1860 and again in 1868 in Acadian Geology, I had described 

 these rocks as Upper Silurian. Immediately on noticing this 

 error, I mentioned it to Sir William, but this was not till after 

 the publication of the Report. The rocks in question were not 

 within the direct scope of Sir William's work at the time, and 



