170 Macfarlane on the Primitive Formations 



3. (Esterdal slates (which are the same as the DovreQeld slates.) 



4. Silurian formation. 



5. Devonian formation. 



6. Younger granite, syenite, &c. (Eruptive.) 



That the extreme opinions entertained by Kjernlf and Dahll as 

 to the gneiss formation, are capable of being substantiated, is much 

 to be doubted. At least it seems to me that in their work above 

 cited, nothing very conclusive is brought forward in support of 

 their views, and moreover, no reference is made to the many well 

 substantiated facts, upon which the older view, as to the age of 

 the Tellemarken quartzose rocks, is founded. This total oblitera- 

 tion of the gneiss formation, is perhaps the most extreme point 

 to which the supporters of ultra metamorphism have yet at- 

 tained. 



The views of the Canadian geologists as to the Laurentian and 

 Huronian series are the same as those of the older geologists of 

 Norway, where, as has been shown, these rocks are represented 

 by the Primitive Gneiss, and by the quartzose division of the Pri- 

 mitive Slate formation. The DovreQeld slates, with their serpen- 

 tines, are regarded as more recent, and as closely related to the 

 adjacent Silurian strata. This is precisely the view of the 

 Canadian geologists, with regard to the Quebec group, except 

 that they include this, with its slates and serpentines, in the Silu- 

 rian series, regarding it as a peculiar development of the lower 

 part of this, and younger than the Primordial Zone. According 

 to Sir W. E. Logan, this Quebec group was connected with a deep 

 sea, and with movements of elevation and subsidence, the result of 

 which is, that along the outcrop, or the shore line of the original 

 basin, these peculiar strata are wanting. Mr. Sterry Hunt has 

 called attention in a recent paper in this Journal, to the fact that a 

 similar condition of things to that of Canada, seems traceable 

 across the ocean, into Scotland, and probably as far as Scandinavia. 

 In the Scottish Highlands, we find a schistose series, having the 

 lithological characters of the Quebec group and the Dovrefjeld 

 slates. This series has been the subject of much controversy. As 

 in Norway, some have maintained that these strata are older than 

 the lowest Silurian rocks, but Sir Roderick Murchison, with Ramsay 

 and Harkness, seems to have shown that they are really younger 

 than the oldest fossiliferous rocks of Scotland, and that the condi- 

 tion of things described by the Canadian geologists in Eastern 

 Canada, extends across the Atlantic. Can. Nat. Vol. VI, 93. 



